Clio Trophy #205
When one of my Sachs failed recently I was in a real dilemma over what to do. To have them refurbished is the best part of £500 just for the front two shocks and there’s no real warranty on the repair. Combine that with the horror stories of people having them refurbished just for them to either not be as good or fail a few weeks down the line seemed a bit of a risk. All things considered I honestly didn’t think that sort of money was justified on an 8 year old set of shocks. I’m sure a lot of you will disagree with me here but I decided my best course of action would be to replace them.
I knew that coilovers would be the best option as to an extent I could retain the level of performance of the Sachs and add into the mix ride height, damping and rebound adjustability with the aim of corner weighting the car.
Having previously owned an EK9 Civic Type R to which I fitted BC Racing coilovers, I decided that after finding out they offered a kit for the clio they would be the Sachs replacements. Whilst I had them on my Civic I was extremely impressed with their performance so it seemed a logical move.
I spoke to an old friend of mine Adam at 6two1.com and ordered the BC’s. Considering he usually deals solely with Honda’s the service was spot on! The following week they turned up and I set about fitting them, getting the ride height and damping adjusted to my liking. I use my car every day for work, so super low and super hard wasn’t an option for me. In fact the shocks are currently set to their softest setting all round but turn the dials the 30 clicks onto hard and the car is rock solid. Once fitted I headed to the Wheel Alignment Centre in Southampton to have the geometry taken car of.
Now all that was left to do was drive the car and figure out if I’d made the right choice. It’s been nearly a month since they went on and I deliberately left it this long before I posted because I wanted to have actually driven the car a bit to give an honest opinion on them. The only type of driving I haven’t done with the car since fitting them is on track but in all fairness I never had the car on track with the Sachs either so it’s not really something I could have compared it with.
So far I’m really impressed with them, the car drives just as well as it did on the Sachs when being pushed. I’m fortunate enough to live within a short drive of some superb B roads and these have been my main proving grounds for the BC’s. I’m certain on track you could push them even further and they’d happily take the abuse. Around town the car is far better than before, with them set to fully soft for day to day driving its way more comfortable and compliant than the Sachs were, find yourself in a situation where you push the car that bit further however and they come alive which I find very similar to the performance of the Sachs. The ease of adjustability is fantastic too with the dials for the damping on top of each strut it’s fair easier to fine tune them then the Sachs after they’ve been unpinned.
Now I’m well aware that BC’s aren’t a popular option for Clio owners but I’m really struggling to see why? They sit in the same price bracket as most other fixed damping coilover kits for the 182 cup chassis and offer far more adjustability for the money!
Anyway that’s my cool story and I’m sure some of you will think I’m an idiot for not repairing the Sachs but that’s just something I’ll have to live with.
I knew that coilovers would be the best option as to an extent I could retain the level of performance of the Sachs and add into the mix ride height, damping and rebound adjustability with the aim of corner weighting the car.
Having previously owned an EK9 Civic Type R to which I fitted BC Racing coilovers, I decided that after finding out they offered a kit for the clio they would be the Sachs replacements. Whilst I had them on my Civic I was extremely impressed with their performance so it seemed a logical move.
I spoke to an old friend of mine Adam at 6two1.com and ordered the BC’s. Considering he usually deals solely with Honda’s the service was spot on! The following week they turned up and I set about fitting them, getting the ride height and damping adjusted to my liking. I use my car every day for work, so super low and super hard wasn’t an option for me. In fact the shocks are currently set to their softest setting all round but turn the dials the 30 clicks onto hard and the car is rock solid. Once fitted I headed to the Wheel Alignment Centre in Southampton to have the geometry taken car of.
Now all that was left to do was drive the car and figure out if I’d made the right choice. It’s been nearly a month since they went on and I deliberately left it this long before I posted because I wanted to have actually driven the car a bit to give an honest opinion on them. The only type of driving I haven’t done with the car since fitting them is on track but in all fairness I never had the car on track with the Sachs either so it’s not really something I could have compared it with.
So far I’m really impressed with them, the car drives just as well as it did on the Sachs when being pushed. I’m fortunate enough to live within a short drive of some superb B roads and these have been my main proving grounds for the BC’s. I’m certain on track you could push them even further and they’d happily take the abuse. Around town the car is far better than before, with them set to fully soft for day to day driving its way more comfortable and compliant than the Sachs were, find yourself in a situation where you push the car that bit further however and they come alive which I find very similar to the performance of the Sachs. The ease of adjustability is fantastic too with the dials for the damping on top of each strut it’s fair easier to fine tune them then the Sachs after they’ve been unpinned.
Now I’m well aware that BC’s aren’t a popular option for Clio owners but I’m really struggling to see why? They sit in the same price bracket as most other fixed damping coilover kits for the 182 cup chassis and offer far more adjustability for the money!
Anyway that’s my cool story and I’m sure some of you will think I’m an idiot for not repairing the Sachs but that’s just something I’ll have to live with.
