Coilovers for the New new new Polo

auspolo · Post by **auspolo** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:46 am

B1N9S wrote:Yes mine is lowered on H&R 25/40 springs. Looks great and rides very nice.

yep, same here

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:12 am

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your input so far (still want to see pics and specs

)

We now have enough information to start taking this development to stage 2!

Stage 2 is pretty simple really - its time to get some hands dirty.
We are now looking to develop a kit, on car, and to say thank you to UK-polos, we would like to ask you guys first

We are looking to borrow a 6R polo for around 1 week (dates unknown at the moment but we are flexible)
During this week a coilover kit will be developed on the car and it will be yours for a reduced cost.

The ideal car would be standard and with one of the smaller engines, although if required we can be flexible on this too.
the development will take place at our factory in Bicester (Near Oxford)

Could all interested parties let me know if they are interested by PM and I will pass this list to our engineers so they can choose a car from the list.

On car adjustable, Powder coated and designed for the UK's roads.
Whos interested?

gavs · Post by **gavs** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:34 am

What about Australian roads?

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:47 am

They will work on any road you can find

We choose the UK roads for 2 reasons:
a: We are kinda surrounded by them
b: Lets face it, the condition of some of our roads is pretty miserable!

If we used a smooth test track then the kits would be fine on the motorway or on track, because we use these 'less than perfect' roads, we hope that the kit will be suitable for almost any roads you can find.

(Might be quite a drive for the development phase if you are based in Australia!

although after completion, the kit will be available from our Australian distributors. )

red6n2 · Post by **red6n2** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:44 am

I don't see how anyone can miss this opportunity... GO FOR IT !!!.

Hurdy · Post by **Hurdy** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:10 pm

Personally I would like to see a monotube with stainless steel threads. I would also like to see compatibility with adjustable camper top mounts, maybe sold as an optional extra. The top mounts would please the show crew as they would be able to squeeze in other rims and would please us trackday guys for adjustable handling.

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:33 am

Hurdy wrote:Personally I would like to see a monotube with stainless steel threads. I would also like to see compatibility with adjustable camper top mounts, maybe sold as an optional extra. The top mounts would please the show crew as they would be able to squeeze in other rims and would please us trackday guys for adjustable handling.

Hi Hurdy,
Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately we do not offer Adjustable top mounts, however we design our dampers to use the original top mounts. this means that any top mount that is suitable for use with a standard damper, will work with our dampers.

Stainless threads come as standard on all SPAX coilovers, we know how hard UK weather can be on suspension components so we build them to last!

Your request for a mono tube is interesting and if you don't mind I would be interested to hear why you would like a mono tube.
Our product range only offers twin tube dampers as they are perfectly adequate for 99.99% of applications. Our dampers have been successfully used in the highest levels of Motorsport for many years.

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:41 am

red6n2 wrote:I don't see how anyone can miss this opportunity... GO FOR IT !!!.

If you have a 6R then SPAX needs you!

We want to develop this kit so that there is a kit available that is designed for the UK roads. From the kits that I have seen available in the market for the 6R, they are designed around aggressive damping curves that will suit a smooth surface. We all know that UK roads are far from smooth.

GTI international is next weekend so don't worry we wont ask for the car on those days!

If someone out there is hesitating for any reason, let me know and we can discuss the reasons.

If no one one on here is looking to Lower their 6R at the moment, tell your friends on other forums to come see this post. Not only will they get the opportunity to get involved with this development, they will also get the chance to get involved in UK-polos, which I have found particularly friendly and informative.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Hurdy · Post by **Hurdy** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:33 pm

Spax wrote: Your request for a mono tube is interesting and if you don't mind I would be interested to hear why you would like a mono tube.
Our product range only offers twin tube dampers as they are perfectly adequate for 99.99% of applications. Our dampers have been successfully used in the highest levels of Motorsport for many years.

