Skip Brown Suspension, Advice Needed

[tomcolinjones 26]

Hello all.

I've recently purchased a pair of skip brown front dampers, complete with springs. I have a couple of questions regarding them.

how will I know if the springs I have are the original SBC roadspeed springs? The ones I have are red, I cant find any manufactures marks or numbers.

what damper would I use on the rear to complement the fronts? And how will these shocks perform with a alloy tu3 engine?

my car is essentially a 205 xs on 1.6 running gear, beam and subframe. The shocks are from a 309 gti skip brown special.

thanks in advance.

[dcc 855]

for some reason I think the skip brown suspension setup was matched to a drastically altered rear axle geometry. I think they ran mega toe in, and a bit more camber. There are definitely threads on this as I remember checking some of the info on it going back 5 or 6 years.

[tomcolinjones 26]

as far as I can tell, the front struts are Peugeot. But the original stanchion and seals removed. Then a bilstein insert has been inserted into the tube and bolted in from the bottom. The bilsteins stanchions are very meaty!

geometry wise i don't really know what they did. I think you could buy just the dampers and springs from them as the first kit, then you could add on the geometry changes.

[welshpug 1,655]

They're just revalved Bilstein challenge dampers not modified Peugeot units.

Edited March 29, 2015 by welshpug

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Rear geometry was standard toe and around -1 degree of camber. Unless you fitted the bent pins incorrectly then you could have positive camber, toe out, toe in etc etc

They also widened the rear end by around 20mm.

 

 

I'd say challenge rear billies would be an ok match for the fronts if you're on standard rear bars. Skip brown kits used varying larger rear bars and arbs, Anthonys a good person to ask on this I reckon.

Edited March 29, 2015 by allanallen

[Toddy 7]

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=125288&page=1

 

Anthony's thread should explain all.

[tomcolinjones 26]

could someone tell me if these are skip brown springs?

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

I've got skip brown rear dampers on mine.

That is all!

They are known as 'road speed' and are as mentioned revalved billies for the 205.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Terra where the cheap springs which ECP shipped when they supplied the Bilsteins, Dropped as soon as they opened up there own office

[Anthony 1,002]

 

That's what the Skip Brown springs and dampers look like when (almost) new

[tomcolinjones 26]

is the green paint standard Anthony?

maybe id be better off getting some different springs for my sbc dampers. Some progressive eibachs maybe, or see if I can get the dual rate springs from skip.

[Anthony 1,002]

Yes that lurid green is how they come from SBC - both my sets of 205 ones and my 306 ones are all the same colour.

 

Eibach 7001's work well and are what I ran with my SBC dampers when I had an alloy block engine - they're a bit too low with a boat anchor unfortunately!

[tomcolinjones 26]

so there's a good chance I've been sold a pair of normal black bilsteins? They do have the bolt in the bottom.

[Anthony 1,002]

They're clearly not Bilstein B4's (the black ones) as they're inverted inserts.

 

I'm not sure if early SBC shocks were black - I have had a pair of black body Bilstein's like that that came with a car that had been laid up for best part of a decade, but no idea what they were or where they came from I'm afraid other than presuming that they were very old.

[tomcolinjones 26]

they came off a goodwood , but I would have thought 205 and 309 would be the same part numbers?

[Anthony 1,002]

Are there any markings/numbers stamped into the inserts right at the top (you'll need to remove the top mounts)?

 

The two 205 SBC dampers that I've had were 200/80 and 200/100 rated for the older and newer set respectively. The random unknown black set that I had were unmarked from memory, but they've long since gone so I can't double check.

 

I don't know whether SBC did a different kit for a 309 compared to a 205, or whether the same setup was used on both. I guess you could always phone them and ask the question to see whether yours are SBC dampers or whether they've been mis-sold.