Just two days after I’d dropped the Trophy’s failed front dampers off at BG Motorsport, I received a call to say they were ready for collection. That’s the beauty of genuine motorsport outfits – if they took an age to do jobs they’d soon go out of business.

When I arrived, BG Motorsport’s damper technician, Ben Fricker, gave me a quick lesson in what makes the Trophy’s Sachs dampers so special. It turns out it’s their inherent strength – the chromed shaft that bolts to the top mount is a massive 25mm in diameter, making the damper much stronger than a standard unit and, incidentally, identical to the ones used on last year’s works SEAT BTCC cars. The reason it’s made this way is the huge bending forces that act on the front struts under braking – big enough to make a conventional damper flex slightly, potentially causing it to lock out. No such problems with the Sachs race dampers, though, which can cope with the most severe braking.

The total bill for rebuilding the two dampers was £402.55, and the cause of their failure was loss of gas pressure due to corrosion caused by winter salt. There is no protection whatsoever against road muck, so Ben smeared copious amounts of grease on the dampers to help them survive a little better, but if you’ve got a Trophy, be aware that your precious dampers need looking after very carefully.