P5 Puredrive vs Gaz

[skinny]

Ab Shocks said:

Yep, thats why the GGP have a shorter body, I agree they also run on 500lb springs on the front and 375lb rears on the race cars but the GGP valving will go down to 300fr and 225 rears if required.

how does the valving change, is it (user) adjustable or do you buy a set of valved dampers to your requirements?

[Ab Shocks]

skinny said:

Ab Shocks said:

Yep, thats why the GGP have a shorter body, I agree they also run on 500lb springs on the front and 375lb rears on the race cars but the GGP valving will go down to 300fr and 225 rears if required.

how does the valving change, is it (user) adjustable or do you buy a set of valved dampers to your requirements?

I would leave playing with the shim-stack to us, or any special valving for non-road or drifting. We have set up the bump/rebound ratio for tarmac with a valve on the rear shocks to increase rebound, this gives a graduated dyno curve that will cover from a 200lb to 600lb spring front and rear specific.
If anybody wants to run really low, we would prefer to offer a bespoke short body rather than rely on a progressive bump-stop but we do supply Powerflex progressive stops as standard on the rears.

[skinny]

dampers sound good, especially for any looking really seriously at a lot of track days. i like they're offered with powerflex soft foam bumpstops but as you say a short damper would def be the way to go if you were looking to lower significantly. the only one i know if is the KYB buzzspec (i think) but it's impossible to get hold of.

look forward to see how these golds go

[Ab Shocks]

skinny said:

dampers sound good, especially for any looking really seriously at a lot of track days. i like they're offered with powerflex soft foam bumpstops but as you say a short damper would def be the way to go if you were looking to lower significantly. the only one i know if is the KYB buzzspec (i think) but it's impossible to get hold of.

look forward to see how these golds go

Racing on them is probably the best test of longevity but feedback from Jonathan and Alyn from Ma5da racing is good so far, they are claiming that they can ride the kerbs better and are getting virtually no fade. I expect at least 50% of the grid to switch over to GGP next year.

Edited by Ab Shocks on Tuesday 23 December 12:06

[Howard-]

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

[maz8062]

Howard- said:

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

Before you decide Howard, why not do some research on Protech. I did a brief search and found quite a few sellers, but not much customer feedback.

[lord summerisle]

Howard- said:

Where is this '60' figure coming from?

here

maz8062 said:

P5 have probably sold 60 or so of this suspension,

as figure made up with no basis...

[Howard-]

Do I need any replacement top mounts if I go for the Gaz/Absolutely Shocks set from MX5parts?

[Herman Toothrot]

maz8062 said:

Howard- said:

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

Before you decide Howard, why not do some research on Protech. I did a brief search and found quite a few sellers, but not much customer feedback.

Go on www.mx5nutz.com and search, loads of feedback on P5 Puredrive / Protech shocks, the mx5 ones are only sold through P5 hence most people refer to them as P5 shocks.

[maz8062]

lord summerisle said:

Howard- said:

Where is this '60' figure coming from?

here

maz8062 said:

P5 have probably sold 60 or so of this suspension,

as figure made up with no basis...

To quote Phil Dixon, P5 himself, this was written on Nutz on the 5th of December 2008

"There's no issue with the PureDrive dampers. After 60 sets (that's 240 individual damper units), only 1 has gone back due to a leak. Another was returned, but we couldn't find an issue with it but was rebuilt anyway. And they don't squeak.......!

Phil"

Hope that helps

Edited by maz8062 on Tuesday 23 December 16:17

[lord summerisle]

Least we know have a source


but before it read as speculation

[Ab Shocks]

Howard- said:

Do I need any replacement top mounts if I go for the Gaz/Absolutely Shocks set from MX5parts?

Definately NO

[kevham]

Howard- said:

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

Howard - if you are just using it on the road, my view is that the standard setup is hard to beat. I ran my cars for years on standard shocks/springs and only changed after my first season of competition.

Ab Shocks - I will definitely come and speak to you at Autosport - I'll be there on the Saturday (I'll bring Lazza too!) .

[Howard-]

kevham said:

Howard- said:

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

Howard - if you are just using it on the road, my view is that the standard setup is hard to beat. I ran my cars for years on standard shocks/springs and only changed after my first season of competition.

