Suspension and wheels

[Cjtdavenport]

I need some advice.
I'm running a 2005 182 on standard suspension and wheels. They need to be changed. It's a full track car, it's road legal but is coming off the road in March.
What do people recommend.
I've been looking at team dynamics pro race but the prices are going through the roof. I don't want to spend a fortune but at the same time I don't want cheap rubbish.
Suspension I've no idea about. What do you run?

 

[Sesqui89]

Will you be using it on track just as a bit of fun a few times a year or more seriously and more often than that?

I'm planning on using mine on track 3 or 4 times a year (the rest of the time it's my daily) and so far I've found it's a very capable car in standard (ish) form. You can have a lot of fun with it for not much money as it is - it all depends on how much you want to spend.

I run standard cup shocks (replaced last year) with cooksport springs and solid front top mounts - it's good enough for me for now but if you're going to be using it more seriously then for coilovers the choice is pretty broad but the first two that spring to mind for track use that people recommend would be ASTs (regarded as the best but >>£1000) and BC (regarded as good and ~£700 iirc). There should be a few threads around on track coilovers - have a quick search.

For wheels, anything lightweight is a pretty good place to start - TD is a good shout like you've suggested or OZ etc. Not sure about prices shooting through the roof but aftermarket wheels quite often pop up for sale on here - if you pay for club membership you'll be able to browse the parts for sale section. As an example there's a set of 15" TD Pro Race 1.2s that came up today (probably sold now) for the bargain price of £130. I run 15" OZ F1s with R888 tyres. 15" wheels are obviously good for lower tyre prices (unless you plan on upgrading brakes to 4 pot calipers at some point in which case you're probably better off sticking with 16s!

 

[andye30m3]

I don't think you can go wrong with the team dynamics wheels, Think I paid £320ish delivered for my 15' pro race.

With regards to suspension I think the standard stuff works quite well, advise on what to replace it with will come down to budget. Not sure if the cheap coil over will be much better than a decent set of springs. My clios on standard suspension at the moment but on other cars I've just Gaz golds, KW V3 and KW competition shocks all have been pretty good.

Having said that I'm changing my Gaz Golds on my E30 to AST, I expect to pay £800 extra for maybe 1/2 a second a lap, worth while on a race car but you'll need to decide if its worth spending the extra.

Also if your going to towing it everywhere you'll be able to use more aggressive geo set up.

 

[Cjtdavenport]

Cheers for the replays guys. It's not going to be used other than on the track. It's my second car and they want £750 to insure it. So it'll be being towed. It's just for fun. It's mainly just track days. But if I'm spending a couple of quid then I want it to be a good buy for the long run.
It's supposed to be good cheap fun and I did quite a few track days as it is, standard. But now I want to man it into a fully fledged supercsr sleighing machine. Ok I've got a bit carried away. I think I may just change the springs. I've got a mate who can stick me some cheap rubber on so its just the wheels I'm after just want some light but cheap. Just wandered what other people used. I'll have a look at oz cheers.

 

[BIFCAIDS]

How familiar are you with the limits of the car standard on track? I only ask because when we got our TC we decided to replace the suspension for brand new Renault Dampers and Springs (ended up being Renault Dampers with Eibach Springs) to freshen things up, because you'll s**t yourself before the car does. Until we get to the point the car is slowing us down due to suspension capability we wont be changing the suspension, because we are learning and jumping straight into "race car" suspension seems daft for beginners.

Wheels wise (without going on the forum) I was told go for 15's based on the fact tyres are cheaper an inch smaller than standard 16's. Benefits of going to 15's is as mentioned tyre prices but also acceleration is improved.

Hope this helps.

 

[Cjtdavenport]

It does, the reason I fancy changing the suspension or maybe just the springs is that there's quite a bit of roll when chucking it in the corners. It's spat me off a few times, that's probably more my poor driving, but I just want it a bit flatter. I had a mk4 r32 that's done a few track days and done the ring and that's spot on, so ideally I want something similar.

 

[BIFCAIDS]

Tuition, thats another thing to spend your money on. 3 or the 4 track days I've done I've had tuition helped no end, the only reason I didn't have it last time round was because it was my second time around Oulton Park in 6months.