3 replies to this topic

[hughcam]

A couple of months ago I bought a Mr2 to run alongside my elise for track days and driver training. Although I can tell the car has a great chassis (relatively speaking) the dampers have almost no rebound damping in them. 

 

I have been looking at the BC racing coilovers to replace them with and wondered if any one else ran a budget track car with a similar set up?

[Rosssco]

Presume you are referring to a Mk2?

 

I haven't used BC Racing stuff (not my thing TBH), but if I was optimising it for track days, I'd go for either Koni adjustables, or Bilstein Yellow dampers (non-adjustable), and a suitable stiffer spring. I used Eibach springs that were very good for the road, but you can get two different types, one stiffer and lower better suited to track.

 

Used Koni before and they were very good and well suited to both standard and uprated springs. As you are probably just going to want to adjust the adjust the damping rate, I'd choose the better quality Koni's and stiffer springs (you probably won't touch the ride height once set, so the coilover offers no advantage IMO) over the likes of cheaper coilovers. I'm not sure what the reliablity is like on the cheaper coilovers TBH, and how easily servicable they are. If you get them really cheap might be worth a punt..

 

Look at what some of the guys running in the MR2 championship are using. They use Bilstein Yellow's, and although this is a class restriction, they are well regarded also.

 

Best suspension change I ever did though was stiffer ARB's...

[hughcam]

Yep its a mk2 rev 2 Rossco. The car is going to be used predominantly on track so I am looking for maximum performance over ride comfort. I have considered the bilstein yellows but thought that they may be still a bit soft when used with the lowering springs on offer such as tein etc. I will have a read up on the konis however...

 

The main attraction to the bc racing ones is that they include adjustable top mount so that you can get a decent amount of camber adjustment

[Rosssco]

Part of the reason I also suggested the Bilstein's is that they will have a track record (NPI) in use on track now having been extensively used in the MR2 championship, so you will at least know what to expect there. You'd need to find out if / who has used the BC's on track to gauge their reliablity I guess. MY impression of the likes of BC Racing, while quite popular and seemingly quite suitable for road cars and reliable, how well they have stood up to track abuse. I think they also produce a monotube damper, but this may take them out of the budget requirement..

 

You don't want something too stiff on track either though (IMO) as it can make the car unnecessarily skittish, Mk2's being probably the least communicative (although still great fun) out of the 3 Mk's.. The Koni's are combined bound / rebound adjustable, although I don't recall the relationship between the two settings on adjustment. I'm pretty sure they will go fairly stiff though! As for Eibach, I think it's the sportline springs are the stiffer type, but there's a variety of spring as I'm sure you know...

 

You can get adjustable camber plates that fit standard dampers, or camber adjustment bolts (no experience there).