New Type Of Coilovers Just Arrived - Testing Ahead!

[The Boosh!]

My ktr ones are definatly an improvement performance wise. Not sure what these cheapo ones will be like though.

 

[krisbutler02]

My ktr ones are definatly an improvement performance wise. Not sure what these cheapo ones will be like though.

they be the same

ive asked k-tec for a tuv cert but they havent got back to me

 

[Dan R]

Lets face it though, everyone buying these is in it for looks, not performance.

yeh i agree. They just want the slammed look.

 

[jezcharger]

If we were that bothered about build quality, we would'nt buy a Renault would we?

I've bought a set for my 172 cup, it's used several times a year for track days so i thought i'd give them a go, nowt to lose. I'm sure when they are set up right they'll be fine, probally not worth corner weighting it with these though. If I like the coilover experience I may get some more of a "better" brand, if I dont i'll go back to the original shocks and sportlines.

We all trust standard renault shockers and they cost a couple of quid trade each, and you would'nt worry about them falling apart would you?

 

[Dan R]

they be the same

ive asked k-tec for a tuv cert but they havent got back to me

they will just get one from a bloke off ebay for 99p... plus 1.99 p+p

 

[PBCup]

Standard shockers are about £50

 

[Dan R]

If we were that bothered about build quality, we would'nt buy a Renault would we?

I've bought a set for my 172 cup, it's used several times a year for track days so i thought i'd give them a go, nowt to lose. I'm sure when they are set up right they'll be fine, probally not worth corner weighting it with these though. If I like the coilover experience I may get some more of a "better" brand, if I dont i'll go back to the original shocks and sportlines.

We all trust standard renault shockers and they cost a couple of quid trade each, and you would'nt worry about them falling apart would you?

yeh but the reno stuff is ALOT less complex!! The body of the shocks will be very cheap to make on the reno stuff as they are buying MILLIONS of sets and they are a very basic macpherson strut design! The design and shock body will probably be very very similar throughout the whole range of clios. No height adjusment etc either.
So yes they are gonna be cheap to manufacture.

 

[jezcharger]

yeh but the reno stuff is ALOT less complex!! The body of the shocks will be very cheap to make on the reno stuff as they are buying MILLIONS of sets and they are a very basic macpherson strut design! The design and shock body will probably be very very similar throughout the whole range of clios. No height adjusment etc either.
So yes they are gonna be cheap to manufacture.

Yeah I agree that they make a lot of them but they still have a fair mark up. I've got friends in the trade,I needed some more standard top mounts got two for £42, renault wanted £45 each. They were made by KYB and even stamped with the renault badge! Renault can charge what they want for some parts because they've never released the patents for non-genuine manufacturers. Does'nt make them the best quality though

I would prefer some £1100 bilsteins but like someone said, if they were £300 no one would blink an eye...just my opinion

 

[Bondie]

i bought mine not for looks just handeling and im one of two people on this forum which has them fitted and they feel positive and they were set up by cookie who races in saxo stock hatch every year and even he agrees their great for the money.

 

[jezcharger]

i bought mine not for looks just handeling and im one of two people on this forum which has them fitted and they feel positive and they were set up by cookie who races in saxo stock hatch every year and even he agrees their great for the money.

 

[jon_r]

Dan, with all due respect, we are all aware of your stance and opinion on these. Infact so aware you've posted it about 50 times. Now nobody is asking for you to buy a set, people are allowed to make their own decisions and fit them to their own cars at their own risk. Please, for the sake of my sanity, and to prevent me locking the thread, change the record. It's becoming deadly boring.

 

[tandino]

Seems beyond cheap to me!!

Less than a refurb on one trophy damper!

If it was me I'd be questioning more than just the price.

Handling or lack of it, push it a little too much on a round about and be spat off into the nearest tree.

Can't believe people think these could be better than standard. Renault who are probably the best setter upper of FWD cars vs £160 coilovers set up by amatures!!HMMMMM!!

Is the damping actually the same across both fronts and both rears?

Will they break within five minutes? Oh but they have a warranty. Yeah right, try enforcing it!!! Purchased on ebay and from a foreign country.

