80' GTSI...Which shocks do you recommend??

I recently found out that my GTSI still wears it's original shocks from 1980! I would like to replace them and would appreciate your recommendations for a new set. It is a road car only.
Assuming my shocks are garbage, how much of a handling improvement will new one's give me...will the improvement be significant??

 

yes. night and day improvement. Especially if you upgrade the springs. I would do a complete rebuild like many of us have done including upgrading sway bars if your wallet can handle it?, and you plan on keeping the car? The bushings are shot, more than likely the tie-rods and ball joints as well. Do it once and do it right! Plenty of threads on the QA-1 coilover and ES A-Arm bushing upgrades.

Cheers

 

The stock Konis are great. Truechoice can rebuild the with original KONI pieces and updated pieces (typically seals are newer designs). The price is comparable to new, maybe a tiny bit less, but they set them on a dyno so they will be very even. I've had many Koni's done by them with perfect resullts. When they fail, they typically get rock hard because the seals break up and clog the valve body. I totally agree about all the other suspension bits needing re-newing.

 

Who would you recommend buying the QA-1's and sway-bar from??

also, I have metric wheels and Michelens on my car and am considering buying 16 or 17 inch wheels and modern rubber. Would this be worth the expense as far as performance goes, or should I just go for the shocks/s-bar??

 

You will notice a larger improvement from modern 16" tires and wheels over those antique TRX's than anything else you could do suspension wise. The Konis are great shocks, and besides being rebuildable, they can also be revalved any way you like. Truechoice has previously rebuilt and custom valved the Konis on my racer, and they do first class work.

 

If you go to 16,17 etc wheels, you open up more opportunities to explore.

IMHO:
Something to consider is 'what you're trying to accomplish'. I have played with a lot of tires from race to various hi-perf street tires and my opinion is the stock VR rated TRX's are not bad when they are fresh. NOT 10-15 year old cracking hazards. My GTSi came with the H rated TRX tires that fit the Mustang. I changed them to the proper V-rated TRX's per suggestions of others in the F club who were more experienced. I tried them at Laguna Seca along with 8-10 other tires over the years and again, they were not bad! Also, you get the obvious benefits of originality, speedo cal etc.

As an example of a very high performance tire - I think the GSCS tires had tremendous grip and positively transformed the "feel" of the car. Cornering, braking and even acceleration. The GSCS is ~11 pounds. Compare this with typical weights of like 30 pounds and you can understand how much easier it is to spin the reduced mass. The downside - they are severe, harsh & tiring to drive on the street with and less forgiving of road hazards. The car will dart about if you are not clutching the wheel very firmly over anything but the smoothest roadway. They last about 3,000 + / -miles.

I have grown to like the 16" TOYO RA-1 for the street and track.

This is a subject that you should get a lot of experienced feedback on. N-joy!

 

+1 on the TOYO tire, I just purchased a set of TOYO Proxes T1R and let me tell you they almost feels like a slick tire. Good handling wet and dry, quiet, smooth, and has excellent review, and cheap.

 

Yes my rubber is in great shape, maybe 90% or so, so maybe I'll just do the shocks for now....especially if the wheel/tire upgrade won't make a dramatic difference.

How much should I expect to pay per QA-1. Having trouble finding them.

 

About $1200.00 with the paper weights (shock extentions) shocks (single adjustable) & springs,I went with Eibach springs 300 rear-350 front. I couldnt be happier its drives like a new car now,I had a slight shake in my steering wheel on the freeway and now its smooth as silk. Its one of the best things I have done to my car plus it looks so much better lowered. it seems to steer quicker now too,I guess sway bars are next. Summit sells the shocks & springs and I would recomend bump stops also on the rears also from summit racing.

 

Which ones did u use from Summit?

Thanks

 

QA-1 Shocks
QTY 2 HAL-DR4855P 319.90 159.95 EA
QTY 2 HAL-DR5855P 319.90 159.95 EA

Im still looking for the bump stop number I seemed to mispaced the receipt along with the one for the eibach springs. You will also need the paper weights & bushing kit from Verell just do a search on QA-1 shocks & you should find all the info you need like I did. I will keep looking for the bump stop & spring numbers.

 

Found it

Bump stop

I have been told the front shocks cant bottom out so they not needed, but for the rear here is the part number & price. The washers that came with them would not fit over the threads so I had to grind them out a bit to fit.

QTY 2 HAL-BCO2 Price $5.69 each

Heres the springs

QTY 2 EIB-10002500350 350LB price 66.39 each 2 $132.78 total
QTY 2 EIB-12002500300 300 LB price 59.95 each 2 $119.90 total

I also chose to add the bearings for easier adjustments
Shock bearing kit
QTY 2 HAL-7888-109 25.95 Ea $51.90 total

 

Thanks Kent, but I'm a bit confused....sorry.

