Protech dampers
Discussion
I have the same dilemma. What puts me off the monotube shocks are the quoted short time between rebuild, in some cases 100 road hours. I have just recently bought a set of protechs for my Westfield. Why am I telling you this, well there is a company in Birmingham who set up a lot of the Westfield for racing series, they have done rather a lot of development work with the protech dampers and have a very good reputation amongst the Westfield fraternity. They take the single adjustable unit and modify it to change the ratio between bounce and rebound making it more suitable for light weight cars, they also change the oil, springs etc to make it suitable for your application. After that they are then balanced and sent out to you. You can then fit them to your car and take it there for a full set up, corner weights, geometry and bump steer etc and you get involved in the whole process so you get to understand why and how etc. They are called Procomp. They charged me £518 for a set of dampers / springs and then it's about £200 for a full mornings set up. Maybe they can do similar for TVRs?
Follow this link:
http://www.procomp.co.uk/
Follow this link:
http://www.procomp.co.uk/
AST also do adjustable shocks and dampers, they have a good reputation. Racing Green TVR sell the kits.
I have used AST on a previous STI and they performed very well, not too hard , gave confidence for taking speed into a corner, something which I don't have with my Chim.
So I am also on hunt for upgrading my suspension, my Chim is not going to spend all its time on the race track. So need a compliant suspension for the road i.e. bumpy roads, crappy road surfaces and A to B roads, not lots of motorway.
Oh and I don't want to be taking it apart every few months to service.
Anything must be better than my current worn setup, but the question is what to replace it with? What is best for the track is not necessary best for the road.
I have used AST on a previous STI and they performed very well, not too hard , gave confidence for taking speed into a corner, something which I don't have with my Chim.
So I am also on hunt for upgrading my suspension, my Chim is not going to spend all its time on the race track. So need a compliant suspension for the road i.e. bumpy roads, crappy road surfaces and A to B roads, not lots of motorway.
Oh and I don't want to be taking it apart every few months to service.
Anything must be better than my current worn setup, but the question is what to replace it with? What is best for the track is not necessary best for the road.
Andav469 said:
Why not fit a new set of Bilsteins? A perfectly good set up for road use
2nd that, I've never had a problem with mine, they do every thing from drag racing to shopping trips, and do it wellWhen people say a aftermarket set transform the car it's because you're 15 year old billes need a refurb
Let me know how you're protech's are doing after 15 years, I bet they won't even last 10!
Edited by GasMunkey on Sunday 31st March 22:31
I had protechs on my Griff, set up by Top Cats Racing. Very good fast road, light track set up.
At about seven years old they were returned to protech for a refurb. Received pretty much new dampers in good time and a very reasonable cost. Good for another 7-10 years I suspect, probably outlive the chassis anyway.
At about seven years old they were returned to protech for a refurb. Received pretty much new dampers in good time and a very reasonable cost. Good for another 7-10 years I suspect, probably outlive the chassis anyway.
Thanks for all the replies guys, very helpful, only just got my internet back! So Protech dampers should be okay then. I only asked because I am looking at a second hand set that are supposed to be nearly new, thought they might be a bargain if the price is right. Going to do full suspension refurb this summer.
GasMunkey said:
2nd that, I've never had a problem with mine, they do every thing from drag racing to shopping trips, and do it well
When people say a aftermarket set transform the car it's because you're 15 year old billes need a refurb
Let me know how you're protech's are doing after 15 years, I bet they won't even last 10!
Another thumbs up for the standard set up. A new set of Eibach springs and Bilsteins transformed my 12 year old car. The ride is exceptionally good as well. When people say a aftermarket set transform the car it's because you're 15 year old billes need a refurb
Let me know how you're protech's are doing after 15 years, I bet they won't even last 10!
Edited by GasMunkey on Sunday 31st March 22:31
Green is good said:
Thanks for all the replies guys, very helpful, only just got my internet back! So Protech dampers should be okay then. I only asked because I am looking at a second hand set that are supposed to be nearly new, thought they might be a bargain if the price is right. Going to do full suspension refurb this summer.
If that's the set for sale with the breakers up in the north east, don't bother. There is no such thing as a good deal there!My Bilsteins were fine, in my lowly opinion, for the first 7 years or so. Time came they needed changing, had some very bad experiences with some other company's shocks (3 sets, all of which failed within a month each), finally fitted a set of Protechs, and with a (very) little fiddling with tyre pressures, ride height and damper settings, they feel great.
Of course, a Chimaera on Toyo's and Protechs has a very different feel to one on S02s and Bilsteins.
But personally I think the greater difference is the tyres.
New Protech are likely a bit cheaper than a full set of Bilstein. But as others say; there was nothing wrong with the Bilsteins.
Of course, a Chimaera on Toyo's and Protechs has a very different feel to one on S02s and Bilsteins.
But personally I think the greater difference is the tyres.
New Protech are likely a bit cheaper than a full set of Bilstein. But as others say; there was nothing wrong with the Bilsteins.
rigga said:
Those protechs from the breaker second hand are not far off what I paid for a brand new set, as said above I wouldn't deal with those guys after having a brush with them recently.
Exactly! You only have to look at the price of everything else they have for sale to see that they are taking the pi$$! If everyone avoided them like the plague the TVR world would be a better place....... I took a trip down to Protech yesterday after seeing them at the Neil Garner open day, to get some new dampers for the G33. Its a "traditional" small engineering company with a workshop full of machining equipment and a huge array of parts to make up the dampers. They happily gave me the time to have a look around at the testing of my old dampers to get a compression / rebound rate on a test rig so the new ones could be matched and then they made up a set of 4 dampers to my spec' as I waited. The single adjustable units can be tailored for different compression and rebound rates by fitting different pistons if you wish. The best bit not a Chinese part to be seen anywhere, and I for one will try and help keep this part of remaining British manufacturing going with my cash. I cant pass comment on the road behavior yet, as the G33 chassis is pretty poor to start with and it takes some time to adjust for any changes- I just hope in my case that the reduction of un-sprung mass by using aluminium instead of steel dampers and the use of spherical bearings will allow more precise suspension control.
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