Scottish Elises

Guys,

Just back from the Autosport International in Birmingham and was speaking with a few suspension companies while down there. Has anyone had any experience of Gaz Shocks on their Lotus? 600 bucks for a kit including VAT & delivery. After speaking with Nitron they were double that price.
For fast road/track day use only would the Gaz Shocks be fit for purpose?

They get a pretty poor write up on here Craig, and have seen similar comments on other Forums.

tut

Basically pants... There was a review last year in one of the magazines, independent and very detailed.

The problem with most cheap adjustable shocks is that there is a dead band when the shock changes from compression to rebound. Gaz were one of the worst with all four of a "set of four" being completely different.

They tested a set of non adjustable Bilstiens that were about the same price and they were significantly better.

Stick with the factory set up or spend at least £1200 on a decent set of proper Nitrons from Hofmann's or one of the other specialists who do actually know what they are doing.

Craig,
Gaz and Protech are the cheap end of the suspension market and to do your car justice you should be looking at Nitrons as Vic mentioned. You have a bunch of choices 1, 2 and 3 way but really best bet is a set of Hoffam upgraded single ways. Tell them what you intend doing with the car and they will advise which spring rates and then valve them accordingly. Cost a bit more than standard Nitron's but worth the extra, they did all the donkey work figuring out what works and what doesn't. After that a full geo and you have one sweet handling Exige. Just search Seloc for Nitrons and you'll soon see a familiar trend develop.

Link to Hoffmans Nitron's page here

Thanks guys, had a feeling that similar comments to that were on their way when i posted up.
Think i might just bite the bullet and buy some Nitrons. Any other essential modd'ed advised while doing the shocks?
Front roll bar? Bushes? Or is a set of Nitrons and a good Geo Setup enough for fast road and/or a few track days every year?

Thanks

Anyone heard any news of the Nitron Street Series ?

Depends how far you want to go, OE bushes are the best, so no point changing to poly's or nitrol. Only other option is Nitron/Hoffman sphericals which would be a bit over kill for the road. 1" adj ARB from Hoffans is a decent upgrade on original.
Might want a set of either padgids or carbone lorraines pads if your tracking it along with steel braided hoses. For the S2 Lotus recommend the rear toe link double shear bar and accusump but not sure if either are necessary.

If your bushes are in good condition there is no point in changing them. Nitrons, especially the Hoffmans that are on N3 with Randy's recommended spring rates, are superb on both the road and track and will cut down roll considerably.

A stronger adjustable anti roll bar would be worth considering, I have the standard S1 on and cannot justify the expense of upgrading, plus I am doing less track days than I used to and not competing anymore.

You of course would need all the help that you could get.



tut

Remember Mike that Craig has an Exige S with the sports kit. Does that not have some upgrades anyway?

tut

Not sure how much of stuff you get with the packs don't think you get any of the track gear, more like bigger brakes, harnesses etc. Craig you see what its got by having a sniff about, all the stuff mentioned you can see without removing anything.