Life in northern Vermont with a 96 SHO

[jnrock]

I live in the northeast kingdom of Vt and love the semi active suspension. I work on Jay Peak and the road up to it is atrocious. The curves are only a part of it, there are dips in some curves and the SHO suspension keeps the car very stable. No one have come up behind me yet. I have come up behind some pretty nice cars and they are bouncing. Some of you may not live in a place to test the semi active suspension but on such roads I love it.

 

[stephen newberg]

I used to, having lived in rural Nova Scotia with the car since it was almost new until about 2005. The thing to keep an eye on is ball joints. Messed up roads like that are very ******* ball joints. Tie rod ends and sway bar bushings also tend to go more quickly than normal.

pax, smn

 

[fourofdiamonds]

Bought my SHO in '97 while living in MA and know the roads you are talking about. My SHO never saw much snow before I moved to GA in '99. North Georgia has its share of fun driving roads. It takes its toll on suspension parts, but its worth it to show the BMW's and Audi's how its done.

 

[stephen newberg]

Certainly easy to embarrass the BMW owners that way. Harder for the Quatros, though. Interestingly, from its original design standpoint, the Gen III was made as a BMW killer for a good deal less cost. Always worked pretty well at it, I thought.

pax, smn

 

[98SF19]

Bmw

Just as long as there's not an "M" or "Z" on the back of it. I had a Z3 nearly tapping my rear bumper for a good while a few years back (the SOB was drafting!), and barely held up with a TT Quattro a while before that. This is in Florida though, where the roads described by the OP are very few and far between.

 

[stephen newberg]

Apples and oranges. And a 15ish year old car. It was the series 3 stuff of the time it was aimed at. And I think it did pretty well on the series 5 stuff too, though obviously sans the reputational aspect.

pax, smn