R26 BC Coilovers vs Std Suspension: Feedback

Alright guys - a fair few people asking how the BC's are compared to the STD cup suspension on the R26...

After having them fitted a few weeks back, and managing to get the geometry properly done this week, I've now had a chance to go on a few good drives to see how they stack up...

For those not familiar with my car here is the important details:

Remapped to 255; Airtec IC; Pilot Super Sports (6.2mm front; 7.2mm rear @ 35psi front, 31psi rear); rear seat delete. I've owned the car for more than 12,500miles on the std suspension

The Geometry spec: Ride Height (650mm front; 660mm rear [measured from the ground to centre of wheel arch through centre of wheel]), -2 camber; 0 toe out; dampers (front 10 clicks from soft; rear 8 clicks from soft) - this set up will be a little more bias to understeer.....

The hunting grounds..........

A mix of the best drivers roads the scottish borders has to offer, a 33 mile long main trunk road with faster sweeping bends.....




A 34 mile long narrow undulating, contoured road through the valleys with changeable surfaces........




On the first wider section of the route the car did perform brilliantly, the mid bend grip is on a totally different level to what it was before, and the lack of body roll really inspires confidence: I was expecting the car to perform very well on this wider road, and it didn't dissappoint, the rear end is much more planted with the Geo I have compared to the std cup suspension, where I felt the car would break at the rear on the limit, which it has done a couple of times lol

The 2nd road, the more narrow of the 2 was where I was unsure on how the car would perform, its a road that in places, has clio 182 written all over it....



however, this is where the car started to really shine, the really tight chicane sections have a different meaning of fun vs the std cup set up, you really can throw the car into the direction changes much quicker and with more vigor........The crests and bumps on this road were not a lot of fun in the Std Cup set up, the car used to get air on a few of them, and it was more a case of riding out that section rather than being able to push it there....not the case anymore with the BCs, the extra stiffness made the car glued to the road, and only got air 2 or 3 times.....

The car now feels like it could handle a hell of a lot more power now, I mean a lot more.

The drawbacks: The one major drawback is that the limit of the car has been massively increased, it was a lot easier to reach the cornering limits of the std suspension than with the BCs, so you'll have to gauge how thats going to affect the pleasure of your own drives as it will be a lot harder to reach the limits on the road......

The ride at slower speeds in built up areas is a good deal worse than the Std set-up, again to be expected, but it is noticeably worse, I find myself really avoiding drain covers etc. The ride on the drivers roads however, is spot on...nothing like Steve Sutcliff driving the new Civic Type R on the track where his head almost goes through the roof at points.......on the motorway or longer drives I would say its 20-30% harsher, if you are fine with long journeys on the std set up I doubt this will make these too uncomfortable...

Speeds bumps are fine, just be careful on the Ambulance/Bus Friendly ones, you can catch the splitter, some of them are best negotiated by putting you wheels over the highest part of them...

Overall: Do I regret it? Not at all.....the car was on 75k and I wanted a suspension refresh and to uprate at the same time, and this killed the 2 birds with one stone for £690 from Track Focus Direct.

One thing is for sure, I HAVE to get this car on the track now, so I have a session booked next week for 2 hours

Hope this helps

Cheers,
Papps

Oh and this is how the car sits now...



Big thanks to Steve1, Mark., -Jamie-, Josh28 for all your input and help getting this stuff sorted out - much appreciated.

 

Haha cheers mate!

One thing I forgot to add in the feedback, is that it hasn't changed the 'character' or the 'spirit' of the car, its still a RS megane

 

Haha

Mick supplies and fits them and does the Geo for a set price IIRC he posted on RSUK - could bring the initial outlay down a little

 

A bit of a pain up here, I used a place 50 miles away from me: they run an MG Race car and are a Caterham/TVR & MG service centre: http://www.dreadnoughtgarage.com/

 

If you are coming up North I would go for http://kbmengineering.co.uk/ in Glasgow -this was recommended by Mark. who has a track prepped 225 with diff etc etc and they done his ASTs set up on his old Clio for him - they even have the tech to do full corner weighting should you want that done..They were my 1st choiuce, but through the main guy being off sick, and then the garage holidays I would of needed to wait a month for a slot, and I'm impatient lol

That should be a do-able drive for you mate!

 

Yeah that will be sweet! - it will take you no time to be in my mirror lol

 

I'm just on the west side of the Edin outskirts - South Queensferry Mr Tristar....

Yeah I think with the age of the Mk2 megs now (not just mileage) Loads of people are thinking about dampers now - it wasn't an easy decision to take these over the other options, I was weighing up Eibach Pro Springs and OEM shocks, or Cooksports and OEM Shocks - but decided to take the risk given how close the ££ of each of the options were....

 

Great to hear they preform well on track , especially from a man who used to have a lightweight meg on a different set-up, and now has another lightweight meg with these on haha

 

Do you stiffen up the dampers for your track sessions?

 

Not at the moment mate:

Plenty of different options for the MK3, Nitron, KW, H&R, Bilsten ec though!

 

Yeah - the BC's offer a hell of a lot of value for money - time will tell how well they are made though