[Fot] Front and Rear springs

[Bob Kramer]

I'm going to chime in here and probably show my ignorance. I've had a  few
race cars, a TR3A, two TR4's, a TR4A IRS and now a TR6. I always followed
what I considered to be the common knowledge principles in these cars,
followed what Kas said to do, and they were similarly equipped to what Todd
describes. I dropped them, stiffened them and put on a big front sway bar.
I shortened the upper a-arms (non-adjustable), and on the TR4A, I put in
Richard Good's adjustable trailing arm mounts and cranked them all the way
negative. That car actually handled really well with Richards front and
rear swaybars. The only thing I ever changed was the rear sway bar
settings. I left a lot on the table.

Now I'm going through the TR6 I got from Sam Halkias. This car was set up
to run on slicks and it too was set up stiff as a board, maybe a steel
plate. It is fast but extremely twitchy. Awful in the rain. The front is
traditional TR but with coil overs and adjustable upper a-arms. The
steering rack is mounted on off the shelf Moss aluminum mounts. I had to
lower the rack in the 4A, so I will work on that. In the rear, the
coilovers are installed in the spring pockets with a custom located upper
mount giving about 10 degrees angle. Sam constructed a custom sway bar and
it mounts to the trailing arm where the lever shock would.

I've been studying up and getting myself confused as I try and plan for
setting up the car in a more compliant manner. I've dropped the rear spring
rate from 700 top 450 but added adjustable shocks to help control
the trailing arm. I'm hoping this will allow me to tune with the sway bar,
which Sam had told me to leave disconnected. It did not have
adjustable links but it does now. Once I get the engine back in and all the
weight back in the car I will start on camber settings. I'm pretty sure
that the current setup for use with cantilever slicks needs more camber for
the radials Toyo's I'll be running.

I have a lot to learn, and I hope to get the car up and running and
start messing with setup in the Texas spring, earlier than most of you. We
race in late February.  I wish I was as smart as Tony Garmey with these
things. Beyond his exceptional driving skills, he has his suspension set up
to keep the tire patches in all the right places. We can all get the
recipes for the cars but the devil is in the details of car setup.

The devil is also in my head, messing with my through processing as I work
through this...............

Bob K

On Sat, Jan 10, 2026 at 9:07 AM Alfetta95 via Fot <fot at autox.team.net>
wrote:

> Thank you all for your responses Some have asked so here is my current
> setup.
>
> - Lowered the car by flipping and swapping the front lower control arms
> and lowering blocks in the rear
> - front springs - whatever was available in the 60’s
> - 7/8”  front sway bar
> - no rear sway bar
> - stock front shocks (Konis ordered)
> - rear shocks - whatever was used in the 60’s (Getting rebuilt)
> - stock rear springs with cut outs for the wider tires, 6 leafs
> - Hoosier Speedsters 205/60. 15x6 rims
> - Blackline LSD
>
> Todd
>
> > On Jan 9, 2026, at 1:44 PM, Alfetta95 <alfetta95 at optonline.net> wrote:
> >
> > Friends,
> >
> > What are you TR3 guys using for front and rear springs? Mine are still
> from when my father raced the car 50yrs ago. Anyone using the Racetorations
> comp rear springs?
> >
> > I’ve ordered the Koni shocks for front and am having the rear shocks
> rebuilt.
> >
> > When Tony Garmey passed me in the left hander at Lime Rock I thought,
> “hmm that car didn’t show body roll”.  It was then I decided to have a look
> at mine.
> >
> > Any info is helpful
> > Todd
>
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