I'm going to change my shocks and I want to buy the best shocks for my car. I've made some search on the forums and I found that Koni reds and tokico illuminas are the best street suspension I can buy for my car.

I want something that will give me a comfortable ride on the street not make me literally jump in the car from cracks and bumps, good launches on the drag strip, nice handling in auto-x and have the first day ride quality for years therefore I decided that I need adjustable shocks.

According to what I have read from the previous posts ;

Koni reds are less adjustable and stiffer than illuminas

Konis have lifetime warranty (not sure about tokicos)

Rear koni shocks have to be taken out to be adjusted , rear tokicos can be adjusted inside the rear hatch without even taking the wheel out.

Are these true? Which one of these shocks would suit me best?

Thanks

 

Why not the koni yellows?

 

I read that koni yellows are too stiff they are the best in handling and non-adjustable. I want something adjustable so that I'll have a comfortable ride during normal driving and have nice handling when racing.

 

Koni yellows are adjustable(you might want to recheck..i dont think the reds are). They are probably the most off the shelf performance shocks for our cars.

http://www.spohn.net/product.cfm?productid=1346

 

I would also like to know what are the best for all out handling?

 

Both are adjustable. I'm running the Koni Reds on my 91Z and the Illuminas on my 89IROC. I think they are both great. Its hard for me to compare the two cars because they have different spring rates and I drive them very differently (one a track drifting car, one a street car). The Koni's do appear to be stiffer at full hard, and the Illuminas appear to have a greater range of adjustability. You do have to remove the Reds to adjust them, and the Illuminas are adjustable while installed (both f/r). I think you would be OK with either. Another thing that makes it hard to compare them is that Tokiko dosnt provide a valving spec sheet while Koni has one on their website. Kinda hard to tune the cars when you dont know what each setting actually is.

 

Penske 4ways with a remote resevoir to keep the damper oil cool.

Whether you go coilover in the rear or not, you can buy Spohn's rear coilover mount plates to use some penske 4ways with sperical ends on both mounts instead of our top I-bolt style.

Struts can be custom made to fit fit with our housing ends also. When the day comes I need new shocks and struts for this car, I will be going Penske's on all 4 corners.

 

Anybody know the diameter of the body on the Illuminas and Yellows?

 

RTFC is right. Nothing beats Penske's setup for all out handling, but the Penskes are way overkill for a street car IMHO. They are really meant for racing.

Also, keep in mind that RTFC is a handling obssessed nut!

 

Penske makes shocks/struts??

since when? and what is the cost? where do you get them?

 

Only the trickest shock availiable and ran on almost every CART team indycar
About $1000 each for the 8760's with the remote reservoir.

What makes these trick is they have the option of a 4way adjustable setup.

A normal bump and rebound double adjustable shock is basically a 2-way shock.

Penske's have two bump and two rebound adjusters for both high damper speeds and low damper speeds. What this does is allows you to adjust the car smooth (not harsh stiffness) under normalslow drivng weight transfers like slow braking and cornering but then the highdamper speed will control the weight transfer when you aggressively attack a corner and produce excessive weight transfers rear to front and or side to side loads or on large hard impact bumps

http://www.penskeshocks.com/8760.htm

 

Koni reds can be adjusted while in the car f/r they are both adjusted the same way on the rear you just have to pull the carpet back to acces the top of the shock.

 

Are you sure about that? If I remember correctly on the Reds you adjust the body of the shock (rotating) while pressing a button located on the top of the shock housing, nothing to do with the stud that sticks up into the body of the car. I'll have to go check. I know my Illuminas are adjusted via that stud.

 

I'm sure just installed them in feb and had to adjust the pass rear in late april

 

I like the yellows personally. They are infinitely adjustable front and 3-way adjustable on the rear on the car. For the rears you just have to unbolt the bottom of the shock and turn the shock body.

 

Dean what springs and shocks are you using right now?

 

Koni yellows and the springs I can not tell you. I put them in there years ago. At theat time I had many sets of springs sitting in my garage from the Corvette and I believe these a Suspension spring Specialists "Blue coil" springs. They were not application specific for any vehicle. They are thicker coils than the WS6 springs.

 

Just to corrct what you wrote, Koni Yellow reares have 4 positions of adjustment on the rebound side but are not 3 way adjustable- they are 1 way adjustable shocks.

 

My bad, I meant 3 position adjustable for rebound only. Maybe they are 4, I always thought it was 3. Whatever, they're cool

 

i have to replace my bushings, pretty much all of them since they are old rubber ones... what is better.. the polyurathane or polygraphite?