You can ruin the handling of a trophy with a little twist of the adjuster so how can a £160 coilover be any good?

I'd stick to standard!!!!

If your going to use the arguement about R&D and the fact that Renault have spent millions on chassis development then we might as well all give up on this messing around with cars.
As for being spat off on a roundabout, yeah righto...
Oh and if you want to use the arguement about R&D why did you fit Eibach springs on your very own car?, i mean yes Eibach are known to be good but they do not have the budget of Renault themselves and yet you still fitted them to your car..
We're they also fitted with stock dampers?, how did you make it round the first corner?

 

[Bondie]

PB Cup, Tbh i wouldn't fit them to a throphy any way with sach dampners you would be stupid!!!!

 

[Ben..]

well renault seem happy ebough to charge £17 for a hazard switch


places mark up prices for items people want
simples

 

[krisbutler02]

places mark up prices for items people want
simples

well said that man

 

[_WILL_]

Seriously read what jon has just said and stop bitching at each other, i don't want the thread closing as i wanna here a few other peoples thoughts on them when they are fitted.

I would be cool if we could get someone who is not biased, a specialist or something who has no invested interest in them, see what they say. Drive a couple of cars with different set-ups and review them for us.

 

[Bondie]

Seriously read what jon has just said and stop b**ching at each other, i don't want the thread closing as i wanna here a few other peoples thoughts on them when they are fitted.

I would be cool if we could get someone who is not biased, a specialist or something who has no invested interest in them, see what they say. Drive a couple of cars with different set-ups and review them for us.

This is what me and cookie will be doing the weekend and he has GAZ setup

 

[_WILL_]

This is what me and cookie will be doing the weekend and he has GAZ setup

Cool report back, it will be interesting to get a fair few set-ups together.

 

[PBCup]

If your going to use the arguement about R&D and the fact that Renault have spent millions on chassis development then we might as well all give up on this messing around with cars.
As for being spat off on a roundabout, yeah righto...
Oh and if you want to use the arguement about R&D why did you fit Eibach springs on your very own car?, i mean yes Eibach are known to be good but they do not have the budget of Renault themselves and yet you still fitted them to your car..
We're they also fitted with stock dampers?, how did you make it round the first corner?

Have you thought that the reason I think standard is better is because I have modded in the past?

Prolines bring in more understeer IMO. I was wrong to fit them, but I wont be the last I'm sure.

Plus its a little different fitting springs from a manufacturer that supplys springs as OEM (225 F1 for example) than fitting a coilover kit that costs less than refurbing 1 damper from a trophy.

 

[Dink]

were these cheap aswell?

 

[laz5758]

Couple of questions,

Where can I buy these?
Are they any good?
Reviews?

Laz

 

[Ben..]

were these cheap aswell?

3 group buys worth of people well happy with them though ...allways defective products in any brand

 

[Bondie]

for that to happen surley they wernt fitted properly

 

[Dink]

nope seems like poor design/ quality problems

 

[jon_r]

Just out of interest to this thread, mine are being fitted on Feb 1st by a friend who is a Renault technician - and a bloody good one. We'll also have a 172 Cup there that is fitted with H&R's and setup by Mark Fish.

We are going to mimic the ride heights and have a play around with settings etc. I've driven RS's on Ledas, FK's and H&R's (my favs for comprimised road and track use) so it'll be good to see what the three of us there on the night think.

I will also be doing numerous trackdays this year and will feedback the results to you.

If they are crap, then I will take them off. Simples.

 

[TimR26]

^^ If they're like my Vmaxx (which look the same as Raceland to me) then they'll perform well against other types of coilovers.

 

[MarkCup]

I'm looking forward to hearing your detailed verdict jon_r.

 

[clio carl]

looking forward to reviews ect looking at buying some very soon

 

[minisuper666]

lol @ most things being said about the price... Simply put, if you were to manufacture the exact same parts in the UK, the price would skyrocket simply because of the cost of labour and exchange rates. What's the wage for skilled labour in the UK right now??? And everyone would be thinking how at 600 quid (or whatever price) they are a great alternative to blisteins or whatnot.

