Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: analogmike on Monday,July 11, 2016, 01:03:37 PM
-
Hi,
My Konis on my '74 are SHOT... so I need new shocks. I could get them rebuilt (not bad $ at Truesport) but takes time and I think the Konis are a bit stiff. I found SPAX and GAZ for sale in the UK pretty cheap.
gazcoilovers.com has the fronts with adjustable perch for about 90 pounds, but I don't see rears.
What models and vendors are recommended nowadays? Exchange rate makes British things pretty cheap right now.
-
Always keen to help our exports, so here goes..... ;)
It depends what you're looking for, standard spring rates or uprated and you can get either from UK suppliers. Banks Engineering sell (or used to do) both uprated & standard set-ups and Richard is probably one of the most knowledgeable guys on the Europa scene so the advice you get will be good. Joe has put a link to Banks is in the Vendor list.
I bought mine from SJS Sports cars, again with higher rate springs although they do both. SJS only seem to offer adjustable dampers these days which are aluminium bodied units. A few other guys here have the same or similar set-ups.
http://www.sjsportscars.co.uk/index.php?mod=10 (http://www.sjsportscars.co.uk/index.php?mod=10)
Watch out for carriage though, I would imagine that's expensive for a full set of dampers/springs.
-
I certainly want to encourage trade between the UK and the US, but I would expect either Dave Bean or r.d. enterprises to be able to supply you with Spax or other quality shocks. I have Spax that seem to work well. I used to have Koni and heard that they tended to be harsh, but they could be rebuilt (they used to rebuild shocks for free at the SCCA Runoffs (amateur road racing championships), but that was a while ago. I don't remember where I got my Spax. I think it was Dave Bean, but it could easily be Richard at Banks Service Station (Brian is right - Richard probably knows more about Europas than any man alive... likely any man ever!).
-
As you noted, the Konis are rebuildable and adjustable as well. You could have them rebuilt and then reset them to a lighter setting. Unfortunately, the Konis can only be adjusted when they are disassembled -- a major drawback in my books. The shocks that Richard sells are fully adjustable for ride height and preload as well as having an external adjustment for the damping -- well worth the price of admission.