Quote Originally Posted by AE86ITA View Post
Have you had a chance to compare your suspension setup against the Progress?
Negative, no experience with the Progress system. Actually, I'm aware of them, but have no knowledge of their design.

Here's the key, though: for many years, I'd been harping on the need for more spring for these cars. Many, many people told me in the early days that 400-450# springs were more than enough. Through experimentation and engineering, we found that due to the limitations of the suspension design (read: struts with bad geometry) that the more spring we ran, the better (following the Colin Chapman axiom of "a suspension works best when you don't let it"). The sole limitation to performance in this car, then, became the shocks' ability to control the springs (assuming, of course, you've got the cage to stiffen the chassis). Eventually others have come around to where even the original doubters now agree the more spring, the better (though the Koni guys still think I'm bonkers... ).

I've run Koni Red inserts, KYB AGX struts, Advanced Design struts, then Koni 8611 inserts in custom struts. Then I even had those 8611s revalved for more. The better the shocks got, the more spring I could run, and the faster the car went. Had I a larger budget, I'd be buying those $1500 per corner Koni 2817s...

Bottom line: whoever you call, ask them if they "guarantee" that their dampers can support at least 1000+ in-lb springs, and if they do, how long they'll last. If they say "go" then fine. If they express doubts or horror or try to tell you that you won't need that, then walk away.

GA