You want answers? Long post alert :)
Not LOCAL-local, but I'll wager that my Winnipeg roads are worse than your T.O. roads :)
Do you have a budget in mind?
Q: WHY coilovers?
I bought them because I was not happy with the ride height I was seeing with some paired shock/spring setups and I am a picky kinda guy. So, this route would allow me to customize it all for me. And if I didn't like it, it's a matter of a cpl hours work to change. You cannot adjust most (or is it any?) modestly priced coilovers after installation on our cars. They need to be half taken out to do this. Honda guys and some other cars are lucky enough to have the adjustment knob hanging out in the engine bay. SO.. soft for the road, tighten it with a cpl turns for autox, soften it up for the drive home, takes minutes. Bastards.
HOWEVER. I drive my A4 in the summer ONLY. Which means, as far as any Canadian East of the Rockies is concerned - drive your car on co's in the winter and they'll lock to that setting... forever. Our salt and road junk will destroy the threading. I have heard of a very very few unique individuals that somehow cheat this, by using various greases and sleeves... but that's waaay too much work for me.
If you are going to drive your new ride throughout the year, I would highly recommend a paired spring/shock. There are so many available, it IS hard to choose the right one. But I know enough ppl have done it. Just have to know what you want in terms of ride quality - firmness, roll, all that stuff. Go too stiff and your ass (and your tires and rims) will regret it, go too soft and well... you kinda defeated the point of the upgrade.
If you find a way to deal with the winter, or if you are not driving through the winter, I would recommend STaSIS Streetsports for a daily driver comfort type of ride, with much better roll characteristics. I am going to tighten mine up a little from how they were supplied from STaSIS though. They ARE Koni's with progressive springs, but STaSIS adjusts them to allow a very easy install and go process - pre set to your car's specs. No experimenting, and of course, these guys do know a lot about our rides. They perform some kind of shock dyno step to understand the variables.
If you are sure you want something more aggressive, I have been eyeing the STaSIS Tracksports quite heavily. I went SS's but have less than 4,000kms on them I am thinking of upgrading, MAYBE next yr to the Tracksports. More adjustability, but a fairly big jump in performance characteristics.
I have also heard a lot of great things about Vogtlands and some KW kits. I think with those 3 and maybe even a few other kits, you cannot go wrong and will be very very happy with them. People have faves to justify their purchase, but really.. some of them are so similar, the point is moot.
Hope that helps a little :) I know some other experienced drivers have a lot of km's on their setup, so just watch where they are from, we DO have pretty bad roads here, so you'll likely not want the uber-firmness ppl from BC or further South can appreciate.
Bill.
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Originally Posted by ed@audiyo
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