We are looking at the start of September for a release date I would guess.

Of course it does depend on the testing and test results.

Cutaway of a BC damper, this is actually a Evo7 Damper but the one used on the Front of your Fiats is very similar.

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd401/Kev-BC-Racing/2011-08-17104026.jpg

I wasn't sure what "de carbon" was so asked the factory and they also haven't heard that term.

The coilover is a true monotube, and the valving is on the piston. I posted a picture of a cutaway damper above ^^^^

Christian Bourcier de Carbon invented the hydraulic shock absorber (in 1953) and for many years made and sold dampers under the DeCarbon trademark. The company was bought by Delphi in 1997 and recently sold again to a Chinese manufacturer.

Well the new rear damper seems to be spot on, adjustment is accessible, the damper is mounted upside down.

Just a little more testing and I think we will be ready to launch the kit in early September.

Is anybody interested in one of the kits as soon as they are available - if so mail me kev (AT) bc-racing.co.uk and I'll mail you as soon as they are available to order. Please replace with @ its just to stop the spam-bots.

tempting

tempting

It's a bit of a shock - pardon the pun - that the factory did not know about De Carbon:

High pressure gas monotube damper patented by Christian Bourcier de Carbon in 1953.

Christian Bourcier de Carbon founded the De Carbon company in the same year 1953 when he invented the monotube high pressure gas shock absorber. Soon after a license was sold to Bilstein in Germany. Now that the patent has expired also other companies such as Koni use the monotube technology for their top range dampers. Today the De Carbon technology is preferred by car makers such as Ferrari, Lamborgini, Maserati and Lotus.

Its probably just the terminology, as the factory always use "Momotube" or "Twin Tube"

We have solved the damping adjustment at the rear, but are still working on perfecting the rear damping rates before releasing the kit, thanks.

We are now on the latest and hopefully final damper setup/damping levels for the rear (the front was spot on first time). The newest rear dampers were fitted earlier this week and we are just running through some tests before final release.

I believe Delta Parts will be tacking their "sausage" to your trackday in November for anybody wanting a closer look

Good news

I did send you an email last week to see how they were coming on.

Won't be around for the track day but if you could give a report on how they are I would appreciate it.

Just realized I'm not in this thread yet, so here goes: Interested!

sm_sxoc ,just out of interest have you got the standard spring rates front and rear?

Sorry I dont.

Any adjustment for a caster , or just a camber on the top mount ?
And these coilovers have separate adjustment for a height , right ?

Topmounts just for Camber.

Ride-height adjustment independent of spring pre-load.

Thanks

Sm_sxoc... How different will these be compared to the ones that K-sport make?

I don't have specific knowledge of the KSport Coilovers for the Fiat, and we stopped doing the KSport Coilovers a number of years ago due to the quality being generally low, especially the damper quality in terms of ride and reliability.
The BC Coilovers have a much higher ride quality, performance and reliability.

In terms of on-paper spec they are probably similar, adjustable height, damping and camber front topmount.

Any rough idea when they'll be available yet?

I wonder too

SM are you going to offer 2 types, 'comfy' and 'race'? From memory there are several types of Apex 200SX coilovers with different spring rates?

Closer all the time, we have now settled on the rear damping levels. Hopefully we'll have these out of development and into production in the next few weeks.

In terms of spring rates we are starting with a "fast road & occasional trackday" spring rating. But we can often do custom spring rates for individuals. We do advertise more than 1 "default" rate for some vehicles with consistent demand of various spring rates including the 200SX and Impreza's but even in those applications we still do custom spring rates for some people, eg for use with slicks.

One of the things we are waiting on is the new type of rear adjuster, allowing the rear damper to be mounted right-way up without fouling on the chassis.

We expect most people will want to install the damper upside down, at least initially while they play with the damping as the damper adjuster will be accessible. We have many many years of data on running a damper the right way up, but much less on running the damper upside down to give access to the adjuster. We haven't had any problems with it but we don't know what the score will be after 2-4 years so we will release the kit with the ability to swap the to run in either configuration and leave it up to the user to choose which way to run it, but advising the right-way up after setting the damping to your desired level.

You can't simply swap the rear damper from inverted to the correct way round, the bolt sizes differ between upper and lower.

Unless you make the bushes removable ?

And if you are going for a removable bush, can we have polyurethane please.

That adjuster mechanism won't last long if the damper is run inverted. The lower rear shock mount gets an awful lot of weathering. If buyers are intent on running inverted, I would recommend making some kind of protective sleeve (bicycle inner tube, maybe?)

There will be some sleeves that can be slotted into the end of the bush to alter the size in terms of width & hole size.

And we should have them all ready for sale in December

i would love to hear your opinion and overview of the kit regarding "ride" and handling on english roads.

The kits we design are for real world usage, and this particular kit has been tested around Yorkshire, N York Moors and Dales. As well as A roads.

I'm sure you will be happy with the ride quality, and also sure there will be independent feedback posted here from FCCUK members who get the kit in the first weeks of it being available

More track orientated users may want a harder sprung setup.