Shakedown Drive on H&R Monotube Coilovers

I’ve got the car from FA Racing last Tuesday and this morning was the best time to conduct little bit of shakedown drive from Ampang – Hulu Langat – Kuala Kelawang – Pertang – Manchis – Karak – Gombak which roughly amounts to 250kms.

Putting aside that it was raining in the early morning that resulted the asphalt surface kinda icy slippery, I was definitely grinning from ear-to-ear revisiting old awesome roads with finally an almost well sorted Pocong. Here’s some excerpt I can give-away for the moment:-

• FA Racing has setup the car to be easy to drive hard and pretty much planted throughout hundreds of turns.
• Quicker and crispier turn-in with much much tighter steering feel allowing almost alienating or masking the chubby front engine’s weight.
• Virtually extremely small roll angle at turns but in it’s there nevertheless just only being delayed making it nippy like a supermini should.
• If I got too gung-ho into corner entry or mid, a mild lift-off is all it takes to get it tightens like a good FWD car should…talk about throttle steering at corners :)
• Because of sorted geometries, ride height and corner weighted; the tyres require less psi and that resulted in much much compliant ride …. and I dare say feels better than stock!

Of course, the suspension setup would be ‘work in progress’ as I’m gathering some requests to address my driving preference to be factored in but all in all I see RM700ish of expenditure to FA Racing as bang-for-buck investment, after all suspension tuning know-how is a “black-art” to me at least :)

The route...

Motorists kindly give-way, shakedown in progress lol

Some rough patches but the car rides just fine

Some straight stretches allowing Pocong to stretch its legs

Nice flowing turns after another

I see you..

Gotchaaa!!

Throttle-steering is pretty wicked

Because of lacked of cars, both ways are at my disposals hehe

Roll angle is there nevertheless just only being delayed making it nippy like a supermini should

The H&R Monotube is IN!

The coilovers have been installed last Saturday by my regular mechanic, Auto World Car Service in Wangsa Melawati. It wasn't a straight forward installation as the coilover casing has slightly bigger diameter than the original; and we've forgotten to slot in 'freeplay bearing' in between new front top mount and coilover. This has caused irritating noise during turning when vehicle was stationary also known as "coil-bind" problem. Luckily we realised this soon and redo the front installation again. Applying WD40 on the spring plates also helps fortunately :)

And yesterday, I've sent the car for its overdued tyre rotation & balancing at MPS Auto .... and I've actually met up with Faidzil Alang of FA Racing to seek his chassis setup service. Based on his enormous experience as a official test driver & racing driver for R3, I'm quite confident he'll setup my Pocong just as what I wanted: to be competent sunday drive tool with fluidity ride than outright harshness. The car will be in by this Saturday. So stay tune :)

With bigger casing, it's troublesome to install this H&R coilovers

Purposely set the ride height heigher a bit until FA Racing says otherwise hehe

H&R Monotube Coilovers

As you know, the current SuperSport dampers has reached its EOL and replacement is inevitable. Instead of going through the same route of short stroke dampers again and again, I've decided to bite bigger bullet for this H&R Monotube Coilovers and it's finally here courtesy of Speedzone. The price offered by them is well almost the same offered by most of my regular online websites, and yeah it's no brainer really not to go for it. And I'm still banging my head that I should have gone for this in the first place years back!

Part Number: 29379-2 (9N3 GTI)
Dampers Construction: Inverted Monotube.
Damping Adjustable: No. 30% stiffer fixed damping from factory. No mentioned of spring rates.
Ride height adjustable: Yes. As much as 20-50mm front and 20-60mm rear.
Rebuildable: Officially not serviceable in here.
Front Spring Rate: Not known, Rear Spring Rate: Not known.
Top Mounts: Use back the stock rubber top mounts.
Price: RM4k landed

Finally after a month of waiting :)

The package with ever willing non-payable model lol

It's inverted monotube alright

Unofficially, the dampers made by Koni

SuperSport Dampers

There’s nothing much to write about on the Pocong nowadays as I’m pretty much ‘content’ with the current setup. It now has adequate juice to keep up with most cars and has reasonable feel for handling and grip on the twisties.

Yeah, I can wish a lot more but a lot more means more money which I can’t afford to unnecessary spend and make time out of my even busier schedule than before. Besides, the tuning effort might not be worthwhile because probably at the end of the day, if I want to get a focus driving horse, I’d be better off with RWD NA S2000 or yeah in my wildest dream … ahem pristine Duke 916!

That can only realize in some years to come and for Pocong now till then, what I can do is giving it good refreshment maintenance but not necessarily TLC kind. And that brings me to suspension dampers. As it clocks slightly shy of 61k kms now, the dampers are starting to show signs of softness. I remember vaguely that my old Waja stock dampers ran out of steams after 10k kms of usage, so at 60k kms is quite alright in my book of thoughts.

