> I have two points:
>
> o Bilsteins have "digressive valving", where the damping is softer
> at higher damper shaft speeds (over bumps, etc.) and stiffer at
> lower shaft speeds (weight transfer during
acceleration/deceleration/cornering,
> etc.) Digressive valving provides both good ride quality *and*
> good control of body movements. Do Konis have digressive valving?
> I don't *think* I have read anything to that effect.
>
virtually all modern dampers utilize digressive valving*. bilstein just
happens to market that as a feature. sorta like vw marketing a rack & pinion
steering system as a special feature. koni's definitely have digressive
valving.
if you are curious if a particular damper has digressive valving ask for a
dyno plot of the damper. the slope of the curver should be steep initially
then gradually fall off and get flatter.
> o It is my understanding that the adjustment on single-adjustable
Konis only
> adjusts rebound damping not compression damping, so regardless
> of whether the adjustment is set to soft or stiff, the harshness over
bumps
> would be the same.
>
yes, SA koni's only adjust rebound. however, that does effect ride quality
quite a bit too. i'm not well enough versed in damper theory to know why
this is true, i just know it is from experience.
> The difference is in degree of control of body roll/pitch.
> If one side/end of the car compresses it usually mean that the opposite
> side/end is rebounding, which would be constrained by the damper's
stiffer
> rebound setting, resulting in reduced roll/pitch). At least, that's
> the only reason I can think of as to why adjusting only rebound damping
> can change a car's behavior.
roll control is a small reason for adjusting dampers. the biggest reason you
want to adjust rebound is because rebound effects how fast a wheel is
unloaded. by changing the rebound setting at one or both ends of the car you
can get the car to behave differently at corner entry or exit.
i offered this just to help clear up some things about dampers. personally,
i would go with koni's if it were my car. i have a couple reasons why i
would go that route. the first and foremost is that the dampers koni makes
are incredibly high quality. (not saying the bilsteins aren't, i've just
never had experience with them) the second reason is that the customer
support from koni is top notch. Lee Grimes is the man to talk to about any
damper questions you have. if he can't answer your question, he knows who
can. and the third reason? they're adjustable. and later on if you decide to
make this car a race car, you can have them rebuilt, revalved, and/or made
double adjustable.
hth
nate
*there are some JDM adjustable dampers that i've seen that have a
progressive valving at low settings, then switch to a digressive valving at
higher settings. also, you can still buy dampers with a progressive or
linear valve stack if that is what you need.
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