Bilstein Upside Down Rear Shocks

[Guest Anonymous]

Had been sniped the last few auctions I had fooled with - NOT TODAY. Snagged these pups off Ebay, which so long as they aren't junk inside (which I do not believe they are) go them for a fair price I think. Saw them a few days ago buried in a heading I hadn't expected "BMW 2002ti". Occasionally, there are still deals to be had.

http://www.alpinabmw2002.com/2011/05/bilstein-sportstossdampfer-upsidedown.html

[Mike_B]

Nice find! Bilstein will rebuild/custom valve these for a very reasonable sum if necessary.

[JohnS]

Just curious. What is the advantage of the upside down style of shocks? Is it just for the original coolness factor, or is there some other purpose? Thanks,

John

[1453aalapapa]

Just curious. What is the advantage of the upside down style of shocks? Is it just for the original coolness factor, or is there some other purpose? Thanks,

John

years ago, i was given a suspension setup from a wrecked tii. the front struts were the alpina blue dots, basically tii turbo struts with hubs, vented rotors, calipers, and bilstein innards. the rears were upside down bilsteins. i sent the bilsteins in to be rebuilt, and to get the jounce and rebound specs. i have always felt that the bilstein hd rears are way too bouncy, and the sports are way too hard. the alpina's were almost dead on in between, and they worked great. somewhere bilstein has the specs on the ones i sent in, but this was a long time ago.

[tinkwithanr]

Having the shock upside-down puts the body of the shock absorber attached directly to the car body. The lighter, shock rod is now the part the moves in relation to the body, which is the same thing as saying it's now part of the unsprung mass of the car. Having a lower unsprung mass is always a good thing in a suspension design, so in this case every little bit helps.

I feel like there are also other benefits, but that's the main one that I know about.

[flyingjolly]

plus, on bikes you have the long front fork, which has to bear a lot of torque at the point where it it screwed to your frame. And if you have upside down shocks, you have more material at the point where torque is the highest.

[RussTii]

I had a pair of these revalved by Bilstein last summer and currently run them on the A/X car. Gave them the car specs and they chose the rebound and compression values. Per their supplied data and dyno charts the rebound rate is about twice the compression rate at higher shaft velocities.