“Fahrspass”, a German expression meaning “Driving Fun”. And driving fun is what we all should experience when we get into our precious Austin Healeys for a spin around the city, along winding backcountry roads, or a cruise along the coast.

As a car enthusiast in general, an Austin Healey lover and owner by fascination, and as a Ride Engineer with Thyssen Krupp Bilstein of America, I know from experience how a safe and comfortable ride in a car should feel. Because of my technical know-how, ability to build a shock absorber specially tuned for the Austin Healey, and concern for my own safety, I felt it was time to improve on the soft, mushy, and under-controlled original Healey suspension.

The Armstrong lever shock absorber, used on the Austin Healey and many other cars of the 50’s and 60’s, are not as effective in controlling the wheels and axels to today’s expectations. Therefore, I developed a modern, sophisticated, and highly technical BILSTEIN mono tube shock conversion.

First, I built and installed a conversion kit on my own 1961 BT 7. The improvement was incredible and the handling of the car was almost comparable to a brand new vehicle. The wheels are better controlled under acceleration, cornering, and driving on rough roads without loosing any driving comfort. Impacts from rough roads are not transferred through the body structure anymore. That means fewer rattles and squeaks.


Friends, fellow San Diego Austin Healey Club members, and other Austin Healey owners, drove my car and their reactions were all the same: “The improvements in ride performance are great”.
I developed a kit for the Austin Healey 100-4, 106, and 3000 models. In addition, a slightly different one for the BJ8 phase 2 model. Both kits are bolt-on applications, which do not require any frame modifications (i.e. no drilling or welding). If desired, the car can be reconverted to the original Austin Healey shocks at any time.
More than one five hundred Austin Healey owners (and still counting) around the world have already converted their cars with the BILSTEIN conversion kit from Putzke’s FAHRSPASS and are completely satisfied with the results. But don’t take my word for it, contact one of our ‘Happy Customers’ and let them convince you.

Drive your Healey daily!