Track Suspension

[Mista Weava 0]

My friend and i will shortly be converting his 205 1.6 gti into a track specific car.

 

the bilsteins (non-adj) that he has on there, are items i gave him a while ago and that had been on a car of mine for many years. consequently they are pretty knackered.

 

we want to change the suspension for new.

 

we are keen to find out what other people are using and what ride heights they recommend for a track car.

 

my initial inclination was something like konis all round and a drop of 30-40mm (2 splines on the the torsion beam), with uprated springs - eibach or similar.

 

we poly bushed the car at the time of the previous suspension change, so that is all in hand.

 

can people please comments on the above and provide recommendations for the overall set-up.

 

obviously we dont want to spend a fortune, so 400 quid on a set of shocks is the budget, coming in under that would be nice.

 

we intend to strip for lightness and also we have a good stock of 1.6 14" OE speedlines, which we wish to continue with.

 

 

Thanks

Edited September 22, 2007 by Mista Weava

[Longfield 0]

Hi there, i don't think you'll find a bad word about the billies on the rear - on ebay xsport sell a pair for approx. £180. As a starting point these are probably the best value for money. For the front and on a budget, I'm using Spax RSX that as a damper I have no complaints about at all. The spring rate is 285lb which i personally think is too soft for a track only car. The thing i've recently learned about dampers and have been told by manufacturers and those who build the cars is that with dampers it really is true that you get what you pay for. So whilst [if you use the billies on the rear] you will have approx. £200 to spend on the front then any manufacturer whether it be Gaz, Spax, Koni etc... you'll only get a basic [but reasonable] shock. As for TB's my own are currently down 2 splines but as a track only car i've been told it'd be beneficial to lower it just a little bit more. But i've also read and been told that for a track only car you'll never truely benefit from any suspension work if you don't put a quality cage in that mounts to the suspension points. I hope this helps, in my rambling way!

[Mista Weava 0]

Longfield.

thank you, that is very helpful indeed.

i would be keen therefore to find out what front spring rates people find preferable for a track only car and i think i will act on your info and lower the car 3 splines [as a youth i had this in a road car, so i know its not too much for the track].

 

i think a cage will be a given in the car, bearing in mind its intended use.

[mmt 15]

Longfield,

 

You say You think 285 lbs is far too soft for a trackcar only. Do you have any thoughts on how hard the springs preferrebly should be?

 

Sorry for hijacking !

 

Cheers

Martin

[Mista Weava 0]

MMT - no-hijack there mate, i want to know this as well!

[Baz 421]

Do a search, spring rates for tarmac/circuit etc have been covered before, there's a lot of depending factors, ie. what tyes you use, what rear setup you're considering, ARB's etc etc

[Mista Weava 0]

the tyres will be 14" ex-road tyres i should think.

 

possibily some competition items - maxsport or similar cheapies.

 

the idea is to do what is necessary on a sensible budget.

 

thus i think probably some koni adj's at the front will be the order of the day, although if the spax rsx coilover can be had for a reasonable cost, they may be the ones to have.

 

the car has upper and lower strut braces at the front already.

[Baz 421]

I'd stick with the Koni's rather than Spax coilovers tbh, but ditch the ever-so-hard rears in favour of some Billies.

[Mista Weava 0]

perfect advice, thanks.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

The Billies front and back are great for a non adjustale damper, The Koni's are good but not quite there but cheaper at about £105.00 per front strut (Billies £150.00) same goes for the rear, Koni's are around the £70.00 each (Billes again £90.00 each)

The Eibach's are the only std dia spring to use at around a 30mm drop so the £400.00 budget is a hard one to come close to using those parts

Might be worth looking at getting the current ones rebuilt, as this will give you some spare cash (Hopefully) to get a uprated rear anti roll bar which makes the world of differance.

But suspension is a personal thing, What some people like other don't so it's always hard to recomend something without trying it first

[Mista Weava 0]

thanks Miles.

 

incidentlly, i believe you are building an MI16 engine for my good friend Daniel Morgan.

 

i had not considered the rebuild of the bilsteins - where and who doe this service?

 

 

also, where can you get the uprated rear ARB?

 

many thanks.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

The rear ARb can be bought from 205 Parts, Have a seach for them on Google and you'll find them

[Longfield 0]

MMT - no-hijack there mate, i want to know this as well!

 

If it helps I'm ordering 350lb for the front.

[nick 3]

Just for reference, martin (crf450) uses 500lb springs on his 306 track car (fully stripped, 1000kg) and was thinking about going harder.

 

That handles very well indeed, and suprisingly it's not too bad on the road. He uses AVO monotube coilover dampers on the front which I think makes a lot of difference (the quality of the damping that is)

 

Nick

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

my current budgetish spec is:

 

koni adjustable fronts £200

eibach springs £90

bilstein group n tarmac rears £100 (2nd hand)

whiteline adjustable rear arb £120

 

over your budget i think but this is a really good fast road/trackday setup with plenty of adjustability for my liking

Edited October 22, 2007 by oli-pug

[Batfink 201]

my current budgetish spec is:

 

koni adjustable fronts £200

eibach springs £90

bilstein group n tarmac rears £100 (2nd hand)

whiteline adjustable rear arb £120

 

over your budget i think but this is a really good fast road/trackday setup with plenty of adjustability for my liking

I think for track use your choice of spring is way too soft . the eibach springs are really designed for road use