Are These Bilsteins?.?
Discussion
Ben Lang who was TVR's chief chassis & suspension engineer in the late 1990's early 2000's informed me Harvey Baileys always have green bodies, they are generally not well respected and if you're looking to have them them rebuilt Bilstein won't touch them, personally if I had a set of green bodied HBs I'd file them in the bin.
What the OP is showing in his photos are definitely genuine Bilsteins, these are in a different league to HBs and for reasonable money Bilstein will be happy to refurbish them, I seriously considered this and may still have my originals refurbished as a spare set. In the end I went with new Bilsteins because the latest version enjoys a number of significant improvements over the original Bilsteins fitted by TVR, apparently there were three evolutionary revisions over the Mk1 version which is why the final iteration you can buy now is referred to as the Mk4.
The Mk1 Bilstens I had on my 1996 Chimaera were improved during the late 1990's (Mk2's), and the Mk3 Chimaera benefited from a further tweak to give them Mk3s. But the final Mk4 Bilsteins were actually born from the development work Ben Lang did with with the engineers from Bilstein when they were developing the suspension setup for the Mk2 Tuscan and Segaris in 2002/3 by which time the Chimaera was no longer being built, consequently no production Chimaera ever benefited from the much developed and improved Mk4 Bilsteins.
Further more you can specify 'S' spec Mk4s which are slightly firmer sprung and then valved to match, these therefore are referred to as Mk4 Tuscan 'S' Bilstens but are available sized for the Chimaera & Griffith, I gave Ben Lang my axle weights and he specified red spring Mk4 fronts and the heavier sprung blue spring 'S' spec Mk4 rears as I carry an extra 40kg in the boot when I'm fully gassed up.
To say I'm happy with this setup would be a huge understatement, prior to buying the Mk4 Bilsteins I ran the harsh rose jointed Gaz Gold pros for a number of years.... and for all their infinite adjustability no amount of twiddling, ride height adjustment or spring weight changes could get them anywhere near as good as my Mk4 Bilsteins for both ride quality and handling.
I paid just under £1,000 for my set of Mk4 Billies which I consider excellent value given the results, you can adjust the front ride height by moving a snap ring to one of four different machined grooves in the damper body and two for the rears which is more than enough ride height adjustability. While the valving is fixed it comes pre-set to perfection so they genuinely are ready to bolt on, unlike my Gaz units I've never felt the need to adjust them because quite simply they were spot on straight our of the box.
You can read all about my Mk4 Tuscan 'S' Bilsten project here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
What the OP is showing in his photos are definitely genuine Bilsteins, these are in a different league to HBs and for reasonable money Bilstein will be happy to refurbish them, I seriously considered this and may still have my originals refurbished as a spare set. In the end I went with new Bilsteins because the latest version enjoys a number of significant improvements over the original Bilsteins fitted by TVR, apparently there were three evolutionary revisions over the Mk1 version which is why the final iteration you can buy now is referred to as the Mk4.
The Mk1 Bilstens I had on my 1996 Chimaera were improved during the late 1990's (Mk2's), and the Mk3 Chimaera benefited from a further tweak to give them Mk3s. But the final Mk4 Bilsteins were actually born from the development work Ben Lang did with with the engineers from Bilstein when they were developing the suspension setup for the Mk2 Tuscan and Segaris in 2002/3 by which time the Chimaera was no longer being built, consequently no production Chimaera ever benefited from the much developed and improved Mk4 Bilsteins.
Further more you can specify 'S' spec Mk4s which are slightly firmer sprung and then valved to match, these therefore are referred to as Mk4 Tuscan 'S' Bilstens but are available sized for the Chimaera & Griffith, I gave Ben Lang my axle weights and he specified red spring Mk4 fronts and the heavier sprung blue spring 'S' spec Mk4 rears as I carry an extra 40kg in the boot when I'm fully gassed up.
To say I'm happy with this setup would be a huge understatement, prior to buying the Mk4 Bilsteins I ran the harsh rose jointed Gaz Gold pros for a number of years.... and for all their infinite adjustability no amount of twiddling, ride height adjustment or spring weight changes could get them anywhere near as good as my Mk4 Bilsteins for both ride quality and handling.
I paid just under £1,000 for my set of Mk4 Billies which I consider excellent value given the results, you can adjust the front ride height by moving a snap ring to one of four different machined grooves in the damper body and two for the rears which is more than enough ride height adjustability. While the valving is fixed it comes pre-set to perfection so they genuinely are ready to bolt on, unlike my Gaz units I've never felt the need to adjust them because quite simply they were spot on straight our of the box.
You can read all about my Mk4 Tuscan 'S' Bilsten project here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
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