The age old question, What suspension Kit??

[Scotty1.7]

Right poor old Bee is being damaged by the coil overs I've got, bits rattling around, constant re-adjust ment of tracking and alignment, not to mention the damage to the current coil overs them selves.

This has led to Bee being laid up the past few days due to bust rear shocks

Now thanks to Chris (TyeBoi) I have the parts to swap over, so thats covered off.

However I am now really thinking of going for matched springs and shocks. I'd love a asset of the Koni Sports, but currently funds aren't great for this.

So I am looking at the G-Max 40mm kit.

But I'd like your opions please guys- especially those of you who have these sort of kits on your cars

The reason I'm looking at this is that I use the car everyday, and the roads around Manchester are simply not maintained- yes I have gone through the claim process on a few occasions and won, but It annoys me how much poor old Bee gets banged and whacked about- no matter how careful I drive.

I have 16's with 45 profile tyres on- even this is no help as its buckled my wheels- not the suspensions fault totally, but it won't be helping.

When I changed the front ABS sensor I did notice the arch's on the front have been tickford modded, poss due to the fact it has had Spax VSX suspension on there before I put the collies on.

I like the stance I have with the coil overs but the damage they are causing to Bee is just unacceptable now. Until I get project Ironhide off the ground though Bee is what I have and need to work with.

So comments and thoughts please- and If you think something is bad, can you justify it in some why? I have read a few people were unhappy with the G-Max kits- Why? they are a good brand, been around for a while, the kit looks well tested and of sound design?

 

[yippeekiay]

Just a stab in the dark Scott but I'm guessing it may have been your top mounts (under the turret) that are shot thus causing problems with the alignment etc. I believe this to be the case currently with mine as the passenger side one has a hell of a lot of camber compared to the drivers side, this is substantiated by the fact that the mount on the top of the turret is clearly not in the same position as the other.

I should have changed them for new ones when fitting my coilovers but didn't think they were needed.

This is now on my list for the June trip as I was going to drop the car by another 30mm or so this morning but have decided against it as the wheels are clearly not aligned properly as they are despite me getting the tracking done only on Wednesday. Not sure if it has affected me much on the Ring as I managed a 9.52 lap yesterday somehow even though I was pootling round...lol. (Video to come on return)

 

[Scotty1.7]

I did replace those yip- and I have since cause i though they were the issue myself (great northen minds etc etc)

But it seems not gutted really cause I've always wanted coil overs on my cars and this is the first time I have had them, and they have kinda given me mixed feelings on them

 

[yippeekiay]

Yeah, same here buddy.

Not sure they were worth the money apart from making the car look lower. I will give my final judgement in June once I get the mounts changed and it lowered where I want it then see how the car feels/performs compared to now.

I'm actually looking/considering some adjustable top mount brackets so that I can set the camber/castor etc to suit myself but they're not cheap.

 

[Scotty1.7]

Its been suggested I go for Bilstein Shocks and springs- there bloody expensive but they are the best you can get I think right?

 

[Voa]

I run a gmax kit on my puma not sure what the drop is I think 30 or 40 mm , I think the puma kit is around £200 from larkspeed , I find it ok , I agree with the comment can be a bit crashy over pot holes but generally i find the handling good. Prior to this I was running standard suspension which was feeling a bit old at 45k . I run 15 inch wheels Team Dynamic pro 1.2's so the handling with the lighter wheel is quite good.

I would say it is about as hard as the suspension on my audi which is running standard audi suspension but doesn't take pot holes and really rough roads as well.

I don't use my puma as a daily driver so can't comment on how it is on a day to day basis.

When I had them fitted by oc-motorsport I was talking to Ollie about Gmax v coil overs , he said he ran a set on his fiesta a while back and went round the nurburgring with a set of gmax fitted and thought they were not bad. I believe the fiesta guys on zsoc also have a reasonable opinion on the Gmax kits. It is difficult to say whether the more recent kits are different to some of the earlier kits which I know were known to suffer shock failures after a few years.

 

[Scotty1.7]

cheers for that matey, intresting info there, i wasn't aware there were any issues with the g-max kit? First i've heard myself. I'm looking on euro performance for the stuff- had issues with larkspeed myself.

 

[Voa]

Yes if you search through on the other puma site you will see some threads relating to front shock failures with early kits, I use to think larkspeed were rubbish from past experience .I took a chance having not used them for a while for the gmax kit which ended up coming straight from Gmax.They delivered next day as promised and communication was very good.More recently used them for searching out Team dynamic alloys and they were pretty helpful about answering questions on alloys with ET35 offset and availability. With the Gmax kit they are about £20 cheaper then other sites.