Gaz Gold Setup

[veloce172]

Hi all,

I'm in Australia and recently fitted some Gaz Golds with 800lb fronts/450lb rear springs.

Is there anyone on here who has the same coilovers, and if so how have you set them up in regards to ride height and damping?

I found that the car was quite neutral with great turn in, but it was very crashy the whole day.

I know it's hard to generalise suspension setups, but any advice would be useful.

Should also add that it's a stripped out 172 with a half cage, Yoko AD08s (will be buying r-specs soon).

Took the setup out on track yesterday for the first time, and although the grip and turn in was awesome, I found them excessively crashy, especially in the rear. I played around with the adjustment knobs

I know it's hard to generalise, but is there anyone on here who run these, and if so what is your ride height and damping level?

Thanks,

Luke

 

[veloce172]

That last post was shambolic. I thought I deleted the first bit but obviously not, so ended up saying the same thing twice.

But yeah if anyone has any info that would be great. Upon reflection I think the rear springs were too stiff for my damping levels, so will increase the adjuster knob next time.

Cheers,

Luke

 

[Digger90]

800lbs front? Holy Moly that must be stiff like crazy.

I am running 550lbs front, 400lbs rear on my Gas Golds. I tried 650lbs front and the car wouldn't turn in well at all. A race instructor who drove with me commented how poorly the car drove... just wanted to continue in a straight line rather than turn in. Lowering to 550lbs made a noticeable difference. Much better.

 

[Sonic Boom]

I run Gaz Golds on my Ph1, currently with 500lb front springs and 650lb rears.
800lb front on Gaz Golds is the top end of what they'l damp to so they adjuster knob if using that poundage needs to be at it's highest setting otherwise the damper wont damp and it'll just bounce on the springs.

On a Clio IMHO you want to run higher poundage springs at the rear than you do at the front this will in turn reduce understeer and promote turn in, in an ideal world we'd run not so heavy front poundage springs and run big diameter front ARB's and then dial the rear with super heavy duty rear ARB's but this requires custom made stuff as it's not readily available for a Clio and it's just much easier to tune with spring rates.

So to the OP I'd personally come down on the fronts to say 600lb and raise the rears to 600lb too, the front's will probably still be in valve range but the rears will probably need a revalve (very cheap from Gaz to do, costs about £25 a corner)
After that it's just a case of testing to see how the car behaves and what suits your style of driving but I'd still sway towards bigger spring rates in the rear.

Digger90 is case in point as he reduced the front spring poundage which reduced understeer and turned in better, doing it that way will increase front roll but depending on arb settings, tyre compounds and transmission spec it may have been negligible.

This season I've moved to AST5100's in the rear as 650/700lb is the max you can run a Gaz Gold rear dampers too and I wanted to increase the fronts to 650lb to reduce some roll, so in turn I've up'd the rears to 800lb on the AST's to keep the balance, personally this setup is great for me I love the way it handles but I do have quite a high spec hill climb car so there are plenty of other supporting modifications.

Rich

 

[veloce172]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yep looks like my front spring rates are a bit excessive. The car has changed drastically over the past couple of months, so I'm going to take it out on a few more track days before I throw more money at parts... but yeah looks like softer springs will be required in the near future.

Cheers

Luke