AST Suspension

R

Rob84

New Member
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7,696
Hi All,

I recall recently seeing a few discussions on here about the AST suspension kit. This is something I've been considering for a while and after a recent service at Litchfield Imports may have now convinced myself to go for it.

Before I do though I thought it might be worth seeing if anyone else is interested and whether we can maybe get a group buy on the go and get a bit of a discount.

While I was at Litchfields I had a lengthy chat with Curtis (their resident AST expert) and managed to secure a bit of a deal on two sets of suspension (one for mine and one for my mates clio) currently approx £1500 each, this includes; Fitting and full setup, Alignment check and setup, all labour costs and VAT.

So if anyone is interested in upgrading to the AST suspension add your name onto this thread and I'll go back to Litchfields and see what they can do. :-)

Also does anyone know if there are any avenues for selling on the stock suspension?? Does it fit anything else?? Has anyone sold theirs before?? (just a thought in order to try and recover some of the cost of the upgrade)

Cheers

G
 
I don't think there will be much option for selling it on.

I'm pretty sure those parts will be chassis-specific, so you're looking for someone who bought a Litchfield AST car originally, and wishes to return to stock suspension.
Apart from that you might be looking at shipping them to somewhere that has a similar bodyshell (US/Asia/South Africa etc), or selling them here to a Hybrid owner.

That's one hell of a niche.
 
Yep that's what I figured! Ah well, maybe I'll just mount them on the wall and make some art out of them! :P
 
I might well be up for this.. I was hoping someone would have tried Ohlins v's AST but not much hope there..
 
Spoken to the UK distribution arm of Ohlins, they will look at the FD2 for UK roads but it will be around £2200, they have advised against getting the Jap version of their shock.. Here is an extra from his e-mail..

'The problem is that these are all made by Soqi under licence from Ohlins Sweden and are valved for the J roads which are very smooth.
We are constantly re valving units that have come in on 'grey' imported vehicles.

Ohlins Sweden have just started a new co operation with Soqi to supply units that are valved to suit European roads.
Soqi will be supplying us with a new parts listing that is written in English instead of the Japanese version that they currently have.
It is virtually impossible to work out what fits what so we tend to rely very much on Funahashi San.

We have a distributor conference in Sweden next month when we should get more information on this new undertaking.
Hopefully we will also have an updated version of what will be coming available.
Frankly the older spec of units that find their way over here leave a little to be desired because of relatively poor durability of the chroming etc.
This is why we have not promoted the product in the past.'


Based on this information i'm going to look at getting some AST's, so with the credit crunch and dealers looking to keep their cash flow going I'm sure we should be able to get half decent costs for group buy on AST's, :mrgreen:

So, who's up for some....
 
At least a fair reply from Ohlins.....
I would be so tempted to join the group buy, but it's too early for me. I want to spend some time with OEM setup.
 
mad":24owrcfy said:
At least a fair reply from Ohlins.....
I would be so tempted to join the group buy, but it's too early for me. I want to spend some time with OEM setup.
Click to expand...

After spending a bit of time with the OEM set-up i have come to the conclusion that I would make better progress on the road with AST, the OEM is too bouncy and can make the cat skit a little. It's AST's for me.... come on everybody, join the group buy.. :mrgreen:
 
Absolutely I've spent 1 year on the stock suspension and while it was fun to learn about the car with original setup I'm positive it will be quicker on UK roads on a more complient setup.

I'm sure everyone out there already with the AST setup will agree.

Lets start a list of names and then I'll go back to Litchfields and see what they can offer us. I'd be looking to buy in October some time, so there's plenty of time for people to way up their options.

Confirmed list of people in the group buy:

G225
 
Count me in as well! How long does it take them to install/set up the car as i'm in Glasgow so going to be a bit of a trek for me!

G225
Zero7
Simon82
 
simon82":1zimdaco said:
Count me in as well! How long does it take them to install/set up the car as i'm in Glasgow so going to be a bit of a trek for me!

G225
Zero7
Simon82
Click to expand...

Simon - That is fantastic, I'm not sure how long it takes but we could ask them to do a few at the same time to see if it helps reduce the cost, clearly if you have ot get back go first on the ramps, I'm not too far so happy to hang around last....
 
Been considering it since i got the car but have always fancied Tien super streets. That said however, the AST setup seems to get the best reviews for the FD2 so would be glad to go with that and if we can get it cheaper then even better!
Anyone in the Glasgow/Central Scotland area with an FD2 on AST willing to take me a spin to compare between stock and AST? Would be much appriciated!
 
The main reason I'm going with AST is that they are deisgned for UK roads, and not the smooth Jap roads. Plus we will get in country support.
 
Fantastic another one on the list. I'll contact Iain at Litchfields this week see what kind of discount we can expect if the 4 of us all commit to buying. (inc my mates Clio)

I don't think he'd be too fussed about us all doing it on the same day but if we did then like Zero7 said you're welcome to go first Simon as I'm only 20 mins away from home and happy to go last too.

If I remember correctly then Iain said it was about 2hrs labour per car.

If anyone else is interested get your name on the list. We're aiming to buy in October.

I'm so pleased we've even got 3 of us on here willing to do it, I really thought this was going to be a longshot.

Zero7 - Where abouts are you based?? I'm in the Worcester area.

G
 
I'm based in Warwick so not a million miles away and a great drive through Stratford, Evesham via A46 :-D Would Iain offer the same price as Powerstation?
 
Ah cool. Glad to hear there's another FD2 near by! Are you heading down to Castle Coombe on the 8th Sept for the track day?

I would imagine the price would be the same (if not slightly better than powerstation). Basically there is a guy called Curtis who used to work for Powerstation and was the resident AST specialist but he has now turned independant and works as an AST consultant for both Litchfields and Powerstation (this is as I understand it anyway)! So if we have the work done at Litchfields (my preference) then we'd be subject to his hourly labour rate which I suspect is slightly cheaper than Powerstations.

Jonster - glad to hear you might be interested. I'll get a quote based on 4 people signing up and 5 people.
 
That reminds me, I need to give Curtis a shout and find out what the rebuild interval is for these puppies...I've got 25k up already.
 
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