Alrite i've have alook at loads of mk2 builds and there suspension people are running but i cant find reasons why they have choosen that certain type , I'm looking for some serious kit for track use but mainly some real road use , my friend has some KW V3's they feel great and the cars is perfect , but thats had the turrets raised with ground control top mounts , and ball joint extenders , My pockets wouldnt get V3's i dont think and the following above , so i was thinking if i cam down to more spax/AVO then i'd be able to do the other bits and should come in around the stock price of V3's there a place i can get them for 1000 so im looking at doing this to my mk2 for 1k , i do like a lowered golf but on tracks its raised up and i see the spax dont go that low im looking for around 80mm for driving on roads , i'm in the middle of fitting a VR6 to my mk2 so the choose of suspension will need to be geared for this , I'd like some that have got good reviews but if there is every adjustment under the sun well i wouldnt know what to do with them all , Any info or ideas would be great ! Cheers Joe
Firstly what is your budget? Around 1000-1200 could get you some Koni coilovers, Neuspeed ARBs, and full polybush kit (assuming you`d fit all yourself). That`s what`s on my Mk2, and the handling is sublime.
yeah thats about right sort of money , and i'd be fitting it , i've poly bushed everything so far , but i'd really like to get the adjustable top mounts aswell so spending say 1200 on suspeion then another sort of 300 on top mounts what go over fair bit , Joe
I was always under the impression that shocks and springs handle better than coilovers? Or is that only when compared at similar price points? Can you get bump and rebound adjustable dampeners or are they only available on coilies?
Yeah, top end spring/damper combos at around 300 will far out perform 300 coilovers. You only pay that sort of money for coilovers for the extra lowering you can achieve. If you want handling then you need to spend 750+ on decent coilovers, but also factor in that it isn`t just the suspension itself you need to optimise (ie, ARBs, and bushings), so you`ll easily be into 1k+ territory.
Iv always been a coilover man myself but on my latest golf iv gone eibach pro springs/boge turbo dampers for the simple reason that our roads are now terrible and wont be getting any better soon, coilovers make the car twitchy on really bad surfaces which is 90% of the roads around here.
Depends on how you have them setup TBH, but then, why have coilovers and leave them on their softest settings?!
spring rates play the biggest part of the ride quality and most coilovers come with far to high spring rates for road use, you can specify what rates you want with most firms but if your going soft then you might aswell go shock,/springs, that is unless you want them too be scene and go silly low....like me Also hard springs with soft damping will just leave you bouncing all over the place as I know, I really cant find a happy setting with my konigsports on the mk1
Cheap coilies are for lows not for handling, unless you spend big money on coils like Stu stated you don't really get much more than a low and fairly crashy ride. I've got Koni shocks and springs on mine and the car handles fairly well, on the other hand my friend's Supra has 1500 quid with of coils and the handling is a world over the same car on stock suspension. You really do get what you pay for with cheap coils, I know someone with cheap-ish (200 quid) coils on a Mk2 and really don't like the way it drives. But it's low. That's obviously what they're going for.
I've been down the cheap coilover route and certainly not enjoy it, and I've gotten the whole slamming bug out of my system already. I'm too lazy to wind coilovers up and down. So just looking for good shocks and springs really. Already have uprated ARBs so.. What sort of dampers should I be looking at; Koni, Bilstein, Gax, Spax?
I have Koni Yellows which were fitted by the previous owner, well previous previous, and after a decent alignment the handling was amazing. Not grand worth of coils amazing but certainly enough to really put the car through it's paces. I'd recommend them, my car's running a 60mm drop which I might change to 40mm at some point although it doesn't seem like it's too low.
