I have been putting this particular mod off for quite a while now, but the wollowing at high speeds on uneven long bends is getting a bit scary now :shock:

The things you do to get away from M3s.

Anyway i contacted my friendly AMD clever **** and asked for his help. Unfortunately i cannot lower the suspension because of the ramp to get on and off the drive. :rant:

Here is his reply:

Hi Des

The Octaivia can be improved by using H&R springs and Koni damper to control the wallow. Using a stiffer roll bar at the front of the car will also help.To achieve this though, the centre point of gravity is lower 25 mm via the spring change, something you do not wish to do.

Dilemmas!

The change in front roll bar and damper only swap will do some good in this area, but obviously not as much as the complete job spring and all (cost

LOL! Been there done that! All the following is [b:9d488cb411]my opinion[/b:9d488cb411]

I have had the Konis and the H&R. Notice the past tense? They are gone. The H&R springs are shorter than the standard ones, which in itself makes them slightly stiffer and they are probably good springs. I prefer Eibachs, but Amd wouldn't sell them to me. Yes I had the Konis, my personal thought is don't do it. The rears on full stiffness are not as stiff as the standard RS ones and although they are adjustable, you have to take them off the car to adjust them :roll: Fronts are about the same as the standard ones, possibly slightly stiffer and are easy to adjust. I believe the reason relating to the rear is that they are Golf IV ones and the weight over the rear on a Golf is different to that of the Octavia. I have "discussed" this at great length with Scott and we agreed to disagree on this one

So what options do you have?

1. Keep standard springs and fit different dampers

2. Fit the KW suspension (which is nice and the springs and dampers are matched) not cheap (about

My RS will feature Ohlins+eibach this summer! As you all know nothing beats Ohlins when it comes to handling!

Proflex? Reiger?

:mrgreen:

Jon wrote,

Flipping loads. :shock:

All very informative. I will go with the roll bars to start me thinks

thanks mate. 8)

I'm thinking of just lowering mine with H&R lowerin springs. Due to the price on the KW's, and becouse the standard dampers are pretty stiff if you compare to the Koni's, as said before.

So what do you say John, what do you think just changing the spring will do to the handling of the car? More/Less understeer? and so on..

Again, all in my opinion

I have been the H&R route and took them off. Yes they did lower the car, too much for me as I do actually like to carry things in the boot and with the 225 tyres on they rubbed sometimes, especially round corners. I didn't find them that much stiffer than the standard springs to be honest. I felt that the initial stiffness was better than the standard, but IIRC they are progressive springs whereas the standard ones are linear (that should confuse people )

Right, how to improve the handling? That deserves a book in itself, well actually there are quite a few books about it out there.

When I get my webspace working, I'll post up some flow diagrams for you which may point you in the right direction.

Make sure you sort out stiffness at the rear as well with an ARB - otherwise you'll find your new found stiffness just means you go straight on!

Mark

Hi all,

I am Mircea from Romania, RS owner

I have a question for Jon (TaviaRS):

You mentioned that you had Konis....

I am looking to change the dampers on my car, because we have bad roads here and the stiff suspension is not exactly a good choice, especially for urban driving.

However, when I drive fast I would like to have a suspension similar with the existing one (this happens about once at two months :( ).

Do you think that standard RS springs and Konis will be good for me?

How soft/stiff they can get relative to the standard RS suspension?

Thank you,

Mircea.

Proflex? Reiger?

:mrgreen:[/quote:64ec3a99d9]

I would add my personal experience on suspension mods. As I consulted the guys in Skoda here in Athnes, they adviced Eibach springs (lowering the car by 3.5-4cm) and absorbers as they said from Skoda Motorsport (they do not know what these are exactly, but in another forum they told me that Skoda Motorsport might be using Reigers or Proflex).

The car has much better handling, the suspension is certainly harder than that of a standard RS and the car is even lower than an RS. Such lowering is still acceptable, as to the drivability, but you always have to be careful over ramps, etc...

Chris

Again, all in my opinion

I have been the H&R route and took them off. Yes they did lower the car, too much for me as I do actually like to carry things in the boot and with the 225 tyres on they rubbed sometimes, especially round corners. I didn't find them that much stiffer than the standard springs to be honest. I felt that the initial stiffness was better than the standard, but IIRC they are progressive springs whereas the standard ones are linear (that should confuse people )[/quote:d9f45740f2]

I just bought H&R

[img:7a0e5ded9d]http://213.113.222.155/Pictures/Nurburg/P7190042.JPG[/img:7a0e5ded9d]

Tackar Mattias!

Ah, my car! Seems to lower the rear more than the front IIRC. Yes, that was the H&R springs

Continuing on the rideheight discussion here I want to add that I had another chat with the Skoda people.

Because of the Dutch speed-bump plague they advised me not to go too low with sports springs. The Eibachs would get me well below RS rideheight, and their experience is that I would have to mount several of the higher speed bumps around Amsterdam sideways in order not to damage my front spoiler! I come across a couple of those on a daily basis, so I'll heed to their advice...

So we are now looking at alternatives that will drop the car to about RS height. One that seems okay is this one offered by yet another Dutch suspension company called MAD.

Anyone familiar with these guys?

Originally posted by Dutch4x4

Continuing on the rideheight discussion here I want to add that I had another chat with the Skoda people.

Because of the Dutch speed-bump plague they advised me not to go too low with sports springs. The Eibachs would get me well below RS rideheight, and their experience is that I would have to mount several of the higher speed bumps around Amsterdam sideways in order not to damage my front spoiler! I come across a couple of those on a daily basis, so I'll heed to their advice...

So we are now looking at alternatives that will drop the car to about RS height. One that seems okay is this one offered by yet another Dutch suspension company called MAD.

Anyone familiar with these guys?

I have nerver heard of MAD and i must say that a company name like that doens't exactly help credability:rolleyes: However, I would suggest some of the more renowned manufacturers like H&R, Bilstein, Eibach or maybe

i'm going to buy JSS springs -45mm on the regular octavia

www.shockabsorber.com

:drive:

Turbo, on which planet do you live? :eek:

Or are you planning to put your car on a trailer pulled by a Landcruiser and use it for track days only?

In this thread I've stumbled on figures of 30 to 40 and now even 45mm below standard height - that would be well below the RS ground clearance. I've tried an RS on many of my usual routes around Amsterdam and found that most of the speed bumps must be taking at creeping speeds, while some can only be taken through some very strange manoeuvering. Even then, I smacked a couple of them - some with the front spoiler, others with the exhaust, which particularly worried me as it wasn't my car!

My point is - that was using a car that is 15 to 30mm higher up than what some of you have done or are planning. Going any lower would mean that several speed bumps - those in Holland at least - would become impossible to clear, unless you use some sort of active hydraulics, or do them backwards. :eek:

For one, I wouldn't be able to pick up the new car from the dealer, as he has two huge - and I mean massive - speed bumps right in front of his main building!

This experience had led me to shy away from indulging in an all-out lowering fest, as I will be using the 4x4 as a daily driver. So for me it's 30mm down from 4x4 height, tops. The dealer is working on another 4x4 with a similar set-up, so at least I can see the result before committing to it myself.

Originally posted by Turbo

Originally posted by Chrille

The "regular Octavia"? You have more than one?

yes I do, but that's not the point :cheers:

45 mm on a regular octavia and 30 mm on the RS.. that's what the lowering will be.

Originally posted by Turbo

Originally posted by Chrille

Ok, I see. And I do know the RS is 15mm lower than other octavias. I expect mine to get aprox: 20mm lower than that tomorrow night :cheers:

Which again begs the question - how will you deal with speed bumps?

I can't imagine they don't exist in a politically-correct country such as Sweden... :p

Or will you be using the cars for track days only?

Originally posted by Dutch4x4

Which again begs the question - how will you deal with speed bumps?

I can't imagine they don't exist in a politically-correct country such as Sweden... :p

Or will you be using the cars for track days only?

Hehe, offcourse they exist but I just have to take it slower when going over them.Maybe they arent as high and "pionty" as they appear to be in Holland? As soon as I get my digicamera I can take some pictures of some swedish speedbumps, hehe :cheers: Though called RS it

Dutch4x4 asked:

Which again begs the question - how will you deal with speed bumps?

Matt, isn't that what the hillholder is for, along with coping with polders and multi-story car parks?

Of course it is, so you'll understand my astonishment that no other manufacturer has picked up on the idea! :p

(And seriously, VAG has so many buyers in the Alpine countries and Germany itself of course, where its practicality is hugely obvious. So come on, Wolfsburg, it's really a simple device - you'll have no trouble stealing it from Subaru )