So I would need to buy 4 shocks @ $159.95 each...correct? Do they come with springs or are they extra? In total, what parts do I need to order to do the job?

It seems that the QA's are cheaper than new Koni's...are they superior to the Koni's?? What are your thoughts on this?

 

Shocks are 159.00 each but they are are differant front & rear,same with the springs. You need to buy 2 front & 2 rear, everything else is seperate.

 

Thanks Euro! So besides the $159, I would have to add the springs.

Do you like them over the Koni's??

 

Thank You!

 

Its hard to compare against my 25 year old konis but I like that you can adjust your ride height & dampening unlike the koni's. The shock extensions AKA paperweights are only needed for the front. so 4 shocks 4 springs,2 bumpstops & 2 bearing kits (optional)
You also need 2 paperweights & 1 bushing kit (does 4 shocks) all from verell.

Mine are all 4 adjusted to 6 out of 12 adjustments on the dampening & im a happy camper!
If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.

 

Rubber bands would be superior to the Konis........

 

I agree on the QA-1s. The Konis just suck.

It's a long read, but do yourself a favor and read this thread all the way through!

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134442

(Get a big cup of coffee first)

Birdman

 

I didn't drive my car much with it's original Koni's, but after replacing all the bushings, new 16" Bridgestone Pole Positions and installing QA-1's with 300lb f/r (set at 4 of 12) I'm very very happy with the overall handling and road quality.
Quite liveable on the street and more than enough fun around Road America.
Definatly read through the long threads, then go ahead and get em.

 

300 f/r will give you too little spring in front or too much in the rear and cause the car to be prone to over-steer I think. You want to go about 50lb stiffer in the front than the rear and it will be pretty well balanced.

 

Staggering f/r 50lb seems to be the majority consensus on F-C, but I went with my gut (and also I think 'Hans' here has the same in his GT4) and kept the same ratio as the factory. OEM is ~200lb/200lb for the GTS.
Haven't noticed any particular oversteering bias, road or track. During 12 laps of Elkhart Lake (not pushing too far into braking zones, but pushing the limits of adhesion in the curves) this summer the car felt beautifully neutral with what sounded and felt like all 4 corners breaking traction at about the same time. Just what I was looking for.
BTW the sway bars are stock, stock motor, brakes, and non-gumball tires. I intentionally chose (hi-performance) all season Bridgestones in stock size in order to simulate 1980's era grip.

And although many here go even higher (350-450lb/in), due to the truly horrendous roads in my area I thought a 50% increase in the spring rate was high enough, may be too much. Really happy to find the ride not much stiffer than OEM. Maybe because the springs are longer the 'true' spring rate before/after isn't exactly comparable? That doesn't seem to make much sense, but if I had to do it over again it'd still be QA-1 with 300/300.

 

Drive faster

A lot goes into what the "right" combination is. The stock shocks have massive rubber bushings at the mounts which affect both the effective damping and effective spring rates. I'll bet there is nearly a full inch of movemnt of wheel movement that is due to the rubber alone and that plays a big part in the factory rate selections.

When I measured the geometry and did the math it ssaid the front wanted about 20% stiffer springs in front than the rear. This is where the 50 lb rule comes from as most people go abotug 300/250 for the street.

In my car I went 450/400 and the rear is too stiff. I went with this combination because I chickened out of the 500lb front springs after several people screamed "TOO STIFF".....I should have bought the 500s I thing. I think these would probably be too stiff for a decent ride with QA1 shocks but with the Ohlins the 450/400 is not really a much stiffer ride than the stock setup. I'll see how things are working when I get the heavier V12 in and running and then adjust the sting rates if required.

 

heh, if I wanted to drive really fast a 308 wouldn't be the best choice would it! Putting super-stiff suspension, sticky tires, more power etc isn't what everybody wants nor is it what the 308 was designed for. Yeah it rolls in corners and the front dives under braking, it was supposed to! More power to you though for monkeying with it - the V12 project sounds wicked


When I hear all 4 tires squealing that tells me I'm going fast enough.

When you get that detailed things like bumper weight, sway bar diameter/settings, tire pressures to the 1/2 psi, etc come into play.
I don't run with the front spare, but I do have the US bumper so that ~40lbs about cancels out.

Anyway, I'd rather drive a car that was more apt to oversteer than understeer. More fun

Am curious about your calculations, not because I doubt them just interested in that kind of stuff. Is there a thread where you explain this, or can you elaborate please?

 

My 308 wins autocrosses against all comers

Let me see if I can find it......I did the springs about 7-8 years ago. I know I posted something at the time but that would have been on the old f-chat so it's a harder to find and the pictrures are gone in a server crash I think.