My original plans of getting a coilovers was almost dead set until I realised it’s going to set me back into broke warning signs in my head and nowadays I’m driving it in a very civilized aunty-like way as rempiting workout of the past has now transferred to gokart. Hence, coilovers is pretty much overkill really.

So finding the right dampers replacement is the way to go. I just found out that there’s a brand called SuperSport which is a sister company to Spax is offering sport dampers for Pocong. When they meant sport dampers, it’s the usual stuff - shortened and slightly larger piston rods, partially foreshortened housing for more suspension travel, 30% uprated damping than stock, gas assisted, heavy duty and 12 months warranty etc. And having read reviews coming from VW junkies in the states and UK, it’s the best bang for buck and rides well too. But what’s not usual is the price. Having looked at orangetuning.de, it retails at €128 for a set of four (inclusive 19% VAT)!

Having done the math, it should cost me €110 at most plus shipping another ~€50-60 which is still way cheaper than source original dampers locally and almost Proton like costing which is great. On another note, I seriously doubt it gives the same feel as the Bielstein B8 or H&R cup dampers but I’d be very satisfied if it can gives 70%-80% the same feel. That said, I buying one otherwise it’s going to be H&R cup dampers which is additional €100 up. Hmmm….

€110 is darn good value for money!

SuperSport PU Top Mount for paltry sum of €55

Plan B Option - H&R cup dampers. Going this route means no budget for Alpinestars Tech 1-K :(

For Sale: Used H&R Sport Spring

Item: H&R Sport Spring
Description: H&R Sport Spring that lowers the car by 35mm than normal Polo height
Condition: Good
For: 1) VW 9N2/9N3 Polo; 2) VW Mk4 Golf

Reason Selling: Unused
Price: Negotiable

Interested? Contact Wu @ +60122733483

This Year Target Splurge (so I Hope)

After getting it reflashed, bigger brakes and lowering sport spring, driving the Pocong now is almost satisfying. Hehe ‘almost’ means, there’s something in the pipeline, I wonder when it’ll ever end :(

Goodies in mind targeted to further improve suspension for street use with minor sacrifice on comfort. Naturally I’m looking to H&R for answers. Expensive they may be but worth every penny considering how well engineered products they’ve been producing. These three are my target this year:


H&R ARB

Unlike the use of steel plate, H&R ARB made of 50CrV4 steel alloy - the highest tensile strength apart from carbon fibre. It just doesn’t end there, it has forged ends and urethane composite bushings that eliminate squeaks and doesn’t require lubrication. 26mm front, 25mm rear diameter, hopefully can improve lateral stability and cornering grip, while reducing body roll.




H&R ‘Triple C’

Practical terms as camber screw. Need this to dial more -ve camber to the tyres. Can’t afford to have Camber Plates, this ‘Triple C’ will work just as good for street use.


Federal 595RSR

Stock Conti CS2 already nearing its half life, time to scout for replacement. Although it rolls at tight corners due to soft sidewall, on high speed corners, it provide tenacious grip for everyday tyres (to me at least) and one of the tyres to have on rainy day by far. Having heard many positive reviews for 595RSR on Polo, I’m aiming these in another 15-20k clicks considering through grapevine, someone got it for RM350/piece at Jooi Seng. Awesome thread design eh?




Apart from these three, I’m looking to get it breath better (through the use of after market DV and turbo inlet pipe) and better cooling (Forge SMIC is way too expensive) but if these are in, my pocket gonna blow real hard. Haihhh…

H&R Sport Spring

Having extra power in hand gives me plenty of ding-dong to do a bit on the suspension. I’m not too keen on coilovers as the car meant for daily driven. Well a cheap excuse for not forking out more dough for KW V1 or H&R coilovers :)

Was given contact by fellow Aussie forummer on value for money H&R sport spring for Euro110 excluding shipping. And I took liberty of getting K&N drop-in filter too for Euro50. Shipping another Euro48. Oh yes, these are all coming from www.orange-tuning.de. 1 week, the shipment arrives and I’ve been slapped RM454 sales & excise tax (30%+10% based on CIF). Blimey, oh well, I’ll be ‘smarter’ next time around.

Installation was long and tedious because I suspect Auto Reign don’t have the tool to open just dampers & spring, they’ve to take longer route of taking out the entire knuckle. 3 hours job.

After getting it done, the car is lowered and the best part is the is firm and comfortable. H&R trademark eh? :P

Side Note:-

H&R Sport Spring RM529.68
K&N Drop-In RM240.76
Shipping cost RM231.13
Excise, Sales Tax RM454.00
Total RM1,455.57

Courtesy of Azdilizan

Courtesy of Azdilizan