B Road Improvement
Discussion
One Word ..... Bilstein... Yellow Sport Units if you can find them !! I have used many different shocks over the years on many diferent cars , but Bilstein Sports have a huge lead .
But your Griff will Still be very lively on bumpy roads , so that hot hatch or Jacko in his 911 will leave you a loooong way behind ....Unfortunately ...
TVR just didn't put enough development Into the Griff I'n many areas and Suspension was one of those areas . On a smooth road a Griff is just awesome , but how many of those are there !!
My own and some others opinion is that the Angle of the shocks is just too steep .
But your Griff will Still be very lively on bumpy roads , so that hot hatch or Jacko in his 911 will leave you a loooong way behind ....Unfortunately ...
TVR just didn't put enough development Into the Griff I'n many areas and Suspension was one of those areas . On a smooth road a Griff is just awesome , but how many of those are there !!
My own and some others opinion is that the Angle of the shocks is just too steep .
neutral 3 said:
My own and some others opinion is that the Angle of the shocks is just too steep .
How does the angle play a part??... You can get shocks straight up or layed flat (and anywhere inbtween).. but if they are the right units and set correctly, why should the angle make any differance??BTW... Billies for me also... dont want any of thoes things you have to take off every 2 years for service!!
Edited by TVR Beaver on Friday 30th September 07:38
TVR just didn't put enough development Into the Griff I'n many areas and Suspension was one of those areas .
EVO magazine put their Griff on the Mclaren factory test rig and found chassis not stiff enough to cope with speed on B road types. Could do with Mcpherson struts?. Not a rally car, but great on track.
EGB said:
EVO magazine put their Griff on the Mclaren factory test rig and found chassis not stiff enough to cope with speed on B road types.
Not quite. Harry Metcalfe recounted a story from Gordon Murray who put Creighton Brown's Griffith on McLaren's test rig after Creighton struggled to tame the handling. The results suggest that the chassis flexed too much to give a proper platform to work from.As BB hyas said the angle of the shocks is irrelevant it's how the forces are delivered to them that matters.
I presume the angle of the shocks is actually a reference to there being too much falling rate. If this is the case then yes it is of course significant, the more the suspension compresses the les additional force it takes to compress it even further, thats not what you want. Inboard spring/damper units are usually engineered to be rising rate and hence one of the advantages of them.
What about these Sportmotive evolution chassis with different pickup points, are they any better?
What about these Sportmotive evolution chassis with different pickup points, are they any better?
neutral 3 said:
One Word ..... Bilstein... Yellow Sport Units if you can find them !! I have used many different shocks over the years on many diferent cars , but Bilstein Sports have a huge lead .
But your Griff will Still be very lively on bumpy roads , so that hot hatch or Jacko in his 911 will leave you a loooong way behind ....Unfortunately ...
TVR just didn't put enough development Into the Griff I'n many areas and Suspension was one of those areas . On a smooth road a Griff is just awesome , but how many of those are there !!
My own and some others opinion is that the Angle of the shocks is just too steep .
But your Griff will Still be very lively on bumpy roads , so that hot hatch or Jacko in his 911 will leave you a loooong way behind ....Unfortunately ...
TVR just didn't put enough development Into the Griff I'n many areas and Suspension was one of those areas . On a smooth road a Griff is just awesome , but how many of those are there !!
My own and some others opinion is that the Angle of the shocks is just too steep .
I am going to go for a new set of Bilsteins on mine next year.MikeE said:
I presume the angle of the shocks is actually a reference to there being too much falling rate. If this is the case then yes it is of course significant, the more the suspension compresses the les additional force it takes to compress it even further, thats not what you want. Inboard spring/damper units are usually engineered to be rising rate and hence one of the advantages of them.
What about these Sportmotive evolution chassis with different pickup points, are they any better?
Agree.. you may need rising rate or some other performance from the shock due to the lever effect working through an arc etc... But thats not to say the angle is the problem... More the shock / spring specification...What about these Sportmotive evolution chassis with different pickup points, are they any better?
TVR Beaver said:
Agree.. you may need rising rate or some other performance from the shock due to the lever effect working through an arc etc... But thats not to say the angle is the problem... More the shock / spring specification...
When the damper is conventionally mounted (connected to the end of the wishbone and then inclined at an angle to the chassis mounting point) the larger the angle of inclination the worse the falling rate effect, I believe thats what the OP is referring to.I had Nitrons on my Caterham and its conventional wisdom to mount the front ones upside down which doesn't cause a problem at all so yes the orientation of the damper isn't significant, its the suspension geometry which is.
Tyres and tyre pressures can make some improvements. Matching tyres front to back are a must,and made a big difference to my handling. No more gokarting changes of direction and negligible tramlining. Its not a rally car, but then is neither a 911 (most), Aston, Ferarri, Lambo, Jag etc. Still not bad for a 20 year old chassis design, keeps up with that lot and they will never overtake on B roads, and on the horizon bits, its gone and so are the bumps! If PW was arround today TVRs would probably have a B suspension setting for B roads. Drive carefully and fast, the Griff is a British Icon.
Edited by EGB on Sunday 2nd October 22:46
I also have a 98 500 and when I bought it some years ago from a well known dealer it was horrible to drive on undulating B roads. It gave the impression that it's main aim was to throw me in the ditch, it really doesn’t need to be like that however. The problem with mine was the dampers were well past their best, the front suspension bushes were so worn that the wishbones wandered about in the chassis and the rear wheels were not pointing the right way.
The first job was a set of Nitrons quickly followed by replacement of all the suspension bushes, solid anti roll bar drop links and new roll bar bushes. After playing with the alignment and damper settings for a while I went up 75lb all round on the spring rate. After which it feels perfectly composed and stable. Those that say the Griff doesn’t handle can’t possibly have driven one that has proper working and aligned suspension. Having said that it is a light short wheelbase rear wheel drive car and will swap ends if you take liberties.
As far as keeping up with a 911 is concerned I hill climb my Griff and regularly beat several variants of 911 old and new.
If it is horrible to drive there is something wrong with it, you could take it to a suspension set up “expert” and spend a lot of money but in reality it is fairly simple stuff to sort out and a lot more rewarding to get the spanners out and learn how it all works. It will work better if you stick with the standard wheel and tyre sizes rather than the fashionable dinner plates with rubber bands round them.
The first job was a set of Nitrons quickly followed by replacement of all the suspension bushes, solid anti roll bar drop links and new roll bar bushes. After playing with the alignment and damper settings for a while I went up 75lb all round on the spring rate. After which it feels perfectly composed and stable. Those that say the Griff doesn’t handle can’t possibly have driven one that has proper working and aligned suspension. Having said that it is a light short wheelbase rear wheel drive car and will swap ends if you take liberties.
As far as keeping up with a 911 is concerned I hill climb my Griff and regularly beat several variants of 911 old and new.
If it is horrible to drive there is something