"Gulp"..... I think i'm out of my depth here.
In finest 'expert' fashion, it dependsVery nice right up, i might have to rethink a few ideas. I have a set of tein ha`s and to achieve a ride height of 12 and a half inches at the front and 13 inches at the rear i have to wind up the springs untill the helper springs are almost fully compressed, so i thought i might extend the bottom shock mounts on the wishbones by an inch, that i thought might allow me to unwind the springs and release the coil-bound helper springs, what do you think, cheers tony.
I can do, but you realise it's a real can of worms:hi mate, can you post sometime on how front / rear ride height changes the front / rear roll centre - by 'how' i mean in terms of a few numbers, rather than principle. eg 13" front ride height = x front roll centre height, 12" front ride height = y front roll centre height etc. also, is there any way you can measure the position of the c of g?
lastly, i'm assuming that at stock ride height, we have a rising rate suspension set-up just in terms of geometry. are you able to post on the suspension ratio as you lower ride height (or just how the suspension ratio changes over suspension arm movement).
Doesn't surprise me at all - the accountants run the show these days so you get disparate bits from all over the world flung together. Combine that with the difference in road surfaces worldwide (I don't think Fiat do much UK testing) and a realisation that track days aren't that important in many markets and you get cars that don't handle that well.I love the academic approach, very entertaining !!!!
Picked up a new Fiat Abarth last week at Brands, now you would think that Abarth would have spent quite a few quid developing this car, wouldn't you?.
Well.... what they did was put some uprated springs on the Brazilian made rear shocks and Eastern block front struts and sent it out for use by the general public. It is underdamped and oversprung on the rear and undersprung and overdamped on the front with the understandable effect of severe understeer on track and pogo effect on B roads.
Fitted new SAS front struts and springs and kept the rear springs with new adjustable rear dampers.
Job done, car transformed on B roads. Back to Brands for track testing next Wednesday, I bet it doesn't understeer !!!!!!.
It isn't the only solution... DIY if you don't have the overheads of a large factory can make things affordable. Like I said, the UK is still a very good manufacturing base and price is getting more competitive thanks to the government!The only solution to cost is to go the Far East route like so many of the current offerings and that route leaves you with valving that doesn't suit all and buying a product and then stripping to revalve puts the price back out of reach of 95% of owners.
I'm not even going to consider making 1 or 2 way monotube shocks for the MX-5 market because I don't believe it exists in sufficiant numbers to warrant the time and effort, I'd rather spend more time playing with blow off valves on the more adjustable twin tube option to get better monotube type response.(and I'm testing that Wednesday)