What coilovers for track use?

[Midnight]

Been searching all week and I'm no more closer to determining a set. Looking to purchase some in the bear future...

Firstly Fred mentioned that the Bilstein are a 'nice' kit (performance per £) so I have been looking at them, but a lot of sites/ reviews mention they are a little on the 'soft' side for a 'focused' *track car.

Mick mentioned and we spoke about the BC range which he is currently running on his own clio. Not many reviews about this but I still have a hesitation regarding the whole BC brand as they are considered an extremely cheap bit of kit for other cars. ( Similar price to Bilstein in the Clio though ).


Both the above mention the PMS top mount and brace kit so this is a certain!


After todays searching I like the look of the:

Spax RS RSX kit, roughly £200 more than the ones above but it actually has the rear coilover unit instead of the spring and platform unit. In theory this alone should be better and I also like the fact like the BC has adjustable rebound etc.

Gaz Gold kit, again around £900 but what I really like about this kit is has adjustable rebound via strut control so would be very easy to swap on certain tracks. I'm not entirely sure if I'd use them to the potential but I do like the idea. If a little gimmicky.


I'm currently using Raceland coilovers which was on the car when purchased. TCR did the best they could to set them to maximum potential for Oulton and I must admit did handle pretty damn well. So a spanner in the works is do I go extremely cheap Raceland / Vmaxx and just replace them in 2 years time as let's be honest most the dearer kits will need some sort of rebuild in that time scale...


So I guess my two questions are:

Do I look to spend £900 on a premium brand with the gimmicks and which one?

Do I spend ~£700 on a Bilstein type coilover and just be happy with them?

Do I spend ~£300 on a much cheaper coilover and just be prepared to replace in 2 years time? Like I say the current Raceland did pretty well at Oulton and much firmer than my previous Bilsteins on another car. Problem is they have no adjustment on the rebound or anything other than height for that matter?


Any suggestions or information would be appreciated!

 

[sbridgey]

Just a note about BC coilovers, I have them on my mx5 and think they are brilliant, far better than the racelands I had on a clio years ago.

 

[Midnight]

Just a note about BC coilovers, I have them on my mx5 and think they are brilliant, far better than the racelands I had on a clio years ago.

A few of the people I spoke to who had the garage next to me at Oulton were saying they had/going with BC. However I've heard and read so many bad things about them. This was on a totally different type of car though.

I do like the idea of the BC and them being adjustable really is ideal. I just don't want to spend £700+ and be needing a rebuild/replacement withinn 12 months. Don't mind if they're £200 as I guess you have to allow for that but £700+ starts to become serious type of money for the Clio.

 

[Chi]

BCs are highly rated in the scooby scene. Micks deal is amazing its basically free fitting imo. . I have gaz on my ph1 and love them.. They are simple to adjust the damping and were amazing at Oulton Park.. I might have a used set of VMax which are on my turbo..

 

[imprezaworks]

As chi says the bc's are highly rated.

 

[-J-]

Have a search on here for the Spax reviews (the later ones, not the initial OMG reviews) fair few people have found them not to be great.

GAZ don't ever seem to have been rated highly on here.

Personally, I replaced my KW's with a set of B14's

 

[NorthloopCup]

Track use only? Ast sportline 1 or 2's.

 

[Midnight]

BCs are highly rated in the scooby scene. Micks deal is amazing its basically free fitting imo. . I have gaz on my ph1 and love them.. They are simple to adjust the damping and were amazing at Oulton Park.. I might have a used set of VMax which are on my turbo..

You say that but on my previous V7 they knocked after 8 months. BC didn't want to know either...

For the Evo there is also a 50/50 split good vs bad opinions.

I know Mick would help if that was to happen on the Clio though.

 

[Midnight]

Have a search on here for the Spax reviews (the later ones, not the initial OMG reviews) fair few people have found them not to be great.

GAZ don't ever seem to have been rated highly on here.

Personally, I replaced my KW's with a set of B14's

I am going off the idea of the Bilsteins, personal experience they was OK, maybe set up incorrectly but felt soft for 'fast' road let alone track use. After my search spax also have good and the odd bad review but not much on the rear 'coilover' unit mainly the basic RSX kits.

Track use only? Ast sportline 1 or 2's.

This is another option but IMO seem to pay a lot for the brand over alternatives. Not had any experience with AST however this they are around £300 more than the spax which has the rear coilover unit. However I will look into this.

 

[Chi]

What about H&Rs?

 

[-J-]

Look at KW V2's damping adjustable so can fiddle with your set up. Mine have been great, just tired after 5 years use and I can't warrant the cost of a new set for the use my car gets.

 

[Midnight]

I have a set of H&R's sitting in the garage which need a refurb however can't find anyone to do it. This makes me extremely reluctant to spend £900+ on a set which I'm finding near impossible to 'service'.

