Spring and shock questions, KYB, Sachs, etc.

[JohnHuntD@xxxxxxx]

About a year ago I bought a 1973 GTV that the previous owner had recently 
paid a local Alfa shop (diFatta Bros.) over $800 for new springs and KYB gas 
shocks. The car handled like on rails but the ride was hard enough to shake 
the fillings out of your teeth. I replaced the rear springs (which were 
painted red and I'm guessing are the red "Performance" springs from IAP in 
Virginia) with used stock rear springs, and the ride improved dramatically 
with little loss of handling in real-world street driving conditions. 

I'm now looking for a pair of stock front springs to replace the 
Kenworth-sized red front springs. If anyone has a pair of new or good used 
stock front springs that would fit my 1973 GTV, I'd appreciate an email with 
your selling price.

That leaves the KYB shocks. The present shocks are KYB "Gas-adjustable" 
shocks with no external adjusting mechanism that are supposedly internally 
self-adjusting. 

I've heard a lot about how stiff Bilstein gas shocks are, and the ride on my 
former Saab Turbo 900 equipped with Bilsteins was the harshest of any new car 
I've bought in 40 years. My impression is that gas shocks inherently have a 
greater resistance to compression, hence result in a harsher ride, than "oil" 
shocks. Unless the consensus is the KYB shcoks are no stiffer than stock, I'd 
like to replace the KYB shocks on my GTV (and any reasonable offer will be 
accepted as they are virtually new) and have two questions:

1) Who makes the stock Alfa shocks? If the maker or brand is good enough for 
the Alfa engineers who designed the suspension system, they are good enough 
for me.

2) What's the story about Sachs shocks for a GTV? I thought they were "oil" 
shocks, but a recent comment on this digest referred to them as "low pressure 
gas shocks".

My GTV will never see a track with me in it and a bone-stock Alfa handles 
better than my driving abilities. I would greatly appreciate a recommendation 
for a shock that results in a smooth ride and handles comparable to stock. If 
the answer is to simply buy stock Alfa shocks, that takes me back to question 
#1 above.

Thank you in advance for any advice here.

John Doak in Baltimore, MD 
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