I appreciate how good the standard setup is, but there's always room for improvement in my view. Mazda didn't work to an unlimited budget, else the cars would cost three times as much, and they would have compromised in order to get comfort - these aren't Elises or Caterhams remember.

I would basically like less bodyroll and stiffer, more "controlled" hard cornering and a lower ride height. If the Gaz/P5 kits do as advertised and make the sweet handling even sweeter without ruining the ride/dynamics/whatever, then I'm willing to pay for it

[heebeegeetee]

Howard- said:

kevham said:

Howard- said:

Are the Gaz Gold Pro MX5 kits worth it for road use? I won't be tracking it any time soon, so it's a toss up between the Gaz (absolutely shocks) kit from MX5parts or Puredrive

Howard - if you are just using it on the road, my view is that the standard setup is hard to beat. I ran my cars for years on standard shocks/springs and only changed after my first season of competition.

I appreciate how good the standard setup is, but there's always room for improvement in my view. Mazda didn't work to an unlimited budget, else the cars would cost three times as much, and they would have compromised in order to get comfort - these aren't Elises or Caterhams remember.

I would basically like less bodyroll and stiffer, more "controlled" hard cornering and a lower ride height. If the Gaz/P5 kits do as advertised and make the sweet handling even sweeter without ruining the ride/dynamics/whatever, then I'm willing to pay for it

The problem is as i see it, is that it is virtually impossible for us out here to better the standard settings. If mazda was on a limited budget, then in comparison we have no budget at all, no expertise and no facilities to test different set-ups. What we do is literally pot luck.

No, our cars aren't elises or caterhams, but as an all rounder i think they are better, imvho.

[Howard-]

But with decent shocks, and a proper set up by Wheels In Motion, we can at least better it, for "performance" driving

My MX5 is a second 'fun' car, not a daily driver, I don't need refinement

Edited by Howard- on Wednesday 24th December 09:01

[maz8062]

Just to complicate matters further;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAZDA-MX5-1990-05-TEIN-SUPER...

[Howard-]

Are they any good?

[Ab Shocks]

lord summerisle said:

Least we know have a source


but before it read as speculation

This is the problem, I sell a variety of brands and until you have sold a large quantity of any one brand you can't really build up a picture.
No brand is perfect, particularly the mass produced variety. The more expensive monotubes do tend to have less problems on first view but even they are not immune from the odd degass and when you look at the percentages, it could be a close run argument about relability.

BTW I have sold about 8000 Gaz units over the last 4 years for a variety of vehicles and Gaz make about 750 units a week.

Edited by Ab Shocks on Wednesday 24th December 09:52

[skinny]

heebeegeetee said:

Howard- said:

I appreciate how good the standard setup is, but there's always room for improvement in my view. Mazda didn't work to an unlimited budget, else the cars would cost three times as much, and they would have compromised in order to get comfort - these aren't Elises or Caterhams remember.

I would basically like less bodyroll and stiffer, more "controlled" hard cornering and a lower ride height. If the Gaz/P5 kits do as advertised and make the sweet handling even sweeter without ruining the ride/dynamics/whatever, then I'm willing to pay for it

The problem is as i see it, is that it is virtually impossible for us out here to better the standard settings. If mazda was on a limited budget, then in comparison we have no budget at all, no expertise and no facilities to test different set-ups. What we do is literally pot luck.

No, our cars aren't elises or caterhams, but as an all rounder i think they are better, imvho.

the thing is, that mazda sold the car to everyone. it was a big seller, and had to cater to a large market. they got the suspension bang on for that, it gives a good compromise of sweet handling and ride comfort to suit most people. however, if you look at the majority of people to whom mx5's were originally sold, i suspect most probably would have been middle aged and didn't drive the car particularly hard, and the stock suspension suited them perfectly.

it's not about budget, it's about target. mazda weren't targeting me specifically as a driver when they chose the settings on the stock 5. I drive harder than the average 5 driver (you just need to look at most of the 5 drivers you see bumbling about on the roads) and i take my car on tracks - this simply requires a different suspension set-up. Which is why you need places like P5 or gaz to offer aftermarket items.