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The reason it feels shit is because the rear is too hard.
How many clicks on the rear do you have in total? And how many turns on the front? I think generally the rear has 10 or 12 and the front has 4. Could be wrong though. I cant remember what my avo's have. Also does it adjust bump or rebound on the front? and what about the rear?
If you are running avo's, they have rebound damping on the front and bump damping on the rears. Not sure what gaz have, i think its full bump damping. If you dont know what bump and rebound damping either google it or i'll explain it. But you do need to know what the coilovers offer so you can set them up properly.
Setting up coilovers can take a lot of trial and error to get it perfect. It took me about a week to get mine perfect.
The easiest way to set them up is to have the car at a suitable height - not too high and not too low. Make sure both fronts are exactly the same height and both rears are exactly the same too, and try keep the car level front and rear. Then put everything on its softest setting then drive it and see how it feels. The reason for not having it slammed straight away is so it doesnt smash the fuck out the arches ect and you can get a feel for how soft it all is on the softest setting. You can whack it all on the hardest setting too to have a feel for that also if you like. But leave everything on its softest setting for testing.
A note for adjusting coilover damping settings. To do it properly you should always go back to 0 and then go upto the number you wish to change it too. I've always been tought that. It might be a thing that the older generation of coilovers needed and the new ones might not, but it wont harm you resetting them each time.
Then progress by lowering the car, at this point you can put it at the height you want the car to be.. But try to keep the whole car at the same height all round, or at least parallel to the floor.. Take it out for a drive and see what it feels like, see if you get and scrubbing or its too bouncy.. then either adjust the damping slightly or raise the car depending whats happening and keep doing that until you get it right. Its all about trial and error.
A note about ride comfort - that is controlled by the rear suspension mainly. The harder the rear suspension is the more the car bounces and bangs around due to it being so light. So keep the rear as soft as you can.
A note about handling - rear suspension height can have a huge input on this. Generally if the rear is higher than the front it will want to come round quicker and oversteer, that can be a good thing, but also a bad thing. The reaon its good is because it makes the car turn in quicker and feel more responsive. Reasons its bad is because it can feel very twitchy, but thats normally if its too high and too hard - because it will skip around a corner making the car unstable. Generally if set up properly its a good thing... 95% of 'hot hatches' as they are called have higher rear ends. Go look at any clio, 205, 206, fiesta st ect ect, you will see the rear is generally higher. The french are the easiest to notice it on, especially things like the clio 182's.
My car is slammed on avo's and its roughly 90mm down on the front and roughly 100mm down on the rear. The rear coilovers are on their softest setting and the fronts are on 2 turns I think, thats to up the rebound damping and stop it bouncing around. Of course I have poly bushes all round, twin rear anti-roll bars, strut braces and the front arches have been modified too and mine hardly scraps or scrubs at all and its still nice and soft and handles like a train on rails too.
A lot of things can factor what makes a car handle good or bad. And like I said, trial and error. Sometimes a lot of it. Once you get it all set up, you might want to get it checked on some geo alignment equipment to make sure its all straight and level. Idealy you should have the car corner weighted and setup like that too, but I've never done that on my car or any kit cars and I've never had a problem.
I dont know if any of that will help you or not. If it doesn't or you have any questions then fire away and I'll answer them.
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