shortened shockers

[Buffkane]

hey guys whats the best shortened shockers for the front of my monty. i got a set of 80mm drop springs and now i in need off shortened shockers to accommodate them.
my blisteins b4s are not up to the job no more.

am i guessing that i need blistein b8s? or are there some other shockes on the market that are good and up to the job?

thanks Jon.

[DarrenH]

Re: shortened shockers

B8 are only rated to the streetline kit which are 60mm down. I don't mean this as a quip or unnecessary negativity but you will be on the bump stops at 80mm. Limiting factor in terms of how far a damper can compress is the length of the strut tube itself which if you stick to standard off the shelf items you will be in trouble. thats ignoring issues with bump steer and roll centre, speaking in just in terms of basic mechanics of it

[Vinci]

Re: shortened shockers

B8 are B6 with internal shims. No mystery about that. The only reason to get them over B6 is if you don't want springs to fall out or displace on droop.

Apart from that I +1 Darren there totally.

Most degrading factor in lowering is roll. I shall try and explain it very simple:

1. Pretend your body is the car body and stretch out your arms, wide, but slightly angled down. This is a pair of wishbones in stock config.
2. Now pretend you are making a high speed bend with a lot of force to the side, your arms will fight the forces in longitudinal direction, which is very hard for this force to push arms up.
3. Now you are a lowered car, stretch your arms out pointing slightly up, which will be the position they will be in at rest.
4. Now do the same bend and you will notice the forces will be applied to your arms much more sideways! That means that with just little force the suspension is pushed in much more severely!

This causes roll, and there is nothing you can do to fight the negative effects of this once the wishbones are out of position. Higher spring rate will help, but at the point where it becomes almost as steady as stock there will be no travel, no traction as a result, and your car will be bouncy as crap, not inviting spirited driving at all!

Thicker anti roll bars will help, but since the urges of roll will have become so large the result will only be a whole nose dive urge.

And apart from that the positive camber in corners (dynamic camber) will ruin traction further.

If you want to lower properly, you need roll center adjusters along with it!!