The GAZ suspension kit has now been fitted. It's not a particularly hard job, just 2 bolts on each unit, but it's quite difficult to get the ride height set correctly. That's still in progress at the moment as the springs take a while to settle once fitted. Hopefully it'll be fully sorted next weekend. There are a few pics showing the state of the old Bilsteins in the albums, the springs were starting to corrode and the mounts had seen better days, so I think they were definitely due for a replacement anyway!!

There's a lot of damper adjustment available. The springs are much stiffer than before, but the difference in ride-quality isn't that different from the OEM Bilsteins from before. There's a lot more grip, and a lot less body roll, but it's not uncomfortable over bumps apart from at very low speeds. At the moment I've got the dampers set at 15 clicks on the front and 25 on the rear (from full soft, out of 40), which has resulted in a lot of grip and feels very adjustable. The car understeers very slightly under full throttle in corners, but has quite a bit of lift-off oversteer. I think the rear can go a couple of clicks harder to try and dial out the understeer a touch but it's not far off really, and not a bad first-guess set up.

I'll keep tinkering with it over the next couple of weeks and hopefully it'll be perfect by the first sprint of the year.