Coilovers: BC Racing DS DA vs Bilstein B16 PSS9 help me choo
Discussion
Opportunity has come up for me to source my coilovers at cost price after delaying purchase last year. I'm down to 2 options - after a final steer to help me choose. Price not really a factor.
Car sees road and track but is a weekend and track day toy only. Looking for reasonable road manners with good track performance. It's an e86 z4 3.0si Coupe 2008.
BC Racing DS DA, 8KG front, 10kg rear (leaning towards these)
Pros:
Digressive piston, pillow ball fronts with rubber mounted rears, and adjustable camber plates as standard
Custom spring rates, flexible for changes later
Generally seems more customisable
Cons:
More budget option option/lower build quality, but I know bcs are still pretty well rated by users
Does 30 clicks of adjustment feel excessive vs 9 on the bilsteins? Wondering if ill end up preferring less clicks and more noticeable adjustments
Bilstein B16 PSS9 (like the quality but have some hangups)
Pros:
Primarily build quality and brand rep
High quality inverted monotube
Cons:
Does not come with adjustable top mounts and solutions will be aftermarket - unclear what will fit
Bilstein don't seem to share their spring rates/seem less customisable
No digressive valving and have heard feedback billies can be very stiff and bouncy on these cars from quite a few users, not so tolerable on road
Car sees road and track but is a weekend and track day toy only. Looking for reasonable road manners with good track performance. It's an e86 z4 3.0si Coupe 2008.
BC Racing DS DA, 8KG front, 10kg rear (leaning towards these)
Pros:
Digressive piston, pillow ball fronts with rubber mounted rears, and adjustable camber plates as standard
Custom spring rates, flexible for changes later
Generally seems more customisable
Cons:
More budget option option/lower build quality, but I know bcs are still pretty well rated by users
Does 30 clicks of adjustment feel excessive vs 9 on the bilsteins? Wondering if ill end up preferring less clicks and more noticeable adjustments
Bilstein B16 PSS9 (like the quality but have some hangups)
Pros:
Primarily build quality and brand rep
High quality inverted monotube
Cons:
Does not come with adjustable top mounts and solutions will be aftermarket - unclear what will fit
Bilstein don't seem to share their spring rates/seem less customisable
No digressive valving and have heard feedback billies can be very stiff and bouncy on these cars from quite a few users, not so tolerable on road
For what it's worth I ran Bilstein B14s on my previous 130i LE which was built as a fast road car and they were superb. Firmer, but not stupidly and took the very rough unloved local country roads here in Lancashire.
I rated them so much I've just had them fitted to my E39 540i and very much the same feedback - firmer but not teeth rattling, take the roads really well. But smooth & compliant when driving normally
If the B14s are like that I can only see the B16s being better due to their full adjustability
I wouldn't run BCs personally. They're budget coilovers and suit budget builds.
Have you looked at KWs and/or STs?
I rated them so much I've just had them fitted to my E39 540i and very much the same feedback - firmer but not teeth rattling, take the roads really well. But smooth & compliant when driving normally
If the B14s are like that I can only see the B16s being better due to their full adjustability
I wouldn't run BCs personally. They're budget coilovers and suit budget builds.
Have you looked at KWs and/or STs?
Cheers, good to hear that rough b road quality was OK as I like a good b road bash, it's one of the reasons the digressive valving on the bc attracted me.
I started out looking at kw v3 but eventually decided I didn't want two way adjustment for now, rather keep it one way.
Currently I have a deal with a local motorsport store to get warehouse price after helping them with their website, and out of their range these are the two coilovers I'll be choosing from. They have these, ast (out of price range) and kw but already decided against the latter for ease of setup.
I think main headache for me at the moment with the bilsteins is getting adjustable top mounts, if I could get pillowball top mounts with adjustable camber/caster that would probably tip the scale, but I'm unsure what's available for this coil and car combination on that front
I started out looking at kw v3 but eventually decided I didn't want two way adjustment for now, rather keep it one way.
Currently I have a deal with a local motorsport store to get warehouse price after helping them with their website, and out of their range these are the two coilovers I'll be choosing from. They have these, ast (out of price range) and kw but already decided against the latter for ease of setup.
I think main headache for me at the moment with the bilsteins is getting adjustable top mounts, if I could get pillowball top mounts with adjustable camber/caster that would probably tip the scale, but I'm unsure what's available for this coil and car combination on that front
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