29-11-2012, 08:21 PM
I've had everything on my 306's bar full on Fox-spec epic stuff, and my correct opinion is thus:
Lowering springs and dampers: Good if you never want to change stance of the car and you're happy with the way they ride. Can be a bit hit and miss though, one man's chalk is another man's cheese. Only real adjustability is by changing full spring or damper setups. And you'll forever look at the car thinking "I wish the front was +/- xmm".
eBay coilovers: Great value for money. Build quality is questionable and they, as a general rule, are underdamped for the majority of spring rates. If you can live with that though, they're probably the best option out there. As standard the springs are on the soft side, but if you have a £300 budget you can spend £150 on coilovers then spec springs for a further £70 or so from the likes of Merlin Motorsport. At £220 you have a lot of money spare then to freshen up suspension bushes which imo will give an even bigger improvement in handling.
"Proper" coilovers (KW, Gaz, D2 etc): Expensive new, around the £600 mark, but offer much more features than cheapo ones and a lot more aftermarket product support. Second hand the going rate seems to be £250-£300 so would be the top end of your budget. Personally I don't think they're worth the expense unless you commit and buy a lot of supporting parts, which will soon stack up the ££. Great adjustability with some sets even coming with camber/castor adjustable top mounts as standard, pillowball bearings instead of OEM top mounts, and damper adjustability (with much better damper matching than cheap coilovers). The build quality is better overall too and you'd be better with something more high-end if you're a track enthusiast, just for peace of mind.
Personally I lucked out as I picked up a set of D2 coilovers for relative pennies. My advice would be either eBay coilovers or second hand high end ones, but I think if you have a budget you should go for eBay ones and spend the rest getting alignment/bushes sorted too. Will handle great, maybe not world beating but noone ever ruled the world on a budget.
/thread
Lowering springs and dampers: Good if you never want to change stance of the car and you're happy with the way they ride. Can be a bit hit and miss though, one man's chalk is another man's cheese. Only real adjustability is by changing full spring or damper setups. And you'll forever look at the car thinking "I wish the front was +/- xmm".
eBay coilovers: Great value for money. Build quality is questionable and they, as a general rule, are underdamped for the majority of spring rates. If you can live with that though, they're probably the best option out there. As standard the springs are on the soft side, but if you have a £300 budget you can spend £150 on coilovers then spec springs for a further £70 or so from the likes of Merlin Motorsport. At £220 you have a lot of money spare then to freshen up suspension bushes which imo will give an even bigger improvement in handling.
"Proper" coilovers (KW, Gaz, D2 etc): Expensive new, around the £600 mark, but offer much more features than cheapo ones and a lot more aftermarket product support. Second hand the going rate seems to be £250-£300 so would be the top end of your budget. Personally I don't think they're worth the expense unless you commit and buy a lot of supporting parts, which will soon stack up the ££. Great adjustability with some sets even coming with camber/castor adjustable top mounts as standard, pillowball bearings instead of OEM top mounts, and damper adjustability (with much better damper matching than cheap coilovers). The build quality is better overall too and you'd be better with something more high-end if you're a track enthusiast, just for peace of mind.
Personally I lucked out as I picked up a set of D2 coilovers for relative pennies. My advice would be either eBay coilovers or second hand high end ones, but I think if you have a budget you should go for eBay ones and spend the rest getting alignment/bushes sorted too. Will handle great, maybe not world beating but noone ever ruled the world on a budget.
/thread
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