MISSION REPORT

Intrax 4-way coilovers have been installed on my CSL and these are my findings.

I use my CSL as daily driver and as weekend track day car. So the objectives for the suspension vary in the widest possible range.

- When on track I want to have the best racing suspension
- When daily driving I want to have very similar to stock CSL suspension in terms of comfort
- When daily driving I don't want any noise so typical for racing suspensions

Additional requirements were that suspension should be able to withstand driving in rain, and that it should be light weight. Also I needed somebody to talk about setting up the suspension and after sales support.

So considering all above-mentioned criteria I decided to go with Intrax and their 4-way kit. I decided for the titanium option and fully adjustable top mounts.

INSTALLATION

Before committing to purchase, I have talked to Henk at Intrax. From the conversation we had he immediately understood exactly what I want and how I will use the car. Based on my inputs how I plan to use the car, he made some recommendations, for example the springs rate, and that the shocks will be sealed and resistant to water etc. We agreed that I would come to Netherlands, because I wanted that everything is installed in at his HQ, in case something goes wrong, they can immediately fix it.

So when I arrived, everything went according to the plan. No bad surprises, Henk and all his people working in his company all very friendly. They even gave me a car because I had some other business to take care of. I had a lot of questions, and they tried very hard to answer in detail each and every question I had. Very customer oriented, something I appreciate very much.

Installation took a few hours, during which Henk drove the car to verify everything is OK and to fine tune the adjustments. Then I drove the car, and had a few more questions... Anyway to make the story short, I left as a happy camper.

HANDLING, NOISE, ETC

As I said, because this car is a daily driver, I wanted to keep it as close to stock. Unbelievably the increase in noise is maybe 5%, basically you can hear the tires a bit more due to stiffer rubber in the top mounts. Henk explained how they took special care to make sure any increase in noise is minimal. Besides tire noise, no other noise from suspension.

Handling so far I only had limited ability to perform testing and to play with adjustment of the shocks. But from what it looks like, it will be very fast. I took some corners around the local roads, and the control of the car is amazing. At the same corners I could take maybe 10% higher speed or maybe I can just take it closer to the limit. It also seems that you can go over the limit, and recover. The stock car is much less forgiving in this respect.
So far I only tried very soft setting at the front, and then the car starts to oversteer. But this is not ordinary over steer, it is drifting under control where before I would probably loose control. I'm talking high speed sweeper corners that with stock suspension I would be extremely careful trying to drift. Now these same corners are sooo easy to drift. And with a few clicks you can decide the drift angle, just amazing.

I'm looking to get some slicks soon, and to try more settings on the track. From what I have seen in very limited amount of time today I spent, I think on a 70sec lap, I should be able to take 2 seconds off. We'll see.

COMFORT

Funny, but when I first tried the car just after the Intrax was installed, I thought the springs are actually too soft. Even though I run 870ibs/inc front and 520ibs/in rear. But soon learned that the reason why it feels more comfortable is the fact that shocks work with very small changes in the load. So basically they open much sooner than stock CSL shocks or PSS9/KW3 and similar type shocks. 
What this all means is that the car will eat bumps much better even though the springs are quite stiff and the car will actually feel more comfortable than stock CSL. To be honest I was quite bother with the new feeling because it simply felt too comfortable, but then you quickly learn that the car has zero body roll. It will not dip the noise on heavy breaking, not roll side to side when cornering, just bloody amazing.
I thought the reason why I want a wide range of low speed/high speed and rebound adjustment was to be able to set the car for road and for track. Now I came to a conclusion I will actually run track setup on the road because it is SIMPLY COMFORTABLE.You learn something new everyday.

PRECISION ENGINEERING

I was amazed at the level of engineering that this kit has. I'll give you an example. Take a Bilstein PSS9 shocks. that shock only has one knob, but more importantly when you try to turn that knob it is quite hard to turn with your fingers and on my car has happened that the rear shocks completely lost the clicks. They were not clicking anymore. When you look at the knobs of Intrax shocks, you immediately see a big difference in the way how the knob itself is engineered, not to mention the feel that the knob gives when you are turning it. And the clicks are clearly heard. It is hard to put into words, you simply have to try to turn the knob of PSS9 or 4-way, and you will understand what I'm talking about. Simply NO COMPARISON. And it seems like this is the same with all other aspects of Intrax kit, seems like there is simply no comparison to what I have tried and seen so far (Bilstein PSS9, and stock M3 and CSL shocks).

Additionally, I have measured the weight of PSS9 and we measured the weight of 4-way at Intrax, and 4-way are 30+% lighter. Not to mention that Intrax uses titanium in their construction. The whole kit looks amazing, I find it almost a sin to have it under the car. It seems I will be cleaning and polishing my shocks more often than my rims, to preserve all that nice titanium 

OVERALL

I'm very satisfied, and Henk and all the rest in his company all very friendly and helpful. Henk helped me with some pointers how to setup the geometry, with his 30+ years of racing experience he must know what he is talking about. So if you decide you want the best suspension, then Henk is your man. If he was good enough to build the F1 Beneton 1995 worldchampion winning suspension, I'm sure he and his company can take care of your suspension issues. But remember, if you want top of the line, this stuff isn't cheap. Quality/performance has a price, but given that we are talking quality/performance on the Ohlins level for example, Intrax 4-way has a very very attractive price. But if you want something simpler, you can get that as well at Intrax.

Website: http://www.intrax-suspension.eu/?lang=EN
Phone:               +31 413-272997         +31 413-272997

PS1 There is another company in the US called Intrax, and that stuff is not on the level of Intrax in Netherlands. Make sure you are talking to the right Intrax!
PS2 For pricing, please contact Intrax directly. I am not a dealer and will not sell you suspension. If you want to buy something, please deal with them directly. But if you want a customer opinion, I will gladly tell you what I can, but I'm bloody happy that my quest for the best suspension is over, all thanks to Intrax.
PS3 Here's a PDF of what I have: http://www.intrax-suspension.eu/down...&pid=24&lid=en