Please help me choose spring rates!
Discussion
My S1 Sport 160 is going into Sinclaires very shortly to have a suspension upgrade. My intention is to fit one-way adjustable Nitron dampers and Eibach springs.
Sinclaires suggest spring rates of 325f/400r but my thinking is this may be a little soft.
The car is a weekend toy, so a firm ride is not an issue for me. On a recent hoon in Wales, the following camera car recorded some roll and pitching from my car during hard cornering. Albeit the LSS must be well past its best at 25,000 miles.
So, any suggestions for spring rates, chaps? How does 400f/500r sound for an S1 Sport 160?
cheers
Justin
Sinclaires suggest spring rates of 325f/400r but my thinking is this may be a little soft.
The car is a weekend toy, so a firm ride is not an issue for me. On a recent hoon in Wales, the following camera car recorded some roll and pitching from my car during hard cornering. Albeit the LSS must be well past its best at 25,000 miles.
So, any suggestions for spring rates, chaps? How does 400f/500r sound for an S1 Sport 160?
cheers
Justin
)G7 Rye said:
mine has just gone in for 700 750 and obviously re-valved shocks!
With harder springs reducing weight transfer the absolute cornering limit will be higher but it will break away faster when over. Great if your a driving god but possibly less good if your still learning. I have found that with standard Nitron damper valving 450/550 on a 750Kg racecar gives me the best balance of high speed cornering stability whilst still being able to recover the majority of oversteer incidents. Any harder and I bin more than I hold which costs in race positions.
Nah, my observations are the same for S1 and S2 cars racing in LOTRDC Class A. Damper lengths and mount points dont seem to have much influence on spring rates. Still since the OP isnt racing and not clear on road/track bias its all just FYI and I'll shut up now.
PS The 600/700* Hoffmans setup isnt really 600/700* as the mainsprings are combined with tenders and helpers to give a blended rate.
EDIT: (*) Or whatever the absolute values are.
PS The 600/700* Hoffmans setup isnt really 600/700* as the mainsprings are combined with tenders and helpers to give a blended rate.
EDIT: (*) Or whatever the absolute values are.
Edited by hbaumhardt on Thursday 17th July 11:08
My S1 racer is on Nitron one way adjustables with 400/500 springs. This setup worked fine when I ran the car on the road, firm without being too uncomfortable. I would also recommend an adjustable front antiroll bar which you can stiffen up for track use, otherwise roll is an issue.
Cheers, Joanna
Cheers, Joanna
hbaumhardt said:
Nah, my observations are the same for S1 and S2 cars racing in LOTRDC Class A. Damper lengths and mount points dont seem to have much influence on spring rates. Still since the OP isnt racing and not clear on road/track bias its all just FYI and I'll shut up now.
PS The 600/700* Hoffmans setup isnt really 600/700* as the mainsprings are combined with tenders and helpers to give a blended rate.
EDIT: (*) Or whatever the absolute values are.
The tender springs are there to keep the springs in the seats, they are probably around 10lbs max and get instantly crushed. Mounting points will change the effective spring rate, so will potentially have a large effective on which weight springs are chosen. Make sure you get linear springs, rather than 'progressive' as they're a lot easier to tune on the dampers.PS The 600/700* Hoffmans setup isnt really 600/700* as the mainsprings are combined with tenders and helpers to give a blended rate.
EDIT: (*) Or whatever the absolute values are.
Get Simon or Rex Stamp, or one of the quick heavily modded racing exige chaps to comment.
Scuffers said:
LOL at this thread!
The chap has asked for spring rates for his Nitrons and peeps (including myself) are stating what we use. I went with a general consensus from digging around on Seloc and am well pleased with the results. Certainly I'm no driving god (quite poor really) but we all have to start somewhere.
Positive input rather than patronsing joviality would be more help.
TIPPER said:
Scuffers said:
LOL at this thread!
The chap has asked for spring rates for his Nitrons and peeps (including myself) are stating what we use. I went with a general consensus from digging around on Seloc and am well pleased with the results. Certainly I'm no driving god (quite poor really) but we all have to start somewhere.
Positive input rather than patronsing joviality would be more help.
as usual, you have totally miss-understood what I was laughing at!
my point is this... I see NOBODY has actually bothered to ask *any* pertinant questions required to make a sencible recomendation.... you all seem quite happy to jump in though
hbaumhardt said:
With harder springs reducing weight transfer the absolute cornering limit will be higher
I'm trying desperately not to get involved with this thread, but I can't let this one pass...Harder springs do NOT reduce weight transfer. Neither do they necessarily increase absolute cornering forces; on an imperfect surface (ie. 95% of British public roads) they can reduce absolute cornering limits due to greater variation in intantaneous loads at the tyre contact patch (known otherwise as 'making the bloody car skip about all over the place').
The ONLY things that would reduce total weight transfer for a car of given weight at a given cornering force would be to reduce CG height or increase mean track width.
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