Last year I saw a demonstration of how the monotube construction works V's twin tube. The Monotube showed a definite lack of degradation of the damping fluid compared with the twin tube construction, which I was told at the time leads to a reduction in the efficiency of the damping during heavy trackwork/racing.

The demonstration was done by Bilstein, who by coincidence (LOL) just happen to use a monotube construction.

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:28 am

Hurdy wrote:
Spax wrote: The demonstration was done by Bilstein, who by coincidence (LOL) just happen to use a monotube construction.
Indeed a coincidence lol

Hurdy wrote: Last year I saw a demonstration of how the monotube construction works V's twin tube. The Monotube showed a definite lack of degradation of the damping fluid compared with the twin tube construction, which I was told at the time leads to a reduction in the efficiency of the damping during heavy trackwork/racing.

The demonstration was done by Bilstein, who by coincidence (LOL) just happen to use a monotube construction.

I presume that the degradation that you have mentioned is due to heat build up which can thin the oil.
In a mono tube the oil is all in a single chamber that is constantly used to provide the damping resistance and does not get a chance to rest/cool.
In a twin tube there is an external reservoir that the oil passes through giving it time to rest and cool, this in turn keeps the damping consistent for longer.

If it sounds bizarre that dampers would build up heat, bear in mind that they are designed to convert movement energy into another form of energy (heat).

During road use it would be very rare to push a damper hard enough that this becomes a factor. One thing that could potentially happen in road use is an impact to the damper body. If this happens to a Twin tube, the reservoir takes the knock and the damper remains operational, on a mono tube any damage to the body/casing will jam the damper and render it useless.

Speaking as someone who does his best to find the limits of his dampers at every opportunity I can confidently say that I have never pushed a damper to a point where oil degradation has caused a fall off in performance.

A true mono tube will use a piston rod of significantly increased diameter, when this is introduced to the damper body it displaces an equivalent volume of oil from the damper, this is the reason for the external reservoir on true mono tubes. The lack of additional reservoir on a twin tube makes fitting easier and avoids additional costs.

Your comment about degradation is interesting as we pressurise our dampers using a gas called Krypton (Kr). This is an Inert gas meaning that it preserves the damper internals and due to its molecular make-up its properties remain consistent over a huge range of conditions and for a very long time.

In the (very) long term, any degradation can be offset using the adjustment. As oil degrades it gets thinner (which would make the damper softer). By adjusting the damper settings the damper can be stiffened up again, this was one of the primary concerns when adjustable dampers were first invented, the performance attributes were not realised until later.

p.s. did I mention that SPAX invented the externally adjustable twin tube damper around 60 years ago?

So who wants to be the first to put land speed record technology on their 6R? We use many common components on both our road kits, and the dampers that we have supplied for previous land speed records.
If you don't want to post in this forum for any reason, just shoot me a PM.

Hurdy · Post by **Hurdy** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:52 am

I would have stuck my hand up for this, but I am still waiting for the thing to be built

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:22 am

If no one else wants to then you might still be in with a chance.

Cant believe more people aren't interested! does this mean that no one is lowering the 6R???

red6n2 · Post by **red6n2** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:51 am

You and me both, there's a black one that near where I live that's pretty low on 15" White lenzos, the wheels really don't suit it lol.

Spax · Post by **Spax** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:27 am

red6n2 wrote:You and me both, there's a black one that near where I live that's pretty low on 15" White lenzos, the wheels really don't suit it lol.

If they are on here then it might be worth them getting in touch.

Cant believe that no one is looking at lowering their car at the moment!
You know you want to !!!

Phil-polo6R · Post by **Phil-polo6R** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:53 pm

hey there SPAX. I don't post much on here but..

i have a 1.2 polo SEL A/c (70bhp)

Ive lowered it 30mm front 25mm rear on ebaich springs, bit for me the drop isn't enough, I'm more or less going to go down the coilover root, and would happily like to help you guys engineer them for the 6R.

the only problem is I'm located in Manchester so it would be abit of a ball ache for you lads down south,

if you can work something out, you can happily use the car, Thanks Phil

UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum