Bilstein damper advice wanted!

matteo68 · Post by **matteo68** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 6:39 pm

I want to fit Bilstein dampers to my S-R (GeLo had them, rather than the factory Konis, plus my donor T had monotube Bilstein struts and Bilstein rears). However whilst I know I want green not yellow, I’m completely confused by the Bilstein website!

Can anyone explain what’s what as there seems to be B4, B6 and B8 damper options, and then Standard, Sport and Club Sport versions of the B6?

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 7:06 pm

You need Gary71!

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 8:45 pm

I have yellow rear and green front … both custom valved to a Tuthills fast road spec

matteo68 · Post by **matteo68** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 8:46 pm

Your car is so non standard!

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 8:51 pm

Little tweaks here and there

Gary71 · Post by **Gary71** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:13 pm

I don’t know

I’ve got Bilstein B6 (sport?) on mine with std torsion bars lowered about 20mm from std and wouldn’t want for more. Honestly I’m a fussy bugger with damping, particularly rebound overshoot, and these are spot on.

For a more track focused ST with stiffer (?) torsion bars you’d want more overall damping to control the springs.

My old TT has B8 on std S-Line springs and they are ridiculously over damped so be careful, but every application will be different.

Gary71 · Post by **Gary71** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:30 pm

If you speak to the guys at Bilstein UK they are really helpful and may help unpick the options available.

Zakir Kahn was the useful chap I spoke to

Having just looked at the website I see the problem!

matteo68 · Post by **matteo68** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:32 pm

Thanks Gary, I’ll give try and give him a call tomorrow!

Gary71 · Post by **Gary71** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:52 pm

Mine are yellow ones if that helps, think they are sport, but I can’t find the invoice so who knows

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 10:05 pm

From memory back In the old days yellow was sport , green was HD

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Wed Jul 30, 2025 10:54 pm

Gary, you told me several times yours were Yellow sport.

I had custom valve'd Bil dampers spec'd by Bob Watson for my hillclimb car (stock front bars, 3 litre Turbo rears) when I installed the heavier 3.2 engine/box in 1995.
They were great.
The rears leaked after about 15 years and I replaced the rears with KONI sports set mid-way in the adjustment range. These came off the car to make way for the Bil dampers.
Seemed about the same to me then, and worked really well at Shelsley Walsh last weekend.

Proper damping is a game changer.

matteo68 · Post by **matteo68** » Thu Jul 31, 2025 8:08 am

Well if I can get a definitive answer from Bilstein UK, I’ll post it here.

Boydyrs · Post by **Boydyrs** » Thu Jul 31, 2025 9:14 am

Ask for David Brown at Bilstein, really helpful and knowledgeable guy.
They can valve/build the shocks to to any spec required and will offer best advice sited to car
If you have shocks already it’s incredibly great value

matteo68 · Post by **matteo68** » Thu Jul 31, 2025 9:35 am

Thanks Boydy! We want to reuse as much as possible from the donor car so to get the existing shocks rebuilt to custom spec and refurbished would be a great result!

sladey · Post by **sladey** » Thu Jul 31, 2025 10:46 am

+1 for David Brown. I turned up with no warning and my shocks in a bag and his opening comment was that I was running my 911 lower than stock! He knows his stuff

DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker