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| Message: | Sorry forgot KPNI's response #2... any truth in this and the 750? It appears maybe we meed a little pressure on KONI's HQ in Oud Beijerland, Netherlands by the EU 8 series Bros. Our Next Move e31 Owners? A little help people! (FYI: The KONI Group head office is located at Oud Beijerland, NL, where the main operational functions of Research & Development, Engineering, Manufacturing, Finance & Controlling, Quality Assurance and worldwide Sales & Marketing are located. The KONI Group employs approximately 1000 people.) *********************************************************************** KONI's US email: Hello, I did a little further research on the E31 8 series.  I had initially envisioned the Z8 cars when I did not find the E31 8 Series in any European or US application guides but then remembered the correct car in coupe form. Upon talking with some of our technical staff, I was reminded that we have heard comments of people using the dampers for the E32 7 series of the era on the 8 series but we cannot back up any of the information as we have no data on the original dampers for the 8 series.   This is possibly what your members may be thinking of when recalling Konis for their cars. There never was that I can find an actual suggested listing here or in Europe for the 8 series.  When the old Koni BMW 6 series dampers were discontinued many years ago due to extremely low sales that could no longer justify production (before my 10 years working for Koni), 6 series owners with few other options would use 5 series dampers in their cars. I would expect that to be the situation with your cars. Actually the 7 series and 5 series of that era shared the same two front strut inserts although they had different rear shocks. We do still make some dampers for Aston Martins, some Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc. but this is because those damper developments and tooling costs were already paid for by the manufacturer when we built them originally or when they were originally developed for the aftermarket many years ago. In those cases, we can still make production runs of an existing and current part number that we have made through the years. If everything still exists and is updated, we can build production volumes as low as 25 cars sets at a time.  We currently have production runs of Corvair and Sunbeam Tiger shocks in the works for instance but those units had their engineering and advanced costs amortized many, many years ago.  Since there never was a part for the 8 series, there is a great deal of advance testing, engineering, tooling, etc. that would have to be created to get this project to that stage. With a forecast of 100-200 cars sets per year for the next 3-4 years, we could probably get the Europeans to take notice and consider the project. In the mean time, confirming that the E32 7 series dampers do or do not work is going to be our best option. Since we don’t have any information on those dampers, it will require some input from someone in your group to do so. If someone had an OE front strut and rear shock that we could get some dimensional information from, then we could compare the 7 series data. I would be very interested to hear of any mixed reviews on the FSD products by someone who has actually experienced them as we have never heard a single non-positive word about them. There are a few people we have run into on-line who have not driven or ridden on and don’t understand FSD and think it is a simply a marketing scheme to explain a damper that is similar to a Bilstein non-adjustable but they are very much mistaken. FSD is a completely revolutionary design that completes with many of the new electronic damping systems except being all mechanical it allows the opportunity to put them on a car at a fraction of the price and without all the wiring. FSD is currently being used by three Formula 1 teams and is being used as OE by Lamborghini, McLaren-Mercedes SLR, and a number of leading international car brands that we cannot yet announce. I am interested to see if someone with any actual experience has something negative to say. Best regards, Lee Grimes KONI North America ************************************************************************* Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 3:44 PM To: Grimes, Lee - KONI Subject: RE: Questionnaire Lee, Thank You for the reply, though the e31 group will be very disappointed. The reason we approached KONI, is because KONI did make Struts/Shocks at one time for the 8 series per some of our members comments. KONI does offer Sport adjustables and the new FSD product. (mixed reviews on FSD) most members desire the adjustable Sports. I do find it suprising that KONI does not support/produce limited production number vehicles, like the BMW 8 series. Considering, KONI is known for making the suspension equipment on Very rare & extrememly limited vehicles such as, Lotus, Lamborgini, Maserati, & Auston Martins. I shall inform the users group/members of KONI's position on the struts/shocks. Thank You for your consideration and time. If anything EVER changes please let me know or any of the BMW e31 / 8 series groups which can be found on the internet. Best Regards, | ||||
| Link: | Submit a letter to KONI, Oud Beijerland, NL , | ||||
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