Steering feel lost?
Discussion
Is it just me, or did lots of steering feel vanish from Sevens when the 1996 suspension revision introduced anti-dive wishbone geometry?
I've had three Sevens (1984 live-axle crossflow; 1989 DeDion crossflow; 1998 k-series) and after the first few months of fiddling with everything I could fiddle with on the first one, I had zeroed-in on what I reckoned was the perfect (for me at least) -feeling and handling Seven. Next one I bought, I had a rear I could fiddle with too, but set up the front like the last one and it felt the same. Then the third one, which came with a horrible, huge-camber, stiff roll-bar race setup was really simple to make feel and handle like the last one simply by adopting all the settings from the last one, ...except for steering feel. The difference in weight at the steering wheel between full front tyre grip and the lightness as they start to slide is quite subtle compared to my last two Sevens. The first two Sevens I owned had exemplary steering feel - as good as I could imagine steering could be. The third one has what I would call 'fairly good' steering. The only difference between them that I can't adjust is the anti-dive wishbone pickups. I noticed the anti-dive characteristic on my first drive of a post1996 revision car, and I liked it straight away, but it took a lot longer to begin thinking there was a high price in steering feel to be paid.
Anybody else feel like that?
I've had three Sevens (1984 live-axle crossflow; 1989 DeDion crossflow; 1998 k-series) and after the first few months of fiddling with everything I could fiddle with on the first one, I had zeroed-in on what I reckoned was the perfect (for me at least) -feeling and handling Seven. Next one I bought, I had a rear I could fiddle with too, but set up the front like the last one and it felt the same. Then the third one, which came with a horrible, huge-camber, stiff roll-bar race setup was really simple to make feel and handle like the last one simply by adopting all the settings from the last one, ...except for steering feel. The difference in weight at the steering wheel between full front tyre grip and the lightness as they start to slide is quite subtle compared to my last two Sevens. The first two Sevens I owned had exemplary steering feel - as good as I could imagine steering could be. The third one has what I would call 'fairly good' steering. The only difference between them that I can't adjust is the anti-dive wishbone pickups. I noticed the anti-dive characteristic on my first drive of a post1996 revision car, and I liked it straight away, but it took a lot longer to begin thinking there was a high price in steering feel to be paid.
Anybody else feel like that?
I cant comment on cars of that era as a comparison, however I do know that the rudimentary safety device Caterham fit to the steering column needs tightening on a regular basis, otherwise there is a fair degree of slack in the steering - no surprise when you see how it is engineered, I found a big difference when it was tightened.
mickrick said:
Wheel/Tyre sizes/offsets seem to have chaneged over the years, so maybe the more modern cars have more kingpin offset ?
I thought that might have something to do with it, so I experimented a bit by changing back to 60% aspect ratio tyres (from the 70% profiles I had previously fitted for extra ground clearance (for bumpy, unmade Spanish roads) because the tyre size must affect the scrub radius/effective upright offset. Didn't make any difference to the feel of the steering, well, the steering is 'sharper' because of reduced sidewall depth, but not more feelsome. Hooch747 said:
I cant comment on cars of that era as a comparison, however I do know that the rudimentary safety device Caterham fit to the steering column needs tightening on a regular basis, otherwise there is a fair degree of slack in the steering - no surprise when you see how it is engineered, I found a big difference when it was tightened.
I don't know what you mean. Can you explain what I need to tighten in idiots' terms please?alanplumbridge said:
mickrick said:
Wheel/Tyre sizes/offsets seem to have chaneged over the years, so maybe the more modern cars have more kingpin offset ?
I thought that might have something to do with it, so I experimented a bit by changing back to 60% aspect ratio tyres (from the 70% profiles I had previously fitted for extra ground clearance (for bumpy, unmade Spanish roads) because the tyre size must affect the scrub radius/effective upright offset. Didn't make any difference to the feel of the steering, well, the steering is 'sharper' because of reduced sidewall depth, but not more feelsome. Number31 said:
Have you adjusted the castor?
Yeah, I moved all the washers to the back, as per recommended setup (they were all at the front) and although it did make a difference, this car still didn't feel like the previous, earlier models with the horizontally mounted wishbones (as opposed to the anti-dive wisbones whose mounting point axes aim at (presumably) the car's centre of gravity). Right now, I've got three washers at the back and one at the front. This whole thing is really frustrating because the driving Nirvana I bought this car to provide still eludes me. Doh!alanplumbridge said:
Hooch747 said:
I cant comment on cars of that era as a comparison, however I do know that the rudimentary safety device Caterham fit to the steering column needs tightening on a regular basis, otherwise there is a fair degree of slack in the steering - no surprise when you see how it is engineered, I found a big difference when it was tightened.
I don't know what you mean. Can you explain what I need to tighten in idiots' terms please?Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff