Cheap Options For Road Rally Suspenders

[shepherdfte 0]

Folks, an update on what I eventually did, as I know people find this stuff useful.

 

In the end, I went for Bilstein 'Sports' shocks on all 4 corners. You may wonder "what are they?", as they don't appear in most listings. Well, they are a standard 'type' strut, rather than a coilover, but stand alone from the Sprintline (expensive but good) and Sportline (cheap) kits. They are expensive (£150 a corner on the front, £70 at the back), and hence on a quality par with Sprintline, but specifically designed with people who want fast road performance and STANDARD ride height. So they don't come in a kit with lowring springs, and are standard stroke. The damping is unadjustable, and Bilstein set them up at "about 25-30% harder than standard as they know what each car needs". Part number V36-0545 for the front right.

 

The quality looks fantastic, and inspection also showed that they actually have inserts (i.e. the internals are removable via a lock-nut on the base of the strut, and the shock is still thick where it leaves the casing (rather than the thin rod you get on a 'normal' road shock)). So kind of like their coilovers in that the internals seem inverted, but in a standard shock form. I guess they will be rebuildable. Look on motorsport world for a picture. Rears are just nice heavy duty billy shocks, also unajustable.

 

I fitted them with 309 springs, as I couldn't get anything else std height at short notice, though I would have had some 135% springs (probably triple rate) made by Coilspring if I had time. I fitted new top mount kit (new bearings + std rubbers as the grp N ones failed to turn up in time for an event), and new ARB bushes and track rod ends at the same time. I left the wishbones as I'm going ot fit 309 ones soon anyway, but checked the play in them and the drop links - all fine.

 

The handling is now much better, though the overall ride does not feel much different. On a variously rough and wet rally last w/e, it was ace. Less body roll (309 springs are 10% stiffer and gave same ride height), and the turn in is very crisp. Small ripples are about as crashy as before, but big bumps feel much more 'controlled' - more of a dull thunk than a cablam!, and the tyres stay planted much better. No less pleasant as a road car at all, but much more aggressive in the twisties.

 

For the road, I would probably up the spring stiffness a bit (prolly 135%) to control the roll, but on a rally I reckon it was fine, and I'd be reluctant to change it without changing the back (my beam is rebuilt and solid mounted, but on std torsion bars). tbh, on the road, the extra camber from the 309 arms may be all it would need if you wanted to avoid harder springs.

 

All in all a good buy, but I'll be interested to see what the addition of the 309 arms does, along with the grp N top mounts.

 

PS - I bought 2 sets of ARB bushes from Pug by accident - will put in sales.

 

Andy

[Ahl 4]

Yeah, as has been said before, the sportline shocks are sprintlines, but without the shortened stroke.

[shepherdfte 0]

Nonono. these are not 'sportline'. they are 'sport'. Sportline are the much cheaper road kit (less than £200 all in for all 4 corners with springs). sportline IS lowered (though possibly not shortended).

[Ahl 4]

Sorry, right enough, they are SPORT shocks, not Sportline. However the SPRINT shocks (and Sprintline kits) consist of the same shock but with shortened stroke.

 

Streetline is the sub £200 kit which consists of Bilstein OE spec dampers (not the monotube ones) and lowering springs.