Ok, so i've read enough to know that there's a general consensus that Bilsteins + Lowering springs create a comfortable ride. my question, and hopefully people can chime in; is there a noticeable amount of increased performance?

I plan to only track 3-4 times a year MAX and was looking for an alternative to coilovers. I was thinking of doing the Bilsteins/springs setup but aside from it being comfortable, i want some reasonable performance as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you do put lowering springs on the MR suspension, have the shocks revalved to notice performance. Otherwise, your shocks life will decrease.

Why an alternative to coilovers?

 

MR Bilsteins can be revalved for about 66 bux a pop per Bilstein. I am hoping to run the progress springs with them (seems a little more aggressive than swift and a little lower than swift) and see how far they go.

But, I have 2 concerns with this:

1) Spring rates - Coilover spring rates are much higher than the OEM style springs. Coilovers will definitely be stiffer. My way of compensating for this a 27mm rear swaybar.
2) Weight - The Bilstein/spring combo is HEAVY. I just carried the Billies down to the basment and holy hell - they were heavy. Coilovers are much lighter.

I am unsure why its taking so long for Bilstein to produce a PSS9 style coilover yet?

 

What about handling characteristic's when they're not re-valved? This setup seemingly is geared more towards a comfortable suspension setup with a very slight notion of increasing performance, without re-valve of course. I'm in between the Hipermax non sport and doing the Bilstein, Spring combination.

 

Funny, I was down to the same choices. But, I read lots of things about that helper spring on the hipermax being a waste and what not. Plus, you pay for the HKS brand name some IMHO.

I want to ty it as stock bilstein and then re-valve if need be, but I am unsure if I will proceed.

You want to buy my bilstein/eibach and progress spring combo? The bilsteins came off a week-old MR and look spanking new. They have the MR springs on them. The progress I got last week from progress. They lower car 1.2 and 0.8 comapred to swifts 1.0 and 0.6 and are progressive. They are a tad stiffer in front based on published spring rates to compensate for that .2" extra in front. I like the fact that they didnt cost 3xx like the swifts tho!

 

You probably do pay for a little bit of HKS' name brand but then again it's like insurance that it's a reputable company; kind of like when you go to RRE or HBspeed to get a tune, you know they're competent and they have a good reputation.

From what i understand the helper springs do, help. In their newest release of that model though they've eliminated the front helper springs but have retained the rear. In addition to that they've increased the front spring rate to 8KG, so they perspective spring rates are 8/5 respectively. From Zeke's thread it seems at 5 clicks from the softest setting, the HKS are stock-ish ride but are super linear, so huge bumps will feel like huge humps. I'm now also trying to determine what is a 'huge' bump lol. I live in LA, the roads look like JDM teeth. BUT, i do always slow down and take the bumps easy etc, i've already bent one pair of Volks and i'm not about to do it again.

Fortunately for me though i have the ability to buy those Hipermax's at wholesale cost, so the price is actually far far cheaper than retail or any price a vendor could offer me.

Semi interested in just the Bilsteins not so much the eibachs. Been speaking with Andrew at GTworx.. probably going to do his springs OR the swifts. If you're willing to part just shoot me a price via PM and i'll weigh things out from there.

I'm still trying to discern if there's still even a distinguishable performance upgrade.

 

you have PM. Good luck on your quest, sir!

 

I rode in a drove my friend's X GSR with MR Bilsteins + Eibach Prokits and was very impressed with how comfortable the ride is, with handling just as good as my GSR KYB + Eibach Prokit setup. These are the perfect daily-driver springs if you ask me (which is probably why they're used on the FQ X's in Europe). They start out softer than stock but get firmer than Swifts when you lean them over; plus the drop looks perfect. We both run a Whiteline 27mm rear anti-sway bar (I'm on the softest setting, he is on the middle).

 

I have Bilsteins on the .9" Works springs. Street/highway driving with this setup is perfect but I think for track use you would want to be more aggressive on the rebound valving.

 

I just took out Tein MonoFlex coilovers from my car, shipped weight was 62 pounds. I put them in the exact same box that a set of bilsteins w/ cobb springs got shipped to me in, 67 pounds. Fedex scales don't lie Coilovers are light, but they're not *that* much lighter.

I absolutely LOVE the bilstein/eibach combo on my car now, great drop, most amazing ride in an evo. I autoX'd on the monoflex's, I'll be doing a test&tune on the bilstein/eibach combo in two weeks, I'll be reporting back

 

^^ nice, please report back with your feelings etc. More times than none though people change coilovers not so much for weight loss but for performance gains.

 

So which springs will work within the stock MR Bilstein damper curve? I'm reluctant to go with Eibach's Pro-Kit because I'm not certain if the progressive spring rate matches the progressive damping rate of the stock Bilsteins.

From what I've been reading on forums, Swift manufactures linear rate springs, which takes the guessing out of the equation but wouldn't take full advantage of the stock Bilstein's damping characteristic.

 

We carefully looked at both the GSR and Bilstein struts and dynoed them when designing our springs. Our GTWORX springs are mostly linear, a bit firmer than Swift sports, and the drop is not too crazy. About 20mm. They are a function/handling spring first and foremost (but still look great).

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...installed.html

The Bilsteins do have an edge in comfort, and are about equal in handling. Better for rougher surfaces. They can have a HUGE advantage if revalved....for me if I had an X, I'd do our springs with revalved Bilsteins without hesitation.

- Andrew

 

FINALLY!

I've been looking for a thread like this.

I have a Canadian GSR with the handling package which adds Bilsteins and the BBS rims.

I didn't know which way to go and now it looks like I need to make a decision on three springs:

Swift R's
H & R's
GTWorx

If anybody else wants to chime in please do. I'm about to pull the trigger.

 

I have Swift Spec R's on the stock Bilstein's on my SE. They feel almost identical to stock. I love the drop after it settled. My friend's GSR on Eibach Pro's sit lower.