Coilover Options

[RMDavis]

Afternoon chaps!

I know this has been covered on other threads, and I have been using the search function which has answered many of questions. Now I just want some advice, and people opinions!

Here's where I'm at. I want change the suspension setup on my Trophy which currently is:-

Front: Trophy Sachs shock absorbers

Rear: Bilstein shock absorbers (the original Sachs had shat themselves apparently, and that's how I bought the car)

Springs: Eibach sportline's

Now before you all ask me what on earth am I doing getting rid of the Sachs. I'm not! I will keep them of course, I just want another setup which offers more adjustability both in ride height and possibly dampening.

Because the arch gap with the 15" 2118's on a completely superficial view looks awful!

The Bilstein B14's seem to have pretty decent reviews, and the Spax RSX are also popular. Are there any advantages of going with a set of coilovers that don't use the inboard coil spring setup?

The car obviously will be used mainly on road although I intend to hit the track as much as possible this year.

What's everyone's thoughts, and experience's? Are they're other options I've missed out?

Cheers guys,

Rob.

 

[Mash.]

What is budget? I'm presuming around £600 is from the coilovers mentioned above.

For predominantly road use i don't think you can go wrong with b14s probably the most recommended for road, i think Spax market the RSX at a more track usage.

 

[RMDavis]

What is budget? I'm presuming around £600 is from the coilovers mentioned above.

For predominantly road use i don't think you can go wrong with b14s probably the most recommended for road, i think Spax market the RSX at a more track usage.

Yeah £600 upwards bud. I can stretch a little higher, but I doubt I could go as high as the £1000+ the AST's command!

 

[Mash.]

Yeah thats fair enough, i wouldn't spend the money on ASTs if it wasn't going on track a lot/racing, you just wouldn't notice the difference enough to justify the cost.

Yeah i mean the b14s are under that, as you can get them from Germany which is like £500 instead.

 

[RMDavis]

Yeah thats fair enough, i wouldn't spend the money on ASTs if it wasn't going on track a lot/racing, you just wouldn't notice the difference enough to justify the cost.

Yeah i mean the b14s are under that, as you can get them from Germany which is like £500 instead.

Where do most people get the Bilsteins from?
I used to work at Eurocarparts so I might try and see if they will do me a decent price. They also stock the H&R coilovers which are pretty much the same kit.

 

[bloke]

bc's. main reason you can set pre load on them.

 

[RMDavis]

Where did you get your GAZ Gold's from @Mash.

You getting on with them okay?

 

[Steven103]

The outboard spring location makes it much easier for the manufacturer to spec a much stiffer coilover unit. Loads of different spring rates in standard sizes (e.g. from Merlin Motorsport Castle Combe) also give you the chance to change to upgrade/change, whereas that's much harder with inboard as you need Clio-specific springs.

@optical can you link the cheap Bilsteins?

I'm sure you can pop along to a local meet & have a passenger ride in a couple of cars? People have wildly different views on what is too soft/stiff depending on who they are, where they live, how much they use the car, what else they drive, what size/brand tyres they've got etc

Generally you won't go wrong at your budget. General view on Bilstein is brilliant on road, but a little soft for the track day enthusiast ( @Cub. has sold for this reason). People are wary of Gaz due to historic quality issues, but I think they're the cheapest units with adjustable damping & quality seems to have improved? Feedback on Ktec/rokkor/vmaxx is usually harsh ride & poor track performance. I don't think you'll find a bad word said about AST (race & serious track days), KW or BC but that's no surprise for the price. Spax RSX seems to get mixed feedback?



Apologies in advance if I sound like a pedantic t*** :L

Can we stop saying that you can set pre-load on BCs? You can't. Pre-load is corner weight * gravity / motion ratio. Moving a damper body up/down doesn't change the weight of the car or the strength of gravity. If you multiply pre-load by spring rate then you get pre-compression, which may be what some people are thinking of, but again the BC adjustment doesn't change the spring rate.

What you can change on BCs is the ride height independently of damper length. This means that whatever the ride height of the car is set to, the damper is always working at it's designed length and can extend/compress to it's full travel. Running a damper not at design length can compromise ride quality, tyre contact patch management (grip), damping force in extreme temperatures, noise, life of the internal components & the loads/forces seen by other components (vehicle body, topmount bearing/bush etc). Of course that's not to say conventional coilovers (adjusted by the spring collar) don't work at different ride heights, just that small compromises may have been made to facilitate a large range of adjustment. Whereas the BCs can be used with a vast range of springs & ride heights whilst always keeping the actual damper slap bang in the centre of it's operating window.

 

[Steven103]

If you divide pre-load by spring rate then you get pre-compression

EFA

 

[Fletcher]

Where did you get your GAZ Gold's from @Mash.

You getting on with them okay?

IIRC Mash ended up with a set of AST's instead.

For you budget I would probably go for the Blisteins. .I have H&R's fitted (basically the same as Blisteins) and they have been greet for the past 8 years. The only downside is they are a little soft for track work, but are brilliant on the road.

 

[DCELEC 182]

I run BC's, but my car is solely a track car so have done minimal road use since fitting them last June......BUT I think they'd be genuinely awesome on a road/daily car as when they're set to fully soft or a few clicks up they are so compliant on the road I've really impressed with the miles I've done driving to and from tracks etc.
Actually they're far too soft for my hard track use with the standard spring rates so would rate them higher for the road than anything else! Very well made and I really like the design on the front shocks with a 3rd collar and fully threaded shaft for height adjustment. I'd go for them over the bilsteins for the damping adjustment they offer to be honest, as when wound round to fully hard they are plenty good enough for your average track dayer on road tyres bit you can soften them off for road use.

 

[Mash.]

Haha, yep i took the dive and bought ASTs (second hand albeit)

I have really good contacts with GAZ, Golds for £750, GHAs £500 - delivered to your door.
If you are interested give me a PM