Shock absorbers KONI or GABRIEL

Fresh suspension, Koni shocks and H&R Springs. New front and rear shock mounts

My recommendation for street is Koni Yellows with the FM springs.

Koni Special Actives are an excellent choice for your objectives.

Have a look at some Koni sports they keep the car handling well and can lower it to close that gap up a bit and take off the blue tint.

I\u2019d personally recommend some Koni yellows off FM.

Family member has a f30 with b8s and I've had countless cars on stiff coilovers. I ended up doing koni orange (str.t) and Hr springs. Feels like a click above fresh factory suspension. Tight and responsive but never jarring. Iirc koni yellows on a lower setting can achieve the same feeling.

I have the entry level E46 Ground Control setup that includes Koni shocks. It's a vastly superior ride to the bilstein PSS kit I had before this but the kit is not perfect

I swapped them into my 2018 performance and the difference was extremely subtle.

I've been using Koni Orange's for nearly as long as I've had my FiST and I like them, but I don't think they are the best option if you plan to track or autox (Koni Yellows would be a better fit for that). I like them because they are more comfortable with the oem springs than the oem shocks.

I think it really depends what you pair them with though. I did try them with eibach springs but I didn't like them there (I found out later because eibachs are softer springs and seem to pair better with bilsteins B8s) . The oranges are intended for oem springs, however I've heard of others liking them lowered with swift springs (which are stiffer than the eibachs)...but I don't have personal experience with the swifts.

I went back to OEM after Koni Yellows with Eibach springs on both. The freeways in SoCal were too rough and it felt like I was crashing constantly