I am under the understanding that KONI's outperform Bilsteins - but how do the Koni's compare to the QA1's?

I have attempted a search - but the search is having some technical issues.

 

Been wondering the same thing.

 

Apples VS oranges.

QA1's are not your autocross. Look nobody that I have seen for a handling application run them. I have seen them for drag only cars to adjust weight transfer.

Always goes back to the first question. what are your goals with your car? Blisteins (revavles espeically) are NOT bad they can be a very good dampner. I have used them and konis But Koni's still get my vote.

Hope that helps.

 

Well i got the explanation from some QA1 guys from the power tour when it stopped into memphis, The QA1's are totally adjustable for street,road course,and drag race, The spring rate can be adjusted right there on the spot. I have been looking at the dual adjustable QA1's for a while now. I'm still waiting on my car since i was in an accident. as i was walking off and thanking them for their time, and then i ran smack into the Air Ride tent and "wow". He showed me their 72 camaro with the air system and i was very impressed. but for $5k i may just stick to the QA1's for now. Plus the QA1's are totally rebuild able and not expensive to rebuild. ($100) I plan on, when i have the car done, a legit 10 second car and a fun road car. plus something fun for the street. (gotta keep the new Cobra in check) And from what i've come across so far it goes QA1 than Bilistein than Koni's. But that is just my opinion on what i've found.

 

Interesting..

 

QA1's are just junk. They break a lot. Even if they didn't there are other issues that are quite large. They are prone to shock fade, being pure hydraulic dampers without a gas-charge to help keep oil foaming at bay. They use a very cheap, simplistic valve that does make the shock stiffer and softer, but does so without regard to piston speed, you can firm them up then they crash much too hard into the sharper bumps. They are drag shocks and as such not capable of controlling high rate springs. Just look @ the rates that you can get. 275, 300, 325.... and 325 is the "handling rate". Funny, because stock is about 300, and you need at least a 10% change to notice any difference. Further, because they are coil-overs you need a lot more rate to support the car when it's lowered.

The list goes on, and on, and on. There are folks here who've had QA1's and Koni's both. Hopefully they will chime in. But the bottom line is I wouldn't touch a QA1 with a 10-foot pole myself.

Spring rate is not adjustable, damping rate is. And that's fine, but there's more to it. You can adjust timing too. But there is a difference in messing with the base timing and the timing advance curve, same with shock damping. You can change the base damping, or the damping curve. QA1's change the base, and not really all that well for handling apps either.

FWIW, Koni makes drag shocks too. Lots of ProStock cars and such use them. And they tell you they aren't to be driven on public roads, serious injury could result, etc, etc. I find it odd that a company like Koni can't build a damper that "can do it all" in a sense, but they can build things like the dampers on McLaren Formula 1 cars.

I'll finish by telling you that I have a customer who took of a QA1/Afco shock combo and put on Koni's. And he ended up cutting his best 60's ever, and the car drives markedly better on the road too. There was actually a thread here on LS1tech about it not so long ago.

 

This is my car Sam is talking about. I had double adjustable AFCO shocks in the front with double adjustable QA1s in the rear with a wolfe anti-roll bar and the best I had cut with that setup was a 1.58. Now I have Koni SA shocks all the way around with stock springs and Sam's rear sway bar (front bar unhooked in both cases) and cut a 1.48 with the Koni's. Now I know I was NA with around 550 rwhp with the AFCO/QA1 setup and now I have a F1A Procharger making 914 rwhp with the Koni's, so the Koni's must be working pretty good for me to be able to put that much power to the ground.

 

Jesus... 914rwhp? Yikes---and on pump gas!

Anyway thank you for chiming in John, always appreciated. Mind letting the folks know if and how the car drives differently on the road in terms of ride and control? I know the answer, but it's kind makes more impact if someone who doesn't sell parts tells 'em.

 

Well I thought the car drove and rode pretty good when I was NA. When I was NA, I basically had a drag suspension with no front sway bar and I drove the car around alot with no issues. But when I went with the supercharger the car accelerates so fast that I needed the car to handle much better. It is night and day difference in the way the car handles now than before, but that should be expected since I had drag shocks, anti-roll bar in the rear and no front sway bar.

 

His new set-up has the strano wonder bars for sway bars. I am sure that did more than anything else for Johns set-up. I was fun beating him arount curves until he got the new set-up. 914 HP is to much for me.

 

From my experience and Sam's advice:

Konis are the best, heavily biased towards "handling" well.

Bilsteins are good bang for the buck and do it all reasonably well.

QA1s are drag shocks. The only ones I see running those are drag guys and old guys who don't know any better, thinking adjustable is automatically good.

 

humm I have them all around....
i did notice they seem to be rebuilt often. They were damned expensive, hope I get some use out of them!

 

So after finally finding the right information, but already buying front and rear QA1 double adjustable coil over kits, what is the better full coil over kit? I just haven't seen many options for coil overs front and rear for the Fbodys. I probably would have just run the koni's with Strano's springs, but I already cut the spring perches off my Moser 9" so now I am limited to a complete coil over kit that mounts in the stock shock location on the rear.

 

Sam has several options for coil over just get ready to pay to play there pretty expensvie when compared to the "cheap" KONIS.

I have my konis and wouldn't trade them for nothing

 

Hey I finally got around to installing my QA1s all around, I have the 300lb springs which I think are a little soft and I have BMR rear springs, I love the look and the ride. I have them set on the soft side. Three clicks in the back and two on the fronts! I also had poly control arm bushings and al new chassis parts so all around it's a new feel that is maybe partly symbiotic with the new shocks and springs. I don't really know yet but I'll start a thread with some pictures soon! - Cullen

 

Wow, wish I had read this before I ordered the QA1s

 

yeah i want QA1's but might go afcos. I got a few friends that have had to send them back because the them leaking They need to warranty that ****

 

I bought QA1s for the front, about 20k miles ago. I bought them for the ride height adjustability to get the needed clearance for the STS kit. They were definately not very good for handling. I just put koni's and ground control adj coilovers in with nearly the same spring rate as before. WOW what a HUGE improvement!

 

you can read all you want..the real deal is the QA1s work for drag racing. I have been using them since 1995 when they were HALs. Never had a problem and I race all the time.

 

Worn out shocks work for weight transfer too...... I mean that's what we want is the nose to shoot skyward, but it's not what you want every other time you drive the car. That's what generates body roll too quickly and lets the car boing down the road.

I'll simply point out here that you've heard from folks who've had both. I don't put a lot of stock in opinions that are based solely on what someone is running when they haven't seen the other side. You can if you like, that's a personal decision.