Shock refresh

My daily driver 1M has just ticked over 50k miles (I know). I've been noticing increased harshness and decreased poise over bumps, and I strongly suspect my shocks are going- not exactly unexpected given the age. Thus it seems time for a refresh, and I'm hoping to gather wisdom here. I understand and value high quality shocks- I run Ohlins and 2x JRZs on my other cars. This is my street car, however, so my priorities are:

• Low maintenance- ~50k mile rebuild frequency.


• Roughly stock ride height is required- significant lowering is not an option.


• Stock or near stock springs rates are good- I'm not trying to stiffen the car up.


• No adjustment is prefered as long as the valving is correct. I autocross the car and if the valving is off I will pull what's left of my hair out.

With this in mind I'm looking into options, which seem to include:

• OEM replacements (I don't think OEM is rebuildable?).


• Bilstein HD or Sport (or mix and match). I know bilstein quality and valving is good, my main concern is that they are valved for the M3 rather than the 1M- probably not a good thing.


• Ohlins Road and Track- adjustments, valved for stiffer springs, and 20mm lower than stock all count against these. The step up in quality from the bilsteins is a plus.


• KW V1 skips the adjustments but is again valved for the M3, stiffer springs and lower ride height.

Am I missing anything? My ideal doesn't seem to exist- Bilsteins, KW or Ohlins, custom valved perhaps slightly stiffer than stock to work with stock or near stock springs on the 1M. Anyone heard of such a thing, or know of something that could be modified to be a suitable substitute?



Gathering knowledge here before I dig in...