Coilover set up guide

[bugracer]

I have a set of K-Tec's Gaz Gold Coilovers

They seem to be performing pretty well, however I think that thorough a bit of tinkering I could get better handling on the track.

They came with no instructions and KTec said they have nothing. Which was rather poor considering they are adjustable and not the cheepest on the market.

Must admit at this stage I am a bit of a novice on suspension set up. Does anyone have any advice or any guides on how to set up appropriately for differing conditions.

cheers

 

[ForceIndia]

You fitted them and did the original setup?

 

[bugracer]

- KTec fitted them

- Mark Fish then did it properly ( Camber, alignment etc ) Great job !

- But just want to play around with the setting to get the most out of them. It could be that they are perfect the way I have been using them, but really I'm keen to know the theory behind suspension set up,

- I soften them to get to the track, but want to know what is the best set up on track how much to stiffen up in certain conditions, may play around with the height adjustment etc.

 

[172Ben]

If mark has touched it, i would probably leave it.

He is epic!

 

[Cooksport]

Thats a very difficult question to answer.

Dry

Front

(FWD only) A competent driver will have the rear suspension full stiff (one click off full hard, so that the dampers are not locked causing them to f**k the seals).

Rear

The front how ever will need to be midway on the damper settings (ish). Obviously this all changes with tyres, spring rates, camber etc.

Wet

Front

Soften the fronts a couple of clicks (depending how course or fine the clicks are) e.g. with our AST (12 click range) when it rains we change from perhaps 4 clicks off hard, to 6 clicks off hard.

Rear

From dry to wet we change the rears from full hard to 4 clicks off hard. (12 click range).

Obviously everything above is driver preference. What tyres are you using and have you done many track days before?

 

[Cooksport]

Leave the height adjustment IMO.

 

[Beef-Mc]

Everyone has personal preferences when it comes to coilover setup so I hear.

 

[stuart1989]

Glad this thread came up, means i dont have to make one with a same-ish question, ill be getting 15's fitted this week so im guessing ill have to lower my coilovers down abit so they fill the arches, is it just a matter of using the spanners and putting them down the same amount of turns on each till it sits right or alot more complicated than that?


Sorry for the thread rape btw

 

[Kneel]

maybe give BTM a ring to ask about setting up? He managed to hold off 172s in a 1.2 so he must have a good idea of set up. or try http://www.readyforthetrack.co.uk/

 

[ForceIndia]

I tend to use the setup fred suggested, pretty much as hard as possible on the rear, softer on the front.

(and before a certain someone gets his knickers in a twist, give a f**k that you don't like the use of hard and soft terminology. Gets the point across. )

 

[bugracer]

Thanks all for your inputs.

As suggested I will leave the height exactly how Mark set up, just play around with the stiffness settings.

Cheers

 

[st3ve]

Adjusting the height only throws everything out of line anyway so you'd be silly to keep fiddling with that unless of course you can get mates rates on a full setup.

I've got mine at full stiff atm, I might adjust them as proposed by cookie-jnr tomorrow and see how it feels.