Time for new dampers

[TVRMARKUB]

Driving the Sag Monday and the rear suddenly felt soft and wayward, stopped but couldn't see anything (no knocking etc either), thought it might be tyres and as the F1s needed changing took car down to my local tyre garage, with the wheel off noticed a fine hairline crack in the rear ARB droplink just above the rosejoint.

Gave the droplink a good tug and it snapped off in my hand, also the rear damper was leaking so this may have contributed to the failure,

(just thought I'd post as a heads up for other owners)

So I need new dampers, I have Nitrons on the Griff 500 and they are a fantastic damper but the Billies on the the Sag are also very good(if a little soft)

So new Nitrons or new standard Billies with stiffer spring rates, any advice from long term owners who do trackdays welcome.

Cheers

Edited by TVRMARKUB on Friday 18th June 15:20

[blackiepaul]

Nitrons are great. Had them on the Sag for just a few weeks and they are leagues ahead.

If you are near OXford then I bought mine from Topcats racing and they installed them and set them up. As they are a racing team they really do know how to set them up for you for road and track.

[TVRMARKUB]

I've also been told that all Nitron dampers are the same for TVR's, it's just the spring rates that are different, if so the dampers on my Griff should be ok on the Sag, if so I could try the Nitrons on the Sag to see how they feel.

Anybody know if this is true or just a case of chinese whispers?

[900T-R]

Sounds unlikely to me as the spring rates of the Sag are about double those used on a Griffmaera. I'd hope the innards of the dampers would reflect this apart from their adjustibility.

[TVRMARKUB]

900T-R said:

Sounds unlikely to me as the spring rates of the Sag are about double those used on a Griffmaera.

They are nowhere near double that of the Griff 500, where did you get that info from? though maybe the Chim as it was as soft as a pudding,

plus my Nitrons have been re-valved as i'm running 600f 450r on the Griff 500 which is a lot higher than the standard Sag spring rates.

Edited by TVRMARKUB on Friday 18th June 19:38

[900T-R]

Well OK, 'about twice' was a bit of poetic license. The Sag's spring rates do represent a significant re-think compared to everything that wnt before though as the spring rates were very significantly higher.

Personally I wouldn't want to drive a Griff with 600/450 spring retes anywhere but on smooth tracks, though - at least for most drivers and conditions stiffer does not equal better and with finely tuned damping control there should not be a need to go that stiff. My car was set up for typical roads in my neck of the woods (that is - a lot smoother than your average British B-road) by Henk Thuis of Intrax and I think my spring rates are less than half that. High speed stability is still fine and vastly improved compared to the original set up.

[TVRMARKUB]

Have to say the Nitrons on the Sag are fantastic now i've got the car set up how I like it, now have 475f/450r eibach springs and damper settings of 15 clicks front 13 rear, also dropped ride height by 10mm front and rear, dropped tyres pressures to 24 all round and running standish factory geo settings.

Feels better than ever driving on road though I suspect for track it will be way too soft, anybody gone any higher than 600f/450r on spring rates?

[TVRMARKUB]

blackiepaul said:

Nitrons are great. Had them on the Sag for just a few weeks and they are leagues ahead.

agreed but I wouldn't say they were leagues ahead of the Sag bills, leagues ahead of other factory dampers that were fitted to TVRs but the factory Sag Bills are also a great damper.

[blackiepaul]

TVRMARKUB said:

blackiepaul said:

Nitrons are great. Had them on the Sag for just a few weeks and they are leagues ahead.

agreed but I wouldn't say they were leagues ahead of the Sag bills, leagues ahead of other factory dampers that were fitted to TVRs but the factory Sag Bills are also a great damper.

Hello again, I would actually say they are leagues ahead and I am a rubbish driver. The country lane that leads to my house has a couple of corners which can be taken nearly 15 MPH quicker than I could before, that makes one hell of a difference even over a short run. I will need to take you out for a blast.

[TVRMARKUB]

blackiepaul said:

TVRMARKUB said:

blackiepaul said:

Nitrons are great. Had them on the Sag for just a few weeks and they are leagues ahead.

agreed but I wouldn't say they were leagues ahead of the Sag bills, leagues ahead of other factory dampers that were fitted to TVRs but the factory Sag Bills are also a great damper.

Hello again, I would actually say they are leagues ahead and I am a rubbish driver. The country lane that leads to my house has a couple of corners which can be taken nearly 15 MPH quicker than I could before, that makes one hell of a difference even over a short run. I will need to take you out for a blast.

Hi Paul,

do you know what spring rates Topcats fitted?

[blackiepaul]

i know they were eibach ones but that is all i know. They gave me some set up sheets detailing how the car had been set up inlcuding corner weights, camber etc etc etc and then the same sheet for silverstone when we tested it there. I have now filled in anopther sheet for when I took it on the Ring and Zolder so I know what rates I turned them up.