Which make of damper / shock absorber to upgrade to?
Discussion
I started this post on Blatchat a few months ago about dampers & springs & after purchasing some new parts I updated my post on Blatchat yesterday. So I thought it would be good to share my experiences on here & on Facebook as well. I copied & paste most of it so excuse the wrong tenses.
First post back in October:
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. -
Update:
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.
Here is a photo showing how they look straight out of the box.
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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OivREx4MUSo
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 knowing 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.
Only comment is may be, although 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 it is nice to know that Meteor motorsports are there to advise & supervise this when required.
All in all a great upgrade & definitely recommend. It’s so good I will be looking at the possibility for a similar upgrade for my Ultima GTR in the future
Ult-jim.
First post back in October:
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. -
Update:
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.
Here is a photo showing how they look straight out of the box.
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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OivREx4MUSo
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 knowing 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.
Only comment is may be, although 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 it is nice to know that Meteor motorsports are there to advise & supervise this when required.
All in all a great upgrade & definitely recommend. It’s so good I will be looking at the possibility for a similar upgrade for my Ultima GTR in the future
Ult-jim.
Thanks guys for reminding me how much I paid 
He writes this in a dark cold room & stays in on his own on a Saturday night to save money
Simon has done lots of research on all makes of dampers and his development work is on going. It can become a complicated science and to understand it you must first block out all you have read & believe to be true from reading the many post on all the forums in the past.
Weather looks dry & ok tomorrow morning so will go for a cheeky blat to get my adrenaline shot
He writes this in a dark cold room & stays in on his own on a Saturday night to save moneySimon has done lots of research on all makes of dampers and his development work is on going. It can become a complicated science and to understand it you must first block out all you have read & believe to be true from reading the many post on all the forums in the past.
Weather looks dry & ok tomorrow morning so will go for a cheeky blat to get my adrenaline shot
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