Estate ride height - vRS v Elegance on Bilstein Pro Kit

[Brimma]

Just thought I'd put these up for a comparison

vRS

lowered Elegance

[The Plumber]

Wonder the MOD plod/Plumbers didn't come and blow your car up parked there

TP

[vRSy]

have you upragrded the brakes to 312s? They look bigger than the vRS brakes.

Definitely a better stance on yours.

[Brimma]

have you upragrded the brakes to 312s? They look bigger than the vRS brakes.

Definitely a better stance on yours.

Thanks Sy

Brakes are standard, and only drums on the back :(

[Yeti_Man]

But the elegance alloys are an inch smaller? (Making the disks appear bigger possibly?)

[gadgetman]

The VRS' are conservatively lowered.

My Octy Elegance with the factory 17" + sports suspension option is lower than the VRS is. IIRC VRS is 15mm lower, mine is 25mm??

[Brimma]

But the elegance alloys are an inch smaller? (Making the disks appear bigger possibly?)

This is true......will be the 17" version next year

[Yeti_Man]

This is true......will be the 17" version next year

Nice. I really must be getting old as the elegance with the smaller wheels and slightly deeper sidewalls looks far better to me!

[Brimma]

Nice. I really must be getting old as the elegance with the smaller wheels and slightly deeper sidewalls looks far better to me!

I am old, but I still like 17s

The Bilsteins do a great job of smoothing the ride out

[vRSy]

only drums on the back :(

:( shocked at that tbh, I cant believe cars still come with drums these days

[Brimma]

:( shocked at that tbh, I cant believe cars still come with drums these days

I was when the Monte had them...........having said that it's only got 105 horses to stop

[vRSy]

it still weighs over 1200kg though!! It wasnt so bad in the older days with the fiestas and clios that weighed less than a grand. typical skoda penny pinching i think. Just like not having a rear interior light

[OzFabia]

Current Fiestas still have rear drums as well. Stop well enough, to be honest.

[Confide]

I don't see a problem with drum-brakes on a low-powered car.

If anything, it's a good thing!

Weak motor = weak performance

Weak performance = less stress on the car

Less stress on the car = rust on discs

Rust on discs = *sigh*

So yeah, I see no problem with drums.

[Yeti_Man]

Brakes are standard, and only drums on the back :(

I really wouldn't worry about it. I've done a few drum to disk conversion on the back of cars (one weighing 1100 and one weighing 1400kg) and the difference when running standard power is negligible. :-)

[Ad Lav]

Brimma - the test vs a vRS height will show more when you have 17's on it

Be interesting to see as I may get the Eibach springs offer from Skoda on my vRS.

[Brimma]

Brimma - the test vs a vRS height will show more when you have 17's on it

Whether they are 16" or 17" wheels, it's tyre to arch gap which matters

[vRSy]

The outer diameter of the tyre will be the same across the whole range of fabias irrespective of alloy size, so as brimma said, arch gap is what matters.

[Ad Lav]

Ah, I see

In that case how much did it lower yours by? 20mm?

[Brimma]

20mm rear, 30mm front, according to the literature

[@Lee]

slightly off topic but a mate's got a Nissan Navara pickup, with drums on the rear and God knows what that weighs with it's pig iron chassis!

Back to it, that looks really nice, Bryan. Still umming and ahhing about lowering my lowly (er, high up lowly) MkI Ele. Got the 16" L&K Octy rims to go on after winter

[SJRT]

20mm rear, 30mm front, according to the literature

20mm rear, 30mm front, according to the literature

Now that you have had the new suspension for a while do you still rate the ride quality? Is it firmer than standard?

I had a loan Monte recently with 17" rims and Dunlops and and was surprised that I preferred the ride to my 1.2TSI Elegance 16" with Contis. I guess the sportier springs on the Monte and slightly lower C of G allow slightly softer springs to be used.

Did you take a chance that you would like it or did you find anywhere that had a demo available?

Sorry lots of questions!

[Brimma]

I had a Monte hatch before this and the ride quality felt worse on that than this with the Bilsteins

That could have had something to do with the lower profile tyres of the Monte

Overall I'd rate the Bilstein kit very highly, so much so that I'm contemplating getting a set for my Octavia in place of the VMaxx coilovers

[vRSy]

I have tried the B12 Bilstein kits on Mk5 Golfs and Mk2 Octavias. On both cars both resulted in a much more refined, comfy and less crashy ride than the stock setup.

I dont think i could be persuaded to buy coilovers for a car again unless its truly going to be a track car.