Quote:
Originally Posted by donbecker1234
Both the Lotus Elise and the Exige 240 I had didn’t bother me road feel or even road noise wise.
It was the harsh suspension that got me as the miles racked up, which makes me think it’s all springs and shocks/dampers.
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I concur with that. I replaced all the rubber bushings in my Elise track car with sphericals. Surprisingly, the sphericals didn't come with much of an NVH penalty. The Elige is a different animal though, with a thoroughly different baseline than a G Body. Although, replacing the OE Bilstein sport suspension with Nitron double adjustable shocks and significantly stiffer springs actually seemed to improve the ride quality (at least at the softest shock settings). Anyway, back to G Bodies...
I have a 60k mile '88 491 cab (the wife friendly fun car) with Bilstein HDs all around, ERP 935 steering tie rods / bump steer kit and new OE hardness rubber spring plate bushings. At the same time, Jae Lee (Mirage International) bump steered the front suspension, corner balanced and aligned. The car drives, and rides, beautifully.
I'm currently building a mildly wife unfriendly M491 "Club Sport" coupe, of sorts (among other deletes, no radio / stereo or speakers, etc). It's a sports purpose street car. I'm sticking with the stock M491/930 torsion bars, going with new OE hardness rubber: in front A arms, upper strut mount, rear spring plate bushings and sport hardness rubber trailing arm bushings. Also, ERP 935 steering tie rods / bump steer kit, M637 Club Sport (and, interestingly enough, Cabrio) engine mounts. On the flip side, we're doing KW V3 double adjustable shocks and struts (with 19mm raised spindles) and an Eibach Anti-Roll-Kit. The goal is usable / adjustable (compression, rebound and anti-roll bar settings) performance with minimized downside (NVH and maintenance). Kicked up road holding / feel / performance a notch or two, without compromising long distance road trip or road rally usability. I'm leaving some performance on the table by going with the rubber bushings, but I'll err on the side of comfort for a street car.