Koni vs Bilstien

[A.T.]

Bilstiens seem to be a little more popular. I'm about to have the suspension refurbished on my '69. It has very tired Konis (and tired everything else). What's the difference? My mechanic is pushing new Koni adjustables as part of the over all set up for street and some track. We're going with the poly/bronze bushings, new anti-sway bars, lowering and alignment. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks for the advice.

[Milou]

Hello,

My understanding of suspensions is that Bilstein are stiffer and more "sporty" than Koni. On the 2.2S we're restoring we are using Bilstein (yellow in the back, green ones in the front?). The ones in the front have been slightly reinforced I believe?

[Eric911S]

Hello: What I would do is the Koni shocks since that is what you have in the front. A very good combo for street/ track is sport yellow fronts and sport hydraulic adjustable rears. The torsion bars should be changed to 22 front and 27 rear. The sway bars use 22 front and rear. If more of a track car use 30mm rear torsion bars and the same 22mm fronts on a early car. I would use just plain street front bushings and the Netrix rear bushings. The poly bronze tend to be a little harsher for street. Thanks Eric

[roblav]

Every car I ever put Bilsteins on resulted in me being unhappy. They are just too harsh for the road, and I find the compression damping too hard. The sport (yellow) Konis are a better choice IMO. The compression damping is better and the rebound damping is adjustable. If you want stiffer, go with stiffer torsion bars or sway bars, like Eric says. I'll second Eric's opinion of sport yellows and stiffer rear bar.

[GTS]

Depending what you want to do I have to recommend Bilstein.
We had a race preped 65 911 and going under 10 min around the Nurburgring, and we always acountered the problem that in the Fuchsroehre (long straight going steep down and an old drainaige at the lowest point with a left upswing )the car would hit so hart that the ball valve of the Konis got damaged-switching to koni's resolved it....and we did Tour De France with that set up and later the Targa Florio....They even had a special damper made from Bilstein according to customer requests
regards Stefan

[Flat Six, inc.]

Bilsteins will last longer.......in general.

[Milou]

Can someone tell me what I have? I do believe it's Bilstein both back and front, my restorer tells me it's a great set up and holds the road better than Konis,:






Thanks

[Flat Six, inc.]

Those are Bilstein sports in the rear and most likely Bilstein HDs up front but they could be sport inserts.

Sports are pretty stiff. They work well in the rear but up front they're too stiff for a street car in my opinion.

Don't worry though.....you probably have HDs in the front.

[Flat Six, inc.]

BTW: Looks like a very nice car........the color is perfect!.....can we see some more pics?

[Steve@Rennsport]

Shocks can be a matter of personal preference & experience.

Aaron is right; Sport valving has too much compression damping,.....

I'd mention that Bilstein's stock valving is far from ideal and can be revalved (your used, or new shocks) to work FAR better than stock factory valving if someone truly knows what they are doing.

We've been doing this for 25+ years and I've been more than pleased with damping values that we selected,...

IMHO, Bilstein's are much more durable than any Koni I've seen (since ITT took over Koni many years ago).