Re: Spax, Koni et al

["Tim Hancock" <timhancock@domain.elided>]

I am flying my white flag here. I had Konis on the front of my Dutton kit car
and adjustable Spaxs on the back, but I was no more impressed with the Spax
product than any of you and I'm afraid they were just another symptom of
slipping standards in UK engineering, which both embarasses and saddens me but
there you go. Konis have always been No 1 for quality for as long as I can
remember and Bilsteins are up there too.

I don't know if they still do so, but Peugeot were unusual in manufacturing
their own shock absorbers, and their standards were outstanding, not only in
quality of manufacture, but in their dynamic qualities and longevity. Even
they made mistakes and early 205GTIs had terrible write ups about their
damping. Peugeot soon sorted it out and showed that changing just the damper
settings can make a whopping difference. The 205 handles like a go cart and
rides well too, the 106 and 206 also, disproving the need for rock hard "sport
settings" which in my view simply mask fundamental shortcomings in design and
engineering.

You just have to drive almost any Peugeot you like going back forty years or
more to realise that many other manufacturers still haven't discovered the
plot about making a suspension that truly works WITH the car, and that can
achieve that elusive balance of a comfortable riding car that handles and
steers with precision and quality of feel. It is perhaps sacrilege on the Alfa
Digest to say that the 164  Pininfarina clones, the Peugeot 405 and 605 both
ride and handle better than the Alfa,  (the 405  in particular). I think that
the Peugeot 504 was probably the last Peugeot where engineering excellence had
equivalence with the demands of the marketeers and beancounters. They have
become progressively flimsier, far more market driven, but have retained their
excellent drivers car 'feel' throughout the current range.

My family and I owned about 17 Peugeots throughout the 60s and seventies, the
most recent being 405 turbo diesels regularly driven at 70 down farm tracks by
my brother in law who is a vet. They fell to bits on him, something a 403,404
or 504 would never have done given the same treatment.

With regard to the Alfa 164 I have always felt that the front suspension works
very well, but that the back end is not a success, being caught out far too
often by bumps that seem to take it by surprise, even though ultimately the
road holding at the back is more than good enough for my purposes.

Apologies for straying off topic

Tim Hancock  164TS Lusso   Boston

P.S. A friend of mine's Jeep is currently making an appearance on UK TV in
Stephen Spielbergs "Band of Brothers". My friends is the Jeep the Padre uses,
and is not a 'true' Jeep, but one of the ones made after the WW2 in France.
Real ones are pretty rare here.

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