Which make of damper / shock absorber to upgrade to?

[Ult-jim7]

Firstly,  been a member for years but never posted. Apologise for lurking for so long.  Secondly thumbs up to the new webside & forum - I like it!  

I have Freestyle supplied one way adjustable AVO dampers & springs.  They have worked very well for me, no issues, have a great feel.  However from what I read and hear there may be better dampers available & I wanted to treat myself to an upgrade.  Nitron, Penske, Ohlins & Bilsteins, different valving, different springs, the choice makes my head spin.  If money is no problem which one or two way adjustable damper do you recommend and for what reasons? The car is a R500 K-series mostly used for mountain road blats in the hills in southern France, and odd track days back home in the UK.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ult-jim7

[Jonathan Kay]

Hello. Jonathan

[Simon.Rogers]

I can use a range of smilies - the last one will be the one that applies to anything I say here unless a more specific technical question is asked - then I can answer.

              

 

[Adrian Williams]

I've had two of the four makes you mention on my R500K.

 

Bilsteins - not had these, known more for the standard CC damper (which works very well in a non adjustable basic way). As far as I know the other "race" dampers they sell work well but I have no experience of them.

 

Penske - not readily available when I was in the market but would be on my list now as they look very well made and I'm told it's not all show.

 

Nitron - I've had these on two sevens (both were one way adjustable) and was very pleased with the performance and quality.  Subsequent tests have shown the valving hasn't always been ideal but correctly valved perform very well if regularly serviced.

 

Ohlins - I curently have a set of two way adjustable on the car which are brilliant and very well made if not particularly bling when compared with some of the others.  The range of adjustment covers all eventualities that I've ever come across both on track and the road and you can feel the difference a few clicks make.

 

You should talk to Simon who has driven all of them as well as worked on them all, personally of your list of 4 I'd have the Ohlins or the Penskes.

[Ult-jim7]

Ok many thanks all.  Cheers A williams for your informitive review.  With the La Route Napolean on my door step (lucky me) I guess I am looking for more of a hill climb mountain road setup.  Looking for a full on damper valve setting for this environment but also to cover the shoddy UK roads and also able to firm it all up for the track.  I believe my Freestyle Avo spring setup is at the stiffer end of the spectrum.  Will continue the discussion with the Race team manager who looks over my car and inquire directly with individual suppliers.   Ult-jim

[CharlesElliott]

Simon stocks, sets up and overhauls Penske, Nitron and more. I suggest you give him a call - Meteor Motorsport

[Ult-jim7]

I thought this thread was worthy of an update on what happened next.  Well, I had a chat with Simon at Meteor Motorsport.  Being my hobby car I always want the best & a compromise is not good enough so I treated myself to a full set of Penske 3 way adjustables.  They are custom made in America, shipped over & Meteor motorsports apply their own magic to valve them especially for a high powered Caterham, backed up with a dyno to prove the product worthy.  Yes it can be tricky taking the front shocks off without damaging the surrounding body work & wishbones, plus where to place the remote reservoir assemblies, however many thanks to Boss Racing in Kent who did a brilliant install job.  The car was being detailed at KDS Keltec at the same time so the new shocks & springs had a coating of Gtechniq Crystal Serum applied for long lasting protection & shine as well.

So after being delivered back in South France, with a fresh service, suspension install & total wheel alignment corner weighting I was eager to go for a drive.  

First things first I had an hour on the phone with Simon providing a fascinating physics lesson on how they are made, work, on how to read all the dyno curves and the correct settings for low speed compression, fast speed compression & rebound.  The whole package dampers & shocks included the correct valving & base line settings for all the adjustments available.

I'm lucky to have some twisty hill roads not too far from where I live including the Course de cote de Biot which is a great testing ground for any Caterham.  This Youtube vid gives you a good idea:  

Anyway, after my first drive I was grinning ear to ear!  To be honest I was a little nervous, as its been a while since driving the car, plus knowng that it would take longer to get the tires & brakes up to temperature as its been very cold down here lately also.  So my findings:

Definitely transfers more power from the tires to the road surface - very noticeable.

More stable under heavy braking & acceleration (the front does not lift up as much when flooring it drag car style!)

You can feel the fast speed compression providing a smoother ride especially at normal speeds on uneven surfaces / pot holes, drain covers etc.

On high speed long open bends you can feel the dampers & springs preventing the role.  My freestyle anti roll bars are slackened off to nearly the softest settings now as recommended in the new set up.

I have more confidence to keep on the power into open bends or high speed twisty sections rather then lifting off. Or at least holding onto the power longer & braking later.

It is more stable under heavy braking into the apex and very predictable & balanced while powering hard out of a bend.  This gave me a grin factor of 11/10  :)

Only comment is may be, still more testing to do, is a lot more noticeable twitch of weight distribution  / sudden understeer or oversteer / have to correct, etc, only if I do something stupid like change gear or lift off at the wrong point in a bend, & of course only at silly / naughty speeds.  Time will tell & I will report back if this is correct & I experience this more, however so many factors could outweigh this conclusion at this stage as testing has only been on winter cold hill roads.

One downside is that it will probably require a full service off the car more often.  I’m predicting every 2 years assuming my 900 to 1,400 hill road miles per year, however its nice to know that Meteor motorsports are there to advise & supervise this when required.

All in all a great upgrade & definately recommend.

Its so good I will be looking at the possibility for a similiar upgrade for my Ultima GTR in the future :)

Ult-jim7

 

 

[Ult-jim7]

Here is a photo to show what they look like out of the box 

[Simon.Rogers]

Hi James. Glad you enjoyed.

 

You couldn't just post the same on Facebook, pistonheads, WSSC........... :-)

 

I will be trying my own out in a couple of weeks on track. I will feed back what i find. I have set them up a little differently to start with following some Ohlins settings. Just to see what happens.

[Ult-jim7]

Done.  Now broadcasted to the whole world!

[Simon.Rogers]