Andrew Linkens writes:
>Technical help needed please!
>I've fitted uprated springs and Spax dampers on both my cars and am puzzled by
>the change to the ride. Rather than just getting a firmer ride I've got in both
>cases a very bumpy ride such that the car jolts quite badly over bumps etc. The
>handling is good otherwise.
>I guess I don't understand exactly the interaction between the dampers and
>springs. Can someone please explain it in simple laymen terms to me or point me
>to an article that can help me understand the fundamentals.
>Essentially I would like better handling with a comfortable ride on the average
>road surface. Am I expecting too much?
>thanks
>Andy
>'69 Vitesse
>'76 2.5S Estate
Andrew:
The cold hard truth is that you ARE expecting too much. Now, understand
that you MAY be able to find a balance where you're reasonably happy with
both the ride and the handling, but likely you will not be totally
satisfied with either. Make sense? The thing is, what you need most to
improve handling is roll stiffness. This term refers to the resistance
your car has against leaning, or "rolling" as the experts say. You want
your car to stay as flat as possible in a corner. Achieving this requires
stiffening the suspension quite a bit, which is obviously the WRONG
direction to go if you want a softer ride. The two are mutually exclusive.
However, two things I noticed in your post: First, apparently you have
not played around with the adjustments on your Spax shocks. The other
thing I noticed is that you didn't mention anything about anti-roll bars.
This may be the way you end up finding the balance you're looking for.
Anti-roll bars, or "swaybars" are designed to only work during cornering,
when the wheel on one side of the car is forced upward into "bump" and the
opposite wheel is allowed to move down into "rebound." I said they were
DESIGNED TO WORK that way. They don't really. The only time a swaybar has
NO effect on ride stiffness is when both wheels hit the same bump at the
same time. Typically, bumps don't really come that way. But, I would
suggest trying both a front AND a rear swaybar, and POSSIBLY removing, if
only to experiment, the uprated springs. You may find you get the best of
all worlds with a combination... like comp springs on the front, stock
springs at the rear, etc. Also don't overlook those shock adjustments. I
can't tell you which direction to adjust them, you'll just have to
experiment.
Good Luck!
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6 CF10732
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