Suspension Goodies!!!

[Bobboloo]

What started out as just wanting to lower the car turned into a whole new suspension...

The 73' Targa I bought earlier this year drove very nice. It had SC torsion bars Bilstein HD shocks and stock front and rear swaybars. I had no complaints but the ride height was a bit much and the "Road Huggers" tires were anything but. They should have called "Road Wimps".


So first off I decided to get some decent wheels and tires. The fake fuchs on the rear wear cracked and the tires were a joke despite having full tread.

I got a set of 7/9x16" Fuchs and a set of ES-100s. (should've gotten the Avon 500s).

Next get the car lowered. (Here comes the slippery slope.)

As we know you really should have adjustable springplates if you want to lower and do a corner balance. Rather than just test the waters I decided to jump off the deep end and I bought a set of Wevo SPS springplates.

Along with the Wevos for the rear I also upgraded to Carrera trailing arms, Bilstein sports, 28mm hollow Sanders T bars, Wevo swaybar mounts and 86' Carrera 21mm swaybar with Tarret droplinks.

For the front I went with Koni Adjustables, Carrera brakes, 22mm hollow Sway-a-way T bars, Tarret hollow 22mm anti-swaybar, Elephant racing bushings and Turbo tie-rods.

Revelations: 73
Last night I took a cruise down Sunset from the 405 to Hamburger Hamlet, through Bel Air to meet some friends there. The car just stays planted in the turns and lets you know that there's plenty left. It gives you so much confidence that it's up to the task.

The ride is much firmer but believe it or not there's less vibration and jitters. Road noise seems to be down but if you hit a pot hole or you drive on uneven pavement then there's no mercy. (not that there ever was)

I love it.

P.S. Special thanks to Tyson and TRE for his evil touches putting in the Wevo SPS, Wevo rear sway mounts and Elephant bushings. (some things are best left to the pros) I passed on putting in the Wevo SPS after I read the instructions and decided it was over my head. Tyson asked me "What instructions, I didn't see any in the box"? Oops my bad.

[Jgordon]

more pics of the car please. What kind of finish on the fuchs? the suspension components look great.

[jester911]

Looks good. That wevo stuff is trick. Ride height looks much better too.

[Bobboloo]

The car is like an ugly girl. Prettier on the inside than the outside. It has a lot of door dings. The paint is beat to hell in the front from rock chips and it has poo poo brown Turbo seats in a black interior. She's fugly. Cosmetic restoration is to begin next year. I have to get movin on my 71'S resto project for now.

The fuchs have polished rims and I rattle can'd the centers with silver Rustoleum. It'll get me by on the cheap for now.

[Jack Olsen]

You should bring that ugly girl to the track this Wednesday.

[Bobboloo]

Baby steps Mr. Olsen, baby steps.

Baby steps onto Mulholland at 8am. tomorrow.

Baby steps to DE...yada yada

[Shuie]

Nice work!

[azasadny]

Great work!!!

[jpahemi]

Bobby:
How hard was it to fit the bearing race in the torsion bar hole? Did you have to file off any area around the outside of the race?
j.p.

[efhughes3]

Please, a side shot showing the whole car and new ride height...

[Neal Boysen]

Looks great! Would like to see more pics though. I bought a 71 T Targa earlier this year with original paint that is cosmetically challenged with numerous door dings and road rash on the front end. It will be a long term project and seeing these Targas just gives me more ideas!

[Bobboloo]

How hard was it to fit the bearing race in the torsion bar hole? Did you have to file off any area around the outside of the race?

I don't know. I read the Wevo instructions and chickened out. Tyson did the install. He did say that around 73' that 911 chassis's started getting a lot more consistent in their build which makes installs like this for the Wevo and elephant bushings usually go smoother. This car has never been wrecked so that's got to help as well.

I only have a couple more photos.

This last one is from GAF but the corner balance hadn't been done yet.

I'll take some more tomorrow up on Mulholland.

[Bobboloo]

I wish I could have taken more time and tested the addition of each component seperately but wasn't able to mainly because it would get really expensive re-doing the corner balance several times.

I did do a few things in stages:

#1 wheels and tires.
#2 aluminum trailng arms and the 28mm Tbars.
#3 Bilstein rear sports.
#4 Wevos SPS, Elephant bushings, 22mm front T bars, Konis and lowering.
#5 Tarret front swaybar
#6 Corner balance

Here's my list of improvements based on level of importance.

#1 wheels/tires (quality rubber is a biggy and 9" rear wheels help alot)
#2 lowering/corner balance (physics pure and simple)
#3 bigger T bars/shocks (Putting in the rear 28mm bars was a revelation. They cut down on body roll, kept the tires planted and don't really make the ride more harsh)
#4 bigger anti-roll bars (do what they are supposed to do but aren't nearly as important as #3)
#5 Wevos SPS and Elephant Racing bushings. (These are luxury items but if you can afford them the quality and precision is evident every time you go for a drive. Delightful.)

I find it intersting to note that the cheapest improvements were the most effective. Just adding good tires and having the car lowered and corner balanced will yield the biggest improvements.

Likewise if I had to choose between bigger torsion bars or bigger sway bars I would go with the torsion bars. The ride really didn't suffer that much from them and they help in several ways. They help the stock sway bar cut down on body roll, keep the tire on the road, keep the car from bottoming out when it's lowered, cut down on squat under acceleration and cut down on dip under hard braking. Bigger sways only do one thing, cut down on body roll, which they do quite well, but it comes at a price to ride quality. The independence of the suspension gets compromised a little.

Hope this helps you guys making improvements on a budget.

I have a Titanium strut brace on the way. I'll report back my impressions when I get it.

[drsimonwong]

I 2nd Bobby's last paragraph of advice. Went 23/30 with my torsions and stayed with STOCK sways. Perfect compromise track/daily driver.

Simon

[Bobboloo]

Here's a side view from Mulholland this morning.

[JonT]

fantastic car!