Well… since last time we have had a chat and as a follow-up to this thread
I already had this fitted onto the car:
BBR 185 (full exhaust, dyno and ecu mapping)
I.L. Motorsport Five Piece Chassis Brace Kit
Brembo disks front and back (stock callipers, braided hoses, race brake fluid)
EBC Bluestuff pads front and back (I have also used the Brembo which are much cheaper and IMHO are just as good)
I thought I’d update you lot as to what I have done to my car since last time I wrote that article, what I think of the modifications and what effect they had onto the car.
First of all these are the new modifications:
Michelin PS5 215/45/R17 on stock 17x7 alloys
Ohlins Road & Track Coilovers from Bofi
Fitted, geometry setup and weight balance by Paul Roddison
From my calculations its a 51.4% / 48.6% weight balance
(I also got a smartop because I had enough getting grief from people having to wait for me to get the roof up/down)
Here is how it looks
Here is how it drives on track (note that I have not really pushed the thing, I haven’t done any real late braking and took it really easy on the track)
My thoughts:
I now own a little two seater missile…
However I still think if you are not going to track your car, and you don’t have an obsession to lower the car (I mean what’s wrong with this?) You will have less headache with speed bumps and scraping the underside of the car on stock suspension. It will still handle ok…
Honestly if your car comes with sport suspension all I would say is buy some Michelins PS5 and get your car aligned. If you are not satisfied with that then yea spend the money and get some adjustable coilovers, The adjustability is primarily for damping and to set the spring preload if you will weight corner the car.
If I’m telling people you generally don’t need to buy adjustable coilovers if your suspension still works and are just going to be driving on public roads, why did I buy adjustable coilovers? Well I want to do some track driving, quite a bit of it. Its not going to be a track car but I will be doing 5-10 trackdays in a year so the stock suspension was too soft for me.
Why I bought the Ohlins coilovers? The main reason is dual damping, its supposed to be more comfortable on the road if you hit a large bump it wont transfer the whole load onto the car breaking your teeth in the process.
Do the Ohlins coilovers work?
On track: Well we used the recommended damping settings and on track the car is perfect. I have to say that I think the alignment that Paul did - that is specific to my type of driving and needs - and in combination with the dampers and the tyres it made the car extremely agile and capable to change direction but is still stable on the straights. The car on corners is still balanced, predictable and controllable with the applied power. There is no bias for oversteering or understeering during cornering which is what i wanted.
On public roads: Daily driving with a lowered car on any type of coilovers is a pain. With the Ohlins you can feel difference setting the tyre pressures to 25 psi from 28psi. My biggest issue is the ride height but in regards to ride comfort I think they are great.
Anything bad to say about Ohlins coilovers… yea… although they provide new top hats for the front they dont provide the top hat for the rear - you have to reuse the existing one. and have I known this (well opened the box and read the instructions) I would have bought new bump stops to fit onto the car. We reused the existing from my old suspension and thankfully it looked ok but with what they cost me I would at least expect them to provide the bump stops the very least.
Last I have to say the money I spend for Paul to set my car was probably one of the best investments I have done onto the car. I would wholeheartedly recommended anyone to get their car to Paul Roddison for any type of alignment and setup.
