Suspension kits - good and bad

G-Max and Jamex are the same - Jamex is what they were previously called, their stuff was so bad they had to change name.

Streetline is generally ok for budget stuff tho.

Konis and Eibachs are the only way to go IMHO, Ive got them on my car, and it handles like you would not believe now!

Ive heard that makes like Spax etc, just make the ride sooo hard that boy racers think they are going round corners faster, and may actually go round corners faster, On a perfectly smooth bit of road, IE not in the real world! ;)

My tuppence worth

Alex

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Or Leda and Eibach or H&R :)

How deep is your pocket?

Koni, Avo, and Bilstein are the "big three" really - I would avoid the budget names.

Anyone familiar with Gaz coilovers?

-- Chet

One of my mates has a full Spax kit all round on his Nova SR. Its not stupidily hard ride, and it has 45 profile tyres which don't help. He is very happy with it, been on for a couple of years now and theres nothing wrong with it at all. People just assume because its cheap it'll be crap, but i don't think that is necessarily the case here. It did improve the handling a lot as well.

My mate had Gaz dampers on his highly modified mini, and he reckoned they were the dogs danglies. He drove that car very very hard down some very demanding roads and they coped admirably

Solidly mounting the wheels with no springs at all would improve the handling of a Nova!

I've only once driven a 'modded' Nova - ISTR it was a GTE with lowering kit. Seemed to go round corners OK, but had major problems actually getting the power to the road. (wheelspin in 3rd gear..... something wrong there)

But thats because its got sooooooo much power. Duh

Agreed - it depends much on the car in question.

You can imporve something like a Nova, because it's so crap to start with. But if you start with something renowned for it's good handling - like a 205 GTi say - then all a suspension-kit will do is knacker it.

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I fitted them to the Estelle (dampers not coilovers) Had a set of the Saab front for a couple of months, getting some on the rears this week while it is in for repair.

Look like, and have the internals of classy alloy race shocks, but with steel bodies to keep price down, by putting weight up a bit.

Seem well made and tested for the money.

waste of money, just get some uprated shockers and springs from sachs-boge.

they don't handle that bad.

Pugs are twitchy anyway, I wouldnt like to mess with the wheels or the suspension.

Woohoo, its really one of those questions that should be asked before the order is placed but at least its good news :)

-- Chet

The possibilities include:

1) Lots more power than it ought to have, 2) Very poor tyre(s) where the grip is so low the engine can overpower it, 3) Some sort of geometry fault, e.g. due to a smash or savage kerbing lifting one of the wheels up off the ground compared to the other three, so it isn't carrying it's fair share of the weight.

You might find out about 3 only after hardening up the springs and lowering them, obviously. You might also introduce the problem by putting on springs of different lenght or mounting the suspension differently on either side or generally doing a pitiful job of the "upgrade".

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Yep. The set I had on the Estelle were bought second hand, and seemed to work OK. So I took the gamble. The set on the Saab front were new. Price seemed good.

If you get ones that aren't top adjustable make sure you put lots of grease, preferably copper slip on the bottom adjusters.

Noted :) Its a pity they're only really half coilovers cos of the torsion bar tho!

-- Chet

A bit, Gaz are almost identical internally to Spax so go for whichever has the best price. They're not (IMHO) in the "quality" end of the market though, Nitron or Protec are much better for the little bit extra....

There's only 2 kits out there for the 19's, Gaz and some other dodgy named one that i don't remember. Gaz were just a little bit more expensive so i went with them.

-- Chet