Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I'm starting to go down the fairly well worn path of getting the front struts on my 1987 944S altered to take replacement dampers.

While Bilstein B6's are the apparent 'go to' dampers I understand that these are quite performance oriented and therefore quite stiff. While the car does and will get driven a little enthusiastically from time to time I got it to use mostly as a sports tourer, so on a balance of comfort to performance I'd ideally like something like a 60/40 ratio.

So, a couple of questions :

- for those who have had the B6 conversion done and kept the standard springs, how would you say is the ride comfort relative to the original Sachs set up?

- does anyone know (and even better has anyone had done) the conversion using other dampers? I think there are Sachs dampers which might do the job but haven't got that far with my investigations yet.

Spax adjustables are the others to consider and as the name suggests, give you the option of changing the damping for the type of driving you will be doing or to accommodate a particular road surface.

The dampers are only one piece of the puzzle. You need to consider the suspension bushes too as these will be well past their best if still original.

I can’t answer your query having never driven the car since I replaced all the shocks but everything I’ve read suggests that the car gets a new lease of life and once again feels taut and responsive just like it probably did when it left the factory.

Only one I did a suspension swap on we used OEM front struts from an OPC. The springs were all in good nick so we did front & back.
Not sure who makes Porsche suspension probably BOGE or Sachs but it made a light years improvement. No doubt aided by a realignment afterwards.
No bushes were changed in this v low miles car and all were checked & in good nick.
Not sure if the OEM are single or twin tube. But a more modern twin tube especially gas filled will be better than OEM.
Once the car has done 60K or so from new then just replacement standard suspension will make a noticeable difference.

I've just put Spax coilovers on the rear, very good. I have GAZ gold on the front, also good but prone to corrosion.

The full Spax kit is about £1,100 which isn't bad for a full adjustable coilover set up. Depends what you want to spend.

Edit to add - RSX118 is the full kit.

Stuart

spax also lowers the car by about 20-25mm,

B6 do not lower your car

To fit the B6 up front the front strut has to be modified to accept the insert, you can fit an adjustable spring perch whilst modifying the strut and then you can adjust the front ride height. Then just follow up by re-indexing the rear torsion bar to get it nice and level. Or just use some lowering springs up front from Eibach etc.