Read a lot of reviews about the KW 1 being 'soft' can't find many reviews for the KW 2's though. I'll also look into these.

As you can see I'm just lost lol.

I've had BC , Bilstein, Raceland, FK, VMaxx, Tein, D2 & Ohlins and a few more in the past and can't say any of them scream out to have them for the Clio.

 

[Chi]

cornering force? ?

 

[Midnight]

Spoke with them, they wasn't sure if they could do H&R.

Spoke with H&R direct along with other specialists. I think they are good for scrap in all honest Chi. Luckily they cost me nothing but not sure it'd be wise to buy brand new knowing in a year or two if something does go wrong I'd be in trouble.

 

[sbridgey]

I know BC coilovers can easily be refurbished, Mick was telling me about them ages ago.

If you haven't tried AST maybe they are what you need? maybe get a passenger ride in an AST equipped car?

 

[Midnight]

I spoke with Mick about it, I think it works out cheaper to buy a new unit rather than have them 'serviced' this wouldn't be a problem if it was 24 months down the line as I would expect this.

Problems I have personally had was knocking however speaking with Mick I don't think the same could occur on a Clio. But then you do read stories about them leaking pretty often and pretty new.

BC is still an option though...

Yes I think I need a few passenger rides out to deter in which would be best suited.

 

[NorthloopCup]

£980 delivered for sportline 1's. I'm on sportline 2's

 

[Midnight]

Just been reading about the AST's

It says the 1's are adjustable, is this on car adjustable or not? Is it a small knob like the GAZ ones?

From my quick search the 2's are around £1500 which at the moment I couldn't commit too. You are clearly more fortunate than me buddy as I can only dream about the AST 2's lol.

 

[NorthloopCup]

Just been reading about the AST's

It says the 1's are adjustable, is this on car adjustable or not? Is it a small knob like the GAZ ones?

From my quick search the 2's are around £1500 which at the moment I couldn't commit too. You are clearly more fortunate than me buddy as I can only dream about the AST 2's lol.

Yes mate they're on car adjustable. Fronts are top adjustable and the rears have a collar at the bottom of the shaft. I can get the 2's at half right money as well.

 

[sprintcup]

I run Bilstein B14's and would say if track only car then possibly to soft, depends how you drive, I had mine set up to low initially but find they work fine for a car driven to events and have been on the car 2 years with no problems, and the geo correctly set up.
I'd say AST 1's or 2's as these are what I may try next, competed with a lad who ran AST1's and drove to events, I hope you value your fillings and back, will be competing against a lad running BC coil overs this year and will be keen to see how they perform.

Regards Russ........

 

[Midnight]

Yes Russ, I'll certainly update when I know which route to go down.

I'm going to see if MicKPM would mind if I have a passenger ride in his BC equipped car.

 

[MicKPM]

I've no problems with that. It won't be back until August though I suspect. I'm away in the US for pretty much all of April then it needs a rear beam and some other bits before I'm booking anymore days out

 

[Mr R.]

My car should be having a set of BC's

 

[MicKPM]

My car should be having a set of BC's

Drop me an email when you're ready and I'll get em ordered

 

[Mr R.]

Drop me an email when you're ready and I'll get em ordered

I am ready and have message you.

Am waiting for you.

Did state this in my pm mate.

 

[Midnight]

Been reading a lot about these into the early hours this morning.

I think more track focused springs and I could be onto a winner with these. I'm sure they have front and rear adjustable 'rebound' which I think will be ideal.

 

[Mr R.]

Been reading a lot about these into the early hours this morning.

I think more track focused springs and I could be onto a winner with these. I'm sure they have front and rear adjustable 'rebound' which I think will be ideal.

Yes they do and you can order different springs for track use.

 

[-D4N-]

Wouldn't you need to have the coilovers revalved for the stiffer springs?

 

[Fletcher]

My H&R's are going to replaced with some AST 2's next.

 

[Ph1 Tom]

Have you considered Avo? They do a kit which is monotube front and twin tube rear, all height and damping adjustable.

 

[underdog]

i use bc coilovers on my focus and rate them very well. dont just think adjustable shocks are gimmicky though. they play a bit part in tweaking the handling of the car.

 

[Cub.]

I'm on Bilsteins. Been faultless for me and the perfect blend of on track ability vs road suitability.

I have heard good things about the BCs though.

 

[rdoxenham]

I used GAZ on track, the GHA ones though... whilst I had great fun, the spring rates were nowhere near enough for proper abuse.

 

[NorthloopCup]

i use bc coilovers on my focus and rate them very well. dont just think adjustable shocks are gimmicky though. they play a bit part in tweaking the handling of the car.

It's also important to remember your pissing in the wind if you don't have your car corner weighted once you fit coilovers. Same can be said for the roll centres. If they're miles out the damper and roll bars are immediately working significantly harder than they should be.