THSCC Forums

One rallycross and I got hooked. So I need to build a suspension that will replace the set up that helps me with my incredible autoX finishes

I wanted stock springs from a heavier VW matched to some heavy damped shocks. The plan with the shocks/struts was to take whatever showed up, drill them, braze a fitting in, and replace the stock oil with some straight motor oil, 30-50w? depending on the experimenting.

So after some inquires I got a line on these, from a later Cabriolet:


Dirty, grungy, but a little bit of dirt removal showed:



AND



So now the plan is to take every thing apart, clean it up and make sure the dampers still work. If they do, I will apply some Red Lantern stickers and have them ready to install for the next RallyX. Should be a big improvement, over the very stiff Bilstein setup. The sway bars will also be getting a rest.

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RedLanternRacing, builders of the fastest cars in last place.
Success is not an option.
1981 Scirocco, "Vera"

Chuck -

I had KYB GR-2s on the Subaru before switching to the STi suspension and I was impressed with them -- good compression damping, to me they felt similar to Bilsteins.

Regarding springs -- blissfully I know little about VW's On my 325es I got a spare set of 5-series front springs and cut off one coil. Result was about 1/4" higher than stock and about 50# stiffer. Worked great at keeping the shock from bottoming out.

The interesting thing to do is the DIY spring rate calculations. Along with the free height of the spring you can calculate final ride height. I did this to calculate how many coils to cut off to result in comparable ride height and was able to determine the new spring rate of the cut 5-series springs.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

We have KYB GR2's on the General and they have held up very well. Especially considering we paid $100 for all four including shipping.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

I used KYB GR2's for about a year on the RS for daily driving and rallycross before putting the STi suspension on it. Results haven't changed any, but it is a little better on high speed sections. Lower speed sections are better with the softer struts (GR2) than with the stiff STi stuff. The soft stuff oscillates too much on the high speed big bumps, and the stiff stuff bounces around too much on the slower stuff where the hits aren't hard enough to move the suspension much, in case you were wondering.

And GR2's are cheap enough that it wouldn't hurt much to replace them all once a year.

I had my hopes up that the shocks would be OK. No dice, one of the four still had pressure, two still had some damping, and one was dry. On the bright side I did get the needed springs and housings. $40 invested so far.

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RedLanternRacing, builders of the fastest cars in last place.
Success is not an option.
1981 Scirocco, "Vera"

I did the refilled strut bit on my beater Datsun 210. It has shocks on the front that are refilled with 20W fork oil. This stiffened them up nicely. The original was somewhere around 5 weight. It only took about 2 pint cans to fill both front struts. They have 147,000 street miles on them now and are still stiff. I would suggest if you use refilled shocks that you use fork oil that should be available a Jap motorcycle shop or you could go to Harley Davidson and pay more for a black can with an orange logo.

But if the KYBs are not outragous I would go with them.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

shall we get new ones for next year?