Suspension upgrade complete!!!

[drsimonwong]

Well my car is back together again and is indeed transformed.

A list of the upgrades:

23/30 torsion bars
custom valved adjustable konis red up front, yellow rears
Elephant racing polybronze front and rear bushings, including low friction mounts
stock sways with new bushings
turbo tie rods
spacer bumpsteer kit
wevo engine and transmission mounts
Elepant racing decambered ball joints
car lowered, corner weighted and aligned -1.5 to -1.75 up front and -2.0 rear
7+8x16 Fuch on road tyres

The ignition wiring harness was replaced at the same time as the lead's shielding have lost their effectiveness. My mechanic (not my regular one) noticed a little white powder on the rubber and got a mild shock when inspecting them.

Car runs much smoother now,especially when lugging the engine from a higher gear.

Impressions:

The car responds sharply and immediately to commands and stays level pretty much at all times. Feel is enhanced and the steering is lighter at low speeds. Ride quality is noticeably firmer but acceptable even on rough roads. As speed increases it becomes a non issue and actually smoother.

I actually noticed more of a ride deteriation as a passenger than as a driver. Understandabley so I guess. I was very nevous about the 23/30 torsion bar combination having breached the 22/28 limit normally set for road cars but now I feel it is worth the compromise.

NVH is up because of the Wevo engine/transmission mounts but not objectably so. Though there are noises and vibrations where there once wasn't any. Shifting is slightly more positive so that makes up the difference nicely.

Only 2 real downsides. I went over budget 50%, mostly from the labour costs in installing the polybronze. The other annoyance is my fender paint has cracked in numerous areas along the lip because we had to roll the rim.

The decambered joints push the wheels out slightly so causing a slight clearance problem.

I asked my mechanic wheither he thought the polybronze was worth the effort. His reply was initially guarded as he said without doing back to back comparisions it was difficult to say other than it was a very nicely setup car.

When I questioned him further he said that the car was a faction firmer than the other setups that remained on road tyres as mine still are, but less so than R compound tyres. What was interesting he noted was that the cars he normally sets up on his race suspension do not "feel right" when running on road tyres. The sidewalls of the road tyres gives up much of the suspensions sharpness in response. It's not until the R compond tyres are fitted that it all comes together as a package.

However on my car even with road tyres he was pleased with the setup. He stated it was suprisingly sharp. We concluded it would partly be because I have 7 and 8 inch rims rather than the normal 6 and 7 but the majority of this improvement could only be from the polybronze.

This coupled withe the extra 3/4 degree negative camber elephant racing ball joint gave gives Chuck's product "the thumbs up".

Can't wait until his strut brace comes.

Last items on my to do list include:

993 air deflector and AJUSA hub bloke off plate
Ferodo DS2500 pads
strut brace
race seat
momo wheel

Then stage 3 will be:
harness setup
2nd set of rims and R compond tyres

That should just bring me 400% over budget......

Simon

[dickster]

Simon,

Congrats, you sound pleased!

BTW - what tyres are you running? I ask because I find the ride harsh with 22/31 t/bars.

[JAPPY]

Simon,
who in Melbourne do you use?

Michael

[drsimonwong]

Dickster I run 205/55 16 and 225/50 16 Michelin Preceda road tyres on 7+8x16 Fuch's. I think my ride is acceptable for the torsion size but probably because of the tyres, the custom valving on the Konis and because I am under sway'ed for the springs. That is it's GREAT at speed, fine at moderate pace, ok on smooth roads at slow speed but rough on rough roads until the pace picks up. He's set up the car for our tracks which are similar in surface to road rally type surfaces. ie not very smooth.

My mechanic believes in light sways and I remember Bruce Anderson in his book stating increase in sway bar size will have a significantly greater detrimental effect on ride quality than the torsion bars.

Michael I used Weltmeister in Richmond for this job. Ben is the man in Melbourne for suspension setup! They are at least 20% more than their competitors in price but if you look at the cars that run at the front of our club days they mostly tend to be Ben's cars.

Simon

[drsimonwong]

Oh, my car is a portly 2794lbs with 1/2 tank of fuel.

[dickster]

Yeah, I have to say I believe it may be the tyres more than the t/bars. I changed from 60 series in the front to 50's when I had the alignment done. It has been said here that alot of the harshness comes from the front rather than the back because of the lightness upfront, compared to the back which has the weight of the engine/trans.