Now, about the materials, most stuff supposedly "made" in X country is put together from stuff bought from chinese suppliers. A chinese product can have the exact same quality as a product manufactured anywhere else in the world. QC is about statistics anyway, so a bad lot gets rejected in china just the same as it gets rejected in germany.

So... why do you think that the governments set up huge tariffs from goods imported from foreign countries?? simply put, it is not possible for the importing country to produce the same good (same materials, same quality) for anywhere near the same price.

And geting an iso certification for a manufacturing facility is no easy task either, or complying with the tuv regulations.

 

[Tony Hunter]

This was my point a couple of pages back.Somebody has decided to buck the trend and cut down on the mark up on these.
If they were £500-£600 everybody would say,great.

 

[tandino]

Just out of interest to this thread, mine are being fitted on Feb 1st by a friend who is a Renault technician - and a bloody good one. We'll also have a 172 Cup there that is fitted with H&R's and setup by Mark Fish.

We are going to mimic the ride heights and have a play around with settings etc. I've driven RS's on Ledas, FK's and H&R's (my favs for comprimised road and track use) so it'll be good to see what the three of us there on the night think.

I will also be doing numerous trackdays this year and will feedback the results to you.

If they are crap, then I will take them off. Simples.

Jon

Your more than welcome to come and drive mine,
Im not a million miles away from you down in East Sussex.
I for one will be interested in your opinion and i am usually the first to agree that cheap = rubbish but with these i simply dont beleive that to be the case.
As has been said raceland have been supplying VW's for years, im behind the scene's on one of the biggest VW forums in the UK if not the world and ive not heard a bad word said about their products.

Cheers Pete.

 

[Mike_182]

I do believe it was these guys who did this:

To my Smart. Fantastic ride quality given that it had about a centimeter of travel, went round corners like it was on rails - point, shoot.

 

[Clart]

So you'll happily put £200 coilovers on a car but not budget tyres?

 

[Mike_182]

So you'll happily put £200 coilovers on a car but not budget tyres?

£200, TUV approved shocks and springs. And FYI:

TUV is a German acronym for Technischer Überwachungs-Verein. TUV are German organizations that work to validate the safety of products of all kinds to protect humans and the environment against hazards. Automotive components must be approved by TUV in order to be sold and installed on road going vehicles in Germany. The requirements for TUV approval are very stringent.

TUV is one of, if not THE hardest type approval to attain for automotive parts and accessories. If it gets this approval, then chances are it's quite adequate...

 

[ForceIndia]

Wouldn't a cheap road tyre that's available in Germany have TUV approval?

 

[Mike_182]

Wouldn't a cheap road tyre that's available in Germany have TUV approval?

If you can find me a place in Germany that sells tyres that a man made in his barn in Yorkshire, then I'll eat one for my dinner tonight.

How's that?

 

[PBCup]

£200, TUV approved shocks and springs. And FYI:



TUV is one of, if not THE hardest type approval to attain for automotive parts and accessories. If it gets this approval, then chances are it's quite adequate...

To my mind that only means that certain bits won't snap!

Has nothing to do with whether the springs and damping are suitable for the car!

 

[Mike_182]

To my mind that only means that certain bits won't snap!

Has nothing to do with whether the springs and damping are suitable for the car!

So, it means that they're not unsafe through design flaw. If they handle like a bag of spanners, that's for me to work out. As per the OP. So I've spent £200 to work out if some perfectly safe components suit the car and more importantly the way I drive.

Care to tell me where that compares to tyres made in a barn with no type approval, thus allowing them to be completely and utterly unsafe through poor design and manufacture?

 

[Will.]

Still LOL'ing at the jealousy of some people. If you dont want to buy them, dont f**king buy them. Why are you arguing about it?

Second thoughts, keep going, its entertaining....

Resume

 

[ForceIndia]

End of the day, handling's a very subjective thing. I didn't like the AST set-up, but I'm in the minority. I'm sure there are people out there that don't get on with H&R/KW etc.

They may have stumbled across a good set-up with these.