Suspension Advice Please

[Phil S1]

I had a good chat with Mike Flounders at Tollbar Racing today. His advice given my current usage was to get my Billies refurbed (cost - about £90 each plus vat) and buy some new Eibach springs (cost about £200?). His reasoning was they are decent and work well on the road plus they should last years without a service.

We also discussed Nitron Street Series and he agreed that the facility to adjust the ride height might be nice, although in his view they would need rebuilding every spring as a bare minimum, and protected throughout the winter with ACF 50.

I can get a set of NSS bought, delivered and set up straight away but would need to take the car off the road for three weeks to have the Billies refurbed and I need the car for work...

 

Decisions decisions....head says Billies heart says Nitrons...

So if it's £90 a corner for refurbed dampers and £200 for springs, all plus VAT? that's £560 plus VAT. New suspension, Bilstein, NSS, Quantums etc are only around the £600 mark plus VAT...may as well buy new surely?

[DeanB]

Dean, everything that you need.

 

http://www.seriouslylotus.com/featured/suspension-refresh-kit

 

 

This could get expensive!!!

 

There are lots of different choices out there. All have pro's and cons along with different views by different people.

I think just new shocks will make the car feel better, but with yours being so bad that isn't really hard to achieve.

You use yours as a daily, so i would avoid track focused stuff. But it would also be nice to be able to adjust the height and damping if you felt the need to.

 

All dampers will come with a life span. Standard ones and uprated ones. The second set never seem to last as much as the first original set.

 

As long as you fitted the same damper with the same spring position why would you require a fresh Geo? Geo is ideally something that should also be done periodically, but how many actually do unless their tyres are wearing uneven?

 

No matter what you decide there will be a compromise somewhere.

I think all of this is pretty much right

So if it's £90 a corner for refurbed dampers and £200 for springs, all plus VAT? that's £560 plus VAT. New suspension, Bilstein, NSS, Quantums etc are only around the £600 mark plus VAT...may as well buy new surely?

And this too!

 

I had a long and very helpful chat with Dave at Seriously Lotus this afternoon. I learnt quite a lot about dampers, what causes them to fail and/or deteriorate over time and so on. I had never really thought about how the oil inside them degrades with tiny particles of contamination etc, and how this affects damping. It seems to me though that this would affect all dampers, including Billies. Dave was very honest and said he doesn't know how long the NSS (or any other damper) would last but it seems to me they have as good a chance as the Billies at lasting a long time. Serious racers will always rebuild dampers regularly but normal folk like me are unlikely to notice any slight deterioration in damping performance.

[Martin R]

Your billies have lasted what nearly 100K without being touched? Nitrons should be serviced every 10K. Your call?

[Christopher Lawless]

Your billies have lasted what nearly 100K without being touched? Nitrons should be serviced every 10K. Your call?

Sorry for the bit of a newbie question but if the Nitrons are so fragile that they'll only go 10k before a rebuild how come everyone raves about them?

Seems to me that the billies are by far the better option for a road car that actually gets used.

[Martin R]

10K is the recommended service interval by Nitron. For smooth roads and track work they are fantastic. I have had 2 sets and they are IMO a compromise for the crap roads we have now.

 

The clicks also stopped working on my first set within 2 years. They guarantee them but you have to send them back. Not good if its your only car?

 

You need to weigh up your individual usage between track and road and make a decision IMO. If your car is mostly track i would choose Nitron  everytime. Saying that the best dampers i have felt for road use were early Ohlins on Gregs car?

[DeanB]

It's a tricky one. Emotion also plays a part, and I really fancy a change, and being able to play about withthe damper settings and ride height really appeals. I will probably go with the NSS...

[AlanS1]

Dean, please also pay particular attention to spring rates as well. 

 

Some dampers work better with higher spring rates, but will rattle your teeth out on our great public roads.

 

I am certain that with all the people you know of here you should be able to get a go in a car with all the different options fitted? Might help you decide.

[DeanB]

I have ridden in a few Elises with different springs and dampers. Russ' Sport 190 had some decent aftermarket dampers with stiffer springs but it still felt good on the road - likewise Keith's s1. On the other hand when I put Nitron NTRs on my old VX I thought it ruined it on bumpy roads.

The NSS are, I think, half way inbetween standard spring rates and those Nitron supply their NTR kit with.

 

I think they may be 275 front, 350 rear?

[Alex B]

Dean, if you order via nitron you should be able order what ever spring ratings you want.

I have Hoffman ntr's running 525r 425f still firm by no where near as bad as my previous setup on the s1.

 

My s2 k Toyota was on nitrons with 600r 450f

I found this to be a lovely ride.

Obviously the Toyota is around 80kilos heavier

[DeanB]

Alex it is a lot of extra dosh I think to spec different spring rates on the Nitron Street Series, but the ones they come with sound ideal for me anyway.

[DeanB]

 

 

OMG I have only gone and done it! I am £729.60 lighter!

 

#traumatised!!

[Gary ZBJ]

Congratulations

My mistake when I first had mine was to set the dampers too soft, if you don't like how the dampers handle go harder first, mine didn't like being "under dampened". Caveat is that it could be different on the V2s, but enjoy playing

[Alex B]

OMG I have only gone and done it! I am £729.60 lighter!

 

#traumatised!!

 

I'm saving this post to prove it happens!!

[DeanB]

Nitron Street Series delivered today! And very nice they look too. Big thanks to Dave at Seriously Lotus for all the (no bullshit) advice and for getting them to me the day after I placed my order. Nice one. :-)

[G]

That was quick Dean, bet you can't wait to get them under the car. Look forward to your road and track use reviews as you use it as a daily too.

 

Dave is a top guy, helped me make the right choices for my exige, really happy with the investment