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After fitting the Avo dampers
to the rear of the car I had always felt they were a bit
too stiff. In fact, at one club meeting I compared the rear
of my car, set to full soft, to the rear of Steve Motts
who had my old Spax dampers fitted and set to full hard
and I still felt the rear of my car was stiffer. The final
straw was my trip to Spain, some 2000 miles where, unless
we were on a perfectly smooth road, we were being shaken
and jarred - it made the 10hr drive from the ferry to my
parents house really tiring as I was concentrating hard
on missing bumps as much as where I was going.
I did some reading around and found that ProTech
dampers allow you to adjust the damping range, so if you
don't feel they are soft enough when set at fully soft you
can still adjust it and shift the range down, likewise at
the stiffer end of the range. They were located near a supplier
I use at work so during one visit I took a de-tour and visited
them to have a chat. I took along one of the rear Avo dampers
as an example. The guy I met had actually started Avo's
in the past and he was slightly shocked to see the damper
I had, and I don't think he felt it was made by them, rather
it was a bought in unit and badged. Certainly it would make
sense as the front alloy dampers I have are a much nicer
quality.
We had a talk and he showed me all the internal parts of
their dampers and explained how you can adjust the range,
etc. I was impressed so decided to go for a new set of rears.
I explained that I was going to Le Mans in a few weeks and
he said he would see what he could do. I still had the Avo's,
so I knew it wasn't a major problem. Thankfully they came
through and I bolted them on and set them to full soft.
A quick bounce of the rear of the car showed that they were
much more compliant.
Out for a test drive and wow - what a difference, the car
was really comfortable and easier to drive. The first roundabout
I came to I went in quite hot, seeing what the back would
do and it did roll a little bit and then started to slide,
just enough to provoke a flick of opposite lock to correct
it. Great fun - the old dampers felt like they'd have spat
you in the hedge if you tried that. I added a couple of
clicks to stiffen them up a touch and tried again and it
was perfect, still comfortable but slightly stiffer.
Thoroughly recommended company. Trouble is I'm not sure
if I should swap the fronts to match now....
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