Nitron NTR 40 fast road vs Bilstein + Eibach springs

[MBB]

I need to replace x4 dampers on my new to me S2 Exige S. My driving will be up to 5  track days a year with the rest being lots of UK B roads. I want to prioritise keeping road compliance and the roads around me can be very crap/broken . I am torn between the NTR40 Fast road (standard F425 R550 or maybe custom spring rates...),  or just replacing with the factory spec Bilstein + Eibach springs. I would really appreciate if anyone could share some real world experience / opinion on this as I am getting told so many vastly different things about spring rates etc I am like a rabbit in the headlights...... (tried searching so sincere apologies if done to death already). Cheers

Edited 7 hours ago by MBB

[DeanB]

I have NTR40s but on a 740 kilo K series S2 Elise. They are great dampers but the springs are too stiff for my taste on bumpy B roads. Fab on track though.

I am not sure without looking what the spring rates are but they were the standard fast road kit Nitron supplied about 6 years ago. They aren't far off 425 front and 550 rear iirc so those rates would be more compliant on an Exige weighing around 900 kilos.

I would recommend Nitrons over Billies as they are a much better quality damper plus you get adjustability (with ride height too) but just think carefully about spring rates. Also, call Seriously Lotus as they sell Nitrons and can give you real world experience based advice.

If you fancy a trip over Mansfield way you can have a go in mine, if that would help?

Dean

[MBB]

Thanks Dean that is super helpful and kind offer. They will do custom spring rates free of charge from the standard factory  but with no real world reference point for the same car it is giving me a headache. Some sources seem to say standard spring rates fine eased off for road and then changed for track and others seem to say standard rates not great on road full stop. Just trying to find someone that has some direct real world before I pull the trigger. 

Cheers,

Matt

[DeanB]

Softening the dampers will only achieve so much.

Have you tried looking on SELOC wiki - it might list the oem spring rates for your car.

[MBB]

Good idea. I think the only problem would be it had the factory sports + adjustable Blitstein dampers and there would be no way of knowing what the valving diff would be with the Nitrons even if the spring rates were matched with the Eibach springs. I just hope some other owners chime in on here but maybe try posting on SELOC also. Thanks again for reply much appreciated.