the phil j mk3 kit

heres my 2p

If you lower your car it really is a MUST that you fit the gladersiete or the new PhilJ ARB blocks, and although i'd rather but the money in gladers hands, phils kits are zinc coated, which saves them from the toils of the british weather.

anyway when you lower the front of the car, as its tied together by the anti-roll car, it completely messes up the geometry and the wheels sit too far towards the rear of the arch.

the blocks compensate for this by, lowering the anti-roll bar and bringing it forward.

by bringing it forward it centralises the wheel in the arch, the downwards movement, helps maintain the correctly geometry after lowering, and helps with down-pipe clearance on the aftermarket 4-branchs.

its also a MUST have if you plan on converting your mk1 to a 1.4 or 1.6 16v engine, as the downpipe will rest on the anti-roll bar otherwise.

new top mounts should be fitted with lowering suspension, VW are good and not much more expensive than GSF but both will have a much shorter lifespan due to the nature of the lowering kit you'd be fitting. It's possible to get uprated topmounts - salzmann, bonrath, supersport and some are castor/camber adjustable for the more track-oriented or fast road motors.

a GT/G40 steering damper can be fitted, if using a early polo or derby, you will need the bracket for the steering rack, where the tie-roads fit, as it is tapped for the steering damper to fit to it, the other side just replaces one of the steering rack mounts.

early polo and derbys should upgrade to the later steering rack mk2-3 polo and steering arms, as the very early ones are discontinued, and using pattern parts from a mk2-3 will leave you with bowlegged steering! not fun i can tell you from experience!

you can fit lowering top caps to bring the fronts down by 10-15mm and cut a spring or two (only) ensuring that your spring is still seated correctly and is still under some tension when the car is jacked up.

when fitting the shock inserts, you should put a 2p in the bottom and refill with new anti-freeze, this will take up the extra room in the casing, as the newer shock inserts will be slightly shorter than the originals.

i wouldnt worry about a top strut brace, and lower strut brace which links between the inner track control arm mounts, and a ged bar which attaches between chassis leg at the front of the car on the redundant vw sump guard mounts.

steering arms can be replaced with g40 items as they have rose-jointed inners

track control arms can be replaced with g40 items as they have rose-jointed inners, or superflex/powerflex/gladersiete all sell inner and outer tca bushes, i have run powerflex on std arms and gladerseite outers on g40 arms, both have been fantastic

or is you fancy some wishbones for independant front suspension instead of the one rod of faith (aka anti roll bar) you can fit a Polo Performance Services subframe, which are fantastic value for money and honestly will without a doubt

rear axle bushes should be replaced on any old vw, buy genuine vw only, polybushes will be far too hard.

I've ran the following kits on my polos

mk3 g40

g-max 60mm

195/45/14s on 14x6 wheels

good suspension kit but too soft, under heavy braking the front would nose-dive and scrub on the tyres

mk2 polo

60mm kw kit

lowering top caps

powerflex inner/outer tca polybushes

gladersiete arb blocks

brand new vw rear axle bushes

gt steering damper

as vic said, fantastic handling kit, cheaper than the HnR, miles above the budget kits and comparable to the HnR's, give them a good run for the money, but spring rate is a lil soft on the rear, although its handled a complete afh bottom end/bare polo gti bottom end for 50 miles with no scrubbing bar the last 1 mile where i booted it on some country lanes, and 2 complete afh engines, this caused me a lil bit of grief on the motorway on small bumps and dips, and is still going strong 6 months later after being over 3ks worth of bumpy twisty country lanes

mk2 polo

g40 track control arms with g lader inners

g40 steering arms

pps subframe

hnr cup kit

best handling polo i have had bar none, it ran absolute rings around my mk1 gti, which is renowned for its fantastic handling.

basically i would say, get the best you can afford but this would give the world of difference to any polo

pps subframe

gt/g40 steering damper

HnR Cup Kit

replace all bushes with standard VW items, or if using pattern parts, then replace all bar the rear axle bushes (use vw only)

or substitute the pps subframe above with

gladerblocks

ged brace

inner tca strut brace

i guarantee you will NOT be dissapointed

So your saying the h&r cup kit is better than the kw kit?

Just trying to find out the best suspension for my berg cup polo, I'm thinking the kw v1 coilovers atm?

can some one please tell me what is the difference in ride height from a g40 to a regular mk3 polo i have a mk3 1.4d and was thinking f installing the g40 spring can you help me