David Hansen Posted Tuesday at 12:36 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 12:36 AM Shock and suspension choice topics can get a bit religious but I wanted to give you some feedback on my recent experience with SPAX. Given I own a Westfield I also belong to the very active Westfield Sports Car Club forum over in the UK. They have a frequent contributor over there DamperMan who is an engineer over at SPAX that owns an 2000's era Westfield and took a bit of care designing a set of shocks for this application. If you are a WSCC member (and you should be if you own a Westfield) he gives you 35% discount off retail rates which is pretty generous. I had a number of back and forth discussions about what I was trying to accomplish and I ended up with straight rate springs up front and a set of progressive wound springs in the rear. I ordered them up and they appeared at my door from England in about 14 days as I was in no particular rush so chose a cheaper shipping option. No VAT or taxes levied on the US customs side meant I was out the door for 617 GBP / $817 USD delivered to my door (4 shocks / 4 springs + assembly). You could easily use your current springs and deal with the assembly but I ended up changing the rates I wanted to use and this just seemed easier as springs are relatively inexpensive. The SPAX folks pre-assembled them at no extra charge for me and all I had to do was install them and adjust the ride height to set the proper rake. My old shocks were 30 years + old and tired as you would imagine. Technology has changed more than a bit as far as materials used and these new units are a far cry from the original ones fitted back in the day. Gas pressure and 28 clicks of adjustment and modern seal materials mean you should have years of enjoyment. Having a shock engineer willing to take the time to discuss your desired outcome was also a huge plus for the gang over at SPAX. It has made a huge difference in how my car rides and has breathed new life into the handling of the car. I plan on driving it a bit to allow for any break in sag and then corner weight and get a proper alignment but my initial impressions are that this is a good and reasonably priced upgrade if you are not looking for a 10/10ths race application and wanting to spend $$. Having a philosophical conversation with a wrenching buddy (who was mostly supervising and drinking my beer) that doing suspension upgrades are so much more rewarding than a water pump or alternator etc. The former you can go out and experience some (hopefully) positive and exciting change while the latter is just the car doing its job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Westfield Posted Tuesday at 01:13 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:13 PM +1 for Damperman + company I don't know if it was him I dealt with, but 8-9 years ago I needed shocks for my pre-lit, which I had just bought back. Called a US dealer and was told "those part numbers aren't on my list". So, I got up early on Monday morning and called Spax direct. Whoever I talked to said -we have one pair in stock, take about 7-10 days to get the other pair made up. I said fine, send 'em when you can. I got them Thursday....and saved about $300 from US pricing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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