Well, thanks to everyone for opinions, and information on suspension over the past few months.
In the end, I got a cracking offer from Travelinlite for the ones I decided on, which was Projekt Lows, Koni / Eibach. Ended up with meyle hd top mounts, drop links, bump stops, dust covers and the suspension for £1325, as a customer ordered the wrong coils and it was open box with a couple of scratches, so but if discount then I ordered the rest at full price.
I fitted it all last night after work while it was dry out, and as far as suspension goes, it was probably one of the easiest I’ve done, no doubt due to it being a t32. It took approx 1.5hrs front (including wrestling with the bottom drop link bolts) and about 2hrs on the back, but that was mostly due to having to mess about repositioning axle stands and jacks several times, and me losing the rubber gaskets for the adjusters and a couple of bolts on the driveway in the dark!
Anyhow, I started at the bottom, because why not? I didn’t expect it to work, I’ve got 275 35 20’s and the front tyres were ‘almost’ flush with the arch. But when I had the wheels off, I pushed the arch liner up, then heated up the arch, rubber hammered the tab up and about 6” in that area at the top which made some more room.
A few pics attached I’ve yet to get an alignment, but it drives well. Much less roll, much more planted feel (no bouncing and crashing / bobbing around on country lanes) and speed bumps etc are much more easily soaked up (rather than thudding and bouncing over them).
So far I’m impressed. Were they everything I expected? Honestly, no. But then I had no bench mark at all. It does definitely handle more like a car, and I no longer feel like I am taking my life in my hands doing 60 on a rough windy B road. In fact I went into a bend at 80 last night that I would normally poop my pants at 60 without realising and instead of my concern being stability, it was whether the tyres were up to it!
At full price, including getting someone to fit, I’d have been looking at £1800 plus an alignment (£1900 at some retailers as they charge another £100 for the kit). Right now it owes me £1320 and a few cuts / bruises, but when I do something myself I replace bolts, clean the suspension arms, check all the bushes, clear out / van the bulkhead, clean up lots of other stuff which most garages just wouldn’t do.
So with all that do I think it is worth it? I think at £1300 yes, but, I wouldn’t be paying close to 2k for it. I don’t have any experience of cheaper coils like the £300-£600 ones, but I imagine they would be poorly damped and crashy / bouncy in comparison. I’ve had a lot of cars and a lot of suspension set ups and to me, this ‘feels’ 100% on par with suspension on a premium sports GT, like my old AMG merc, and probably even a little better than the almost identical koni setup on our abarths (with koni red activ shockers) but thats mostly due to the rear beam setup bouncing you over stuff!). To my ttrs setup, its perhaps 70% of the same feel, but of course no comparison in terms of the chassis and grip levels.
But I can’t help feel that maybe, if you don’t want the lows, that a nice quality set of springs, and replacement shocks would be cheaper and give the same result in terms of performance, so way more bang for your buck.
For me, I wanted more of a drop too, so had to pay the price for coils.
Overall it looked like a well built quality setup, and whilst it does ‘transform’ the van into a more sports car like ride, and make it way safer and quicker point to point, I just don’t think it’s worth normally paying almost 2k for.
Cheers.
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I also wanted to be at least 90mm down to take out the arch gap, and solows are too low, so this was in the sweet spot in the end. STX and H&R didn’t give the drop I wanted.
