Fitted Life Bilstien dampers

[worldwidewebs]

Simon Owen said:

worldwidewebs said:

Simon Owen said:

I think David only went live with these yesterday so I doubt it yet, like you very interested to hear feedback ? I’ve discussed the R53’s with David and he’s just been really busy so hasn’t finished development of them yet. These look like a sensible price point between Bilstein’s and the anticipated R53’s. Interesting that he recommends the S ARB’s with the track set up.

I've got the S ARBs on my Pure with Life springs. You're welcome to come for a test drive if you want to feel what they're like

Excellent thank you !! I will defo take you up on that, I am debating next step after a very spirited blast around Spain Likewise you can compare with the Bilstein's too. Out of interest where did you you fit them / was it time consuming ? My car is a non S with Life100 springs + the Bilstein dampers set pretty much at stock ride height. It works really well but there remains some 'roll' still, not necessarily a bad thing but I'm keen to see how the S ARB's affect things. We can do a Wales trip, leave dates with me and I will get back to you - even if there is just the two of us !!

I bought the ARBs from the Alpine dealer but got Spires to fit them and re-geo to track spec. I felt that the Life springs (with std dampers) reduced much of the roll and the primary reason for the ARBs was to give better control on track, specifically one particular bend at Oulton. I feel that the roll is now reduced slightly, the control is improved markedly and the ride is slightly stiffer but nowhere near S levels, although that's not that bad to start with. If mine were purely a road car I probably wouldn't bother with the ARBs but you may well drive more enthusiastically than I.

[worldwidewebs]

Simon Owen said:

worldwidewebs said:

biggles330d said:

Has anyone fitted the AST coilovers that Life110 now sell. I'm curious about the road set up v standard (non- S).

Yes, there's a chap on the FB group that fitted them a week or so back. I'm due to get the track version fitted on the 14th if they're in stock

Fascinated to see what you think ? And how firm the track set up is for road use ? Out of interest did you ask about seals and maintenance, Matt at Spires was explaining to me that if designed/sealed properly then regular maintenance of the dampers shouldn't be an issue - frustratingly this isn't always the case with lots of the aftermarket coilovers ???

Fitment date of the ASTs may be pushed back - I'm waiting for David to confirm in the next day or so.

Funnily enough, I did speak with Matt about seals etc but in relation to dampers for my Elise and it sounds like he said the same thing to both of us

[Colin P]

Out of interest, why would coilovers require more maintenance than the standard spring and shock set up?

[Aladoro69]

There's always lots of talk, and rightly so, on the Life110 suspension, but had nobody in the UK tried the KW set up?
KW seemed to launch their kits very early on but nobody ever mentioned them for whatever reason

[Miserablegit]

I spoke to KW at the autosports show shortly after release but I recall the clubman kit was about £5k fitted (unless I misremember as it was a while ago) so I put it on the back burner. I don’t track the car anyway.
There’s a good old video of an a110 with KW and a first gen GT4 on the Nordschleife that first made me aware of the KW kit.

[Miserablegit]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AE9_teR6SX8

[Simon Owen]

Colin P said:

Out of interest, why would coilovers require more maintenance than the standard spring and shock set up?

I couldn’t explain technically but basically the damper units are often not designed for daily road type use throughout the year, performance is often (not always !!) much better, and the units much lighter but at the expense of longevity. Re-builds are often quoted as required to maintain the highest performance. I have experience of leaking units and when I questioned the supplier I was advised they needed regular servicing - not straightforward as they clearly need removing from the car to do so. Before purchasing I would check advice on this point with the suppliers. Matt at Spires view was that this could easily be avoided via appropriate seals to the damper unit.

Advice seems very dependant on use, i.e. for racing it could be as low as 10-15hrs but for street/road use 12-18k miles.

Edited by Simon Owen on Monday 2nd October 12:18

[Liam22]

The other consideration for aftermarket dampers is their use of spherical bearings (aka rose joints, uniballs) for the mounting points. Great for precision, less good for everything else. They wear very quickly in my experience. This is a large amount of the Bilstein's appeal.

[Simon Owen]

Liam22 said:

The other consideration for aftermarket dampers is their use of spherical bearings (aka rose joints, uniballs) for the mounting points. Great for precision, less good for everything else. They wear very quickly in my experience. This is a large amount of the Bilstein's appeal.

Yeah agreed, I know some of the aftermarket guys were considering two options depending on track vs road use, the road versions using more traditional matalastic (i think is the right term ?) bushes, with a slight drop off in performance but improvement in NVH and I assume longevity ?

[AL Peen]

Hi there everyone. I've been avidly reading the forum for some time with a possible Alpine purchase on the cards. I went ahead and delivery is scheduled for Spring 2024. I have some thoughts on this suspension thread but also on wheels and the Alpine buying experience.

1) BUYING

Cardiff is by far my nearest dealer, so despite the poor reviews on here I rang in July to arrange a test drive on the basis I didn't have to necessarily buy from them. Sales number was diverted to main switchboard, assured salesman (out with customer) would ring back. Never did.

Rang Solihull. Exactly the same scenario.

Rang Banbury. Salesman out on test drive (again !). Received a call back an hour later from Tim, ex of Solihull parish. Test drive arranged, all good, order placed.

So four months later I'm still waiting a return call from Cardiff and Solihull !


2) WHEELS


I ordered a basic spec of Alpine white with 17' wheels with the intention of having PPF fitted as this will be by far the most expensive car I've bought. Incidentally I looked at 2nd hand cars but the prices were either marginally less than brand new or premiere editions with 20k miles.

I've arranged a full Satin PPF to disguise the 'plain' white, along with a Tricolour and ceramic coating. Should look good but certainly not cheap. I've been looking at lightweight alloys to replace the OEM cast 17' wheels. The 17' cast are actually 2 kg lighter in total (all 4 wheels) than the 18' forged Fuchs.

OZ and ProRace 1.2s are hideously expensive and don't come in the correct width / offset / PCD, take your pick. Sparco flow formed FF1s are available in exactly the correct fitting but only come in black and are very marginally lighter than OEM !

Settled on 2 Forge Z1s (flow formed wheels rather than forged, despite the name) but then discovered they're only 1 kg per wheel lighter than OEM. I know every gram of unsprung weight counts, but I decided to save the £1k spend and put it towards a suspension upgrade.


3) SUSPENSION


I intend to run the car initially on the OEM to gather impressions. OEM dampers are twin tube rather than the superior mono-tube designs, so I think it's inevitable I'll upgrade. The obvious start is the Life 110 Pro-springs as I'll certainly lower the car. Lower COG is almost a free upgrade. Rather than the Bilstein dampers I think I'd fore go the Life springs and go straight to the coil over option.

There seems 3 options, the new AST (Life 110), KW V1s or Nitron R1, which no one seems to have mentioned and is the most expensive option.

AST and Nitron have 20 clicks of combined compression / rebound adjustment, while KW offers independent compression and rebound. The Nitron build would seem to allay some of the 'leaking / built to last' issues posted above. AST and KW are around £2.4k while Nitron R1s are around £2.8k

Then again do I need 20 settings when I'd probably only ever use 3 - tootling down to Tesco once a week / motorway slog / B road blast.

Personally I found the passive Koni FSD (Frequency Selective Dampers) I had on a previous hot hatch to be utterly brilliant. One notch down from the Ohlin Dual Valve dampers.

Anyway that's my initial thoughts. All the best.

[Julian Thompson]

Oh my gosh are you my alter ego? Meet my brand new white standard car getting satin PPF for all the reasons you say….



I’ve trial painted the standard wheels and think I’ll go for some Bola forged ones in 17 inch as those can be made to order to the offsets one wants. I’m thinking about different suspension options before I do anything. So far I’ve not actually driven it as I trailered it from the dealer.

PS also take a look at Arno from RS Performance in Switzerland - top guy and has his RSC suspension kit available for the car - it’s a little more pricey than the others but seems extremely impressive.

Edited by Julian Thompson on Saturday 21st October 16:07

[AL Peen]

Looking good !

I was going for Abyss Blue, but after running an MX5 for the past four years, with it's low bonnet and soft Japanese paint, I decided to save my pennies and invest in PPF. It'll be done by Topaz in Bristol which annoyingly is only 4 miles from Portbury Docks, where the car will arrive. It'll then be trucked to Banbury for PDI and handover, before being trailered back to Bristol !

Topaz have a dedicated 'decal' guy visiting their four workshops around the country.

Did you go for any options at all Julian ? I ordered floor mats, blue interior stitching and blue brake callipers. Circa £550, which is still extortionate.

[Julian Thompson]

SORRY FOR THE SLIGHT THREAD HIJACK

AL Peen said:

Looking good !

I was going for Abyss Blue, but after running an MX5 for the past four years, with it's low bonnet and soft Japanese paint, I decided to save my pennies and invest in PPF. It'll be done by Topaz in Bristol which annoyingly is only 4 miles from Portbury Docks, where the car will arrive. It'll then be trucked to Banbury for PDI and handover, before being trailered back to Bristol !

Topaz have a dedicated 'decal' guy visiting their four workshops around the country.

Did you go for any options at all Julian ? I ordered floor mats, blue interior stitching and blue brake callipers. Circa £550, which is still extortionate.

No, I got the floor mats chucked in and have only blue stitching, so total £100 in options - my invoice was almost exactly £50k on the road.

My PPF guy is absolutely and totally brilliant as well as being a super nice guy - you’d be welcome to check my car out but it is inch perfect (I’m fussy!) and my invoice is £3.5k for the full car. Last time I was quoted for a full car by Topaz it was some crazy number beginning with a 6.

He also did some PPF on my SL including some super see through stuff on the windscreen and that turned out amazing too:



I actually collected my car myself first and whacked it in my trailer at the dealership, then dropped it off for PPF where it still is now. I’ve done the wheels Porsche Indigo Blue - they look cool I think and I’ll probably order the Bola wheels in that colour. I’m just waiting for Tony993 on the “Alpine wheels thread” to fit his new 17’s to see what his offsets look like before I go ahead and order them.

Few pics of the above paragraph:







And now from another angle:



Edited to add, if you’re wanting the black badges from the “s” model which I think suit the white car much better then check out the other thread I started called “alpine badge replacement” as alpine were a nightmare trying to get those parts! The only parts guy I got common sense out of was the Solihull dealer.

Edited by Julian Thompson on Saturday 21st October 20:16

[LE62NDE]

Julian Thompson said:

No, I got the floor mats chucked in and have only blue stitching, so total £100 in options - my invoice was almost exactly £50k on the road.

My PPF guy is absolutely and totally brilliant as well as being a super nice guy - you’d be welcome to check my car out but it is inch perfect (I’m fussy!) and my invoice is £3.5k for the full car. Last time I was quoted for a full car by Topaz it was some crazy number beginning with a 6.

He also did some PPF on my SL including some super see through stuff on the windscreen and that turned out amazing too:



I actually collected my car myself first and whacked it in my trailer at the dealership, then dropped it off for PPF where it still is now. I’ve done the wheels Porsche Indigo Blue - they look cool I think and I’ll probably order the Bola wheels in that colour. I’m just waiting for Tony993 on the “Alpine wheels thread” to fit his new 17’s to see what his offsets look like before I go ahead and order them.

Few pics of the above paragraph:







And now from another angle:



Edited to add, if you’re wanting the black badges from the “s” model which I think suit the white car much better then check out the other thread I started called “alpine badge replacement” as alpine were a nightmare trying to get those parts! The only parts guy I got common sense out of was the Solihull dealer.

Edited by Julian Thompson on Saturday 21st October 20:16

The 'Alpine' lettering would look great in the indigo blue!

[Julian Thompson]

They did the blue script on the R Le Mans - I didn’t want to copy it too much but I agree it would look good. It’s so easy to make a mess of styling a car so I might chicken out just in case I don’t like the wheels.



I did see that Alpine F1 use a deep solid blue for their wheels, and wondered about copying that for mine:



Anyway, back to dampers for a moment

I’m definitely not going to choose the bilstein ones.

I notice that the RSC kit has separate spring preload and ride height adjustment. That seems pretty cool - it seems like the only one that has that. Has anyone here actually fitted a coil over kit that can report on things?

[AL Peen]

Bilsteins are OK upto about 8 tenths, but lose wheel control after that. They were OEM on my current MX5 30th anniversary special but the 'roly poly' springs are OEM. Swapped those for Eibach Pro which lowered by 20mm also. Job sorted. I don't drive it over 8 tenths anyway. It' a beautifully linear car you can enjoy even at low speeds.

All you need is the correct spring rate allied to quality passive dual valve mono tube dampers from Koni or Ohlins, which control sudden wheel inputs towards the limit. Bilsteins simply don't.

I can't understand why Ohlins aren't OEM when they were on RS Meganes, unless it's the extra space of the wishbone set up in the A110.

Coming back to PPF, yes Topaz are expensive but I wanted it doing by a reputable company. Tim recommend a place in Hinckley. I checked their You Tube vids and they were doing the wash / decontamination in the middle of their (busy) industrial estate! They were all wearing watches whilst applying the PPF. Easy way to scratch the paintwork. I thought no thanks.

[Julian Thompson]

AL Peen said:

Bilsteins are OK upto about 8 tenths, but lose wheel control after that. They were OEM on my current MX5 30th anniversary special but the 'roly poly' springs are OEM. Swapped those for Eibach Pro which lowered by 20mm also. Job sorted. I don't drive it over 8 tenths anyway. It' a beautifully linear car you can enjoy even at low speeds.

All you need is the correct spring rate allied to quality passive dual valve mono tube dampers from Koni or Ohlins, which control sudden wheel inputs towards the limit. Bilsteins simply don't.

I can't understand why Ohlins aren't OEM when they were on RS Meganes, unless it's the extra space of the wishbone set up in the A110.

Coming back to PPF, yes Topaz are expensive but I wanted it doing by a reputable company. Tim recommend a place in Hinckley. I checked their You Tube vids and they were doing the wash / decontamination in the middle of their (busy) industrial estate! They were all wearing watches whilst applying the PPF. Easy way to scratch the paintwork. I thought no thanks.

Yes it’s interesting that they stuck with the basic dampers even on the S model. I think I’m going to try the RSC ones and see what happens. I’m also working on some two piece rotors to fit the smaller brakes.

[Simon Owen]

worldwidewebs said:

Simon Owen said:

worldwidewebs said:

biggles330d said:

Has anyone fitted the AST coilovers that Life110 now sell. I'm curious about the road set up v standard (non- S).

Yes, there's a chap on the FB group that fitted them a week or so back. I'm due to get the track version fitted on the 14th if they're in stock

Fascinated to see what you think ? And how firm the track set up is for road use ? Out of interest did you ask about seals and maintenance, Matt at Spires was explaining to me that if designed/sealed properly then regular maintenance of the dampers shouldn't be an issue - frustratingly this isn't always the case with lots of the aftermarket coilovers ???

Fitment date of the ASTs may be pushed back - I'm waiting for David to confirm in the next day or so.

Funnily enough, I did speak with Matt about seals etc but in relation to dampers for my Elise and it sounds like he said the same thing to both of us

Hi Andy - just wondering did you have any luck with the AST’s ? And if so do you like them, have you gone road to track set up ? Hopefully be in touch soon about a catch up around Wales, not forgotten, just silly busy at the moment

[worldwidewebs]

Simon Owen said:

Hi Andy - just wondering did you have any luck with the AST’s ? And if so do you like them, have you gone road to track set up ? Hopefully be in touch soon about a catch up around Wales, not forgotten, just silly busy at the moment

Hi Simon, I was hoping to get them fitted the weekend before last so that they'd be ready for a couple of trackdays I had booked in but unfortunately they weren't ready in time. I will get them fitted but will wait until March in readiness for the new 'season'.