Let's talk about road suspension

[AudiSport]

Proper valving with the ability to handle high freq and low freq differently is the most important. Single adj is fine. They can be upgraded later. I have Ohlins on my Audi for the street and I never adjust them. mostly set to full soft. Lol.

I have the Stasis/Ohlins non-remote reservoir setup on my 2003 A4. I don't know the spring rates, but I think they are pretty high. The car is stiff but takes the bumps surprisingly well, even with my 19" BBS RS-GT wheels and 35 aspect ratio tires. Great shocks make a world of difference.

My MCS double-adjustables are also non-remote reservoir types. I could have selected single adjustable too, but as I recall the doubles weren't that much more expensive.

Ha. Similar cars. Same B6 chassis. I had the SL before as well.
04 S4 2.7 Tial 605 swapped with remote reservoir Ohlins and bunch of other stuff.

[blade7]

Not sure if they're called the same over there, but I had a 05 B7 Audi A4 S line quattro wagon, that came standard on 18" wheels. Ran it for 10 years on Conti tyres, and it had a great ride. I did try the earlier 03 B6 version, and the ride was terrible. Audi must have changed something in those 2 years.

avant 4.jpg (223.22 KiB) Viewed 1454 times

[AudiSport]

Not sure if they're called the same over there, but I had a 05 B7 Audi A4 S line quattro wagon, that came standard on 18" wheels. Ran it for 10 years on Conti tyres, and it had a great ride. I did try the earlier 03 B6 version, and the ride was terrible. Audi must have changed something in those 2 years.

avant 4.jpg

B6 and B7 were same chassis just different body sheet metal.

[blade7]

Not sure if they're called the same over there, but I had a 05 B7 Audi A4 S line quattro wagon, that came standard on 18" wheels. Ran it for 10 years on Conti tyres, and it had a great ride. I did try the earlier 03 B6 version, and the ride was terrible. Audi must have changed something in those 2 years.

avant 4.jpg

B6 and B7 were same chassis just different body sheet metal.

I know, but apparently altered spring/damper rates. And the 4 cylinder turbo petrol engine was updated from 1.8 to 2.0. Along with different lights. I also owned a B4 80 V6 Avant for many years.

[ROB III]

Sounds like there may have been enough complaints on the B6 for Audi to make some suspension tweaks for the B7 and by your comments, they made the right choice. If chassis was the same, some additional evolutionary changes were likely made. Thanks for the background.

[crackership]

Proper valving with the ability to handle high freq and low freq differently is the most important. Single adj is fine. They can be upgraded later. I have Ohlins on my Audi for the street and I never adjust them. mostly set to full soft. Lol.

My KW's are set to the factory default and I've never felt the need to change them for the street either. If I were trying to shave half a second off a lap time or something, I'm sure the adjustments come in handy, but for the street I'm more of a set it and forget it type.

I'm with you, Tom. I'd much prefer to set and forget. If motorcycles have taught me anything it's that, just because there are a bunch of fancy knobs and clickers on suspension doesn't mean I'll actually make anything better by fiddling with them. As I said before, I'd much prefer non-adjustable dampers that are valved correctly over multi-way adjustable ones that need to be set up.

I am glad to hear that the V3s are compliant enough for road use, they're definitely still in the running!

[blade7]

My Ducati 1299S Panigale and BMW S1000RR both with electronic semi active suspension, taught me that for road use at least, manually adjustable suspension is a thing of the past.

[crackership]

My Ducati 1299S Panigale and BMW S1000RR both with electronic semi active suspension, taught me that for road use at least, manually adjustable suspension is a thing of the past.

I have the semi active suspension on my Multistrada too.. I'd love an option like that for the 951..

[blade7]

My Ducati 1299S Panigale and BMW S1000RR both with electronic semi active suspension, taught me that for road use at least, manually adjustable suspension is a thing of the past.

I have the semi active suspension on my Multistrada too.. I'd love an option like that for the 951..

The Ohlins suspension Ducati use is a lot nicer than the Marzocchi stuff BMW are using. I sold my 1299 last year because after about an hour on it, my hands were starting to feel numb. I had to have the heated grips and cruise control the Beemer comes with. Like the 952 I'm getting old .

[blade7]

Sounds like there may have been enough complaints on the B6 for Audi to make some suspension tweaks for the B7 and by your comments, they made the right choice. If chassis was the same, some additional evolutionary changes were likely made. Thanks for the background.

You're welcome. I think the B4 80 V6 was a nicer car to drive, and it seemed there was less to go wrong. Probably came from a time when engineers rather than accountants were in charge