Eric,
The swaybar is not the only modification. I started out with the Ron
Hopkinson swaybar kit that has a 7/8" bar up front and I think a 3/4"
bar in back. On an otherwise fairly stock BGT, that balanced the car
very nicely. Absolute performance wasn't stratospheric, or even up to
modern passenger car standards, but the car was well balanced and well
behaved.
Once I boosted the horsepower by about 40% (thanks Hans), the engine
was no longer the weak link in the performance chain, and I'm trying
to bring the car into balance. Mind you, by the time I'm done, it'll
probably accelerate and handle almost as well as a stock Miata, but
that's another issue altogether.
Before my last track weekend, I installed decambering busings in the
front suspension, giving me what seems to be about -2.5 degrees of
camber. Now, when I turn in, the front wheels grip much better,
putting a lot more strain on the front suspension.
If it were only a case of the inside rear wheel unloading, and the
associated wheel spin, I could probably bring back a lot of the
balance by disconnecting my rear bar. However, I seem to be hitting
the bumpstops on my suspension, because under hard cornering, every so
often the steering will suddenly "go light" for a brief, but
unnerving, moment.
Pictures of the car also show it heeled way over under cornering. To
my untrained eye, the car could do with a bit more roll stiffness. I'd
love to increase both the spring rate and the damper stiffness, but
for various reasons, that is not in the time or money budget for this
fortnight.
One thing that I haven't done, but am intrigued by, is Mark Sayer's
suggestion of taking the roll understeer out of the rear suspension by
leveling the spring mounts and de-arching the leaf springs. I expect
that it would be a very educational exercise, but again, we run up
against that time and money budget.
Larry
On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 10:09:00AM +1030, Eric wrote:
> > public roads I have no idea what it does at the limit (on the track)
> > but I now feel comfortable enough that stiffening up the front will
> > improve rather than worsen things, to look for a 1" swaybar.
> >
>
> Wow - 7/8" was enough for me - how has it effected the steering/cornering?
>
> I know that the main effect going 7/8" had for me on public roads was to
> increase the amount that I felt every little bump. Driving it hard at
> the track I found it introduced a significant amount of understeer. The
> first hairpin I hit at speed proved that to me and certainly caught me
> by surprise - ending in a cloud of dust and grass clippings with a
> tyre-wall only a few feet in front of the car.
>
> I was then looking at stiffening the back-end further.
>
> It only took a few laps to get used to the changed handling and now I
> find she "points" better and certainly keeps the opposite (to the turn)
> rear wheel on the ground better, which was the aim in the first place.
>
>
> --
> Eric
> '68 MGB MkII
> '85 Rover SD1 Vanden Plas
> Adelaide, South Australia
--
I've found something worse than oldies station that play the music I used to
listen to. Oldies stations that play the "new" music I used to complain about.
lrc@red4est.com http://www.red4est.com/lrc
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