Holy poop, sorry for the late response, I didn't notice the posts in here
Yeah, the hooks are for adjusting spring pre-load in front while it's on the car, and also to loosen the height collar if you are going to take it off the car to adjust it. It's a PITA to loosen those when it's off the car.
And yes, the set was $1200. I got it from CorSport (
http://www.corsportusa.com) but they don't have them listed any more. I'd suggest calling and talking to Remy or Tai to see if they can still get them from B&G.