Bilstein vs. KYB vs. Koni

Bilstein, KYB and Koni all make shocks for my 72 Mercedes SEL280 4.5 Anyone have an opinion as to what the best shock is? thanks,

Everyone has a different opinion about what they like, but my vote is Koni all the way. Bilsteins are way too harsh in my opinion, KYBs don't have the same quality but are a good budget piece, but Konis have always worked the best in my applications. More rebound than compression leads to a more controlled chassis in the "off the shelf" valving department.

I've found it the other way around. The Bilsteins tend to be a better street piece and the Koni's tend to be a little choppy until you get them into the twisties where they shine.

Obviously it is about the specific valving used in that application.

Bilstein race shocks on my BMW actually ride very nice, even with lower and stiffer springs. Typical overbuilt German quality. Koni also makes a nice product. I don't think KYB is at the level of either one. The regular GR-2's I had on my Fiat were too stiff and simply didn't feel like they were engineered for the application. Still better than the Tokicos I bought for my CRX. Those were truly uninspiring.

I'm happy with the 5 year old Bilsteins on my 77 Mercedes 450SLC on the street. It's a heavy car but the Bilsteins seem to control it just fine. The old shocks were Konis of an unknown age and they were just plain worn out so I can't give you a fair before and after comparison. In my race car, a 63 Triumph Spitfire, I replaced the Konis with Spax shocks. In this case, the Konis were still good but the body of one cracked and I couldn't get it rebuilt. A new set of fronts for the car were ~$800 while a top of the line, multi way adjustable SPAX were "only" ~$350. After 2 busy seasons I'm still very happy with the Spax. A road car version for a Spitfire run about $90 per corner.

mike