Suspension Kits

[papamantra]

Hi

A friend of mine in Hong Kong manufactures high quality coilover kits and I have been badgering him to send me a set for the 944.

He has now agreed to build me a set and wants to know what I want, so I said like the KW variant 3's in stainless.

Anyone here have a lot of experience with these kits as he is asking what top mounting I would like etc.

What would the forum recommend for road use, anything goes so I just want the best possible.

Also would anyone else want some?

Ant

 

[zcacogp]

Erm, development of the spring and valving rates for suspension is a very time-consuming and expensive process if it is to be done right. I presume your friend is planning to do the necessary development to get things to an ideal setting.

If so, he'll be wanting to sell quite a lot of kits to recoup the R&D costs. So, yes, please do keep us posted.


Oli.

 

[papamantra]

Yes Oli,

He has recruited R&D chap from AST/MOTON and has spent a fortune on tooling etc so its not a small setup.

We are not talking about £30 backstreet dampers,.

I just wondered what peoples perfect set would be for road.

Plus its all dependant on finding a 944 in Hong Kong which apparently isn't an easy job.

Maybe I should just ship mine over after the summer!

 

[zcacogp]

Ah, good - I was worried that it would end up being something very approximate! [] My experience of suspension design and rates is that there is no substitute for time spent with the kit on the car, on track.

Having said that, there are a variety of solutions that suit a variety of people - and many of them are adjustable by the end user as well. Is he looking at producing a kit for track or road? For early or late cars (they are different)? For heavier standard-spec turbos or for lighter stripped-out lux's?


Oli.

 

[edh]

KWv3 is a good start...

can't help thinking you're going to have to make massive savings to justify this.

 

[Monkeythree]

Yep. Benchmarking and then reverse engineering the class leading product is a good starting point then develop from there. Difficult to see that a startup will find something that KW/koni/Bilstein haven't though?

 

[papamantra]

Hi

Yes I think reverse engineering will most likely be his starting point.

His advantage is the fact that he has been managing manufacture for some of the major players in the far east for years so knows what's needed on that score.

They already do the usually vw's fords etc and ships them worldwide to be rebadged but he does want to build up some of the more niche models, particularly Porsche and Land Rover.

Ant

 

[Neil Haughey]

I don't mind telling you guys what a set of near ideal or base damper values should be based on the dyno plots I have from when my GAZ 2-ways when they were rebuilt. The GAZ units have a very weak low speed bump and rebound on the front for some reason but loads of low speed bump/rebound on the back, its why everyone racing 944/968 in the UK runs front springs which are way stiffer then the rear as many used GAZ and everyone else then just copies what the next guy is doing.

I will go and look them up.

 

[George Elliott]

Ant, if your contact has an AST / Moton experienced man on board, he should know what set-up would suit the various applications. They are probably Fast Road, Fast Road and occasional Track, and Track Use. One other possibility is a Cabrio application.

I'd be suspicious this is a big undertaking for a model thats out of production for over twenty years and there are established players in the market

Good luck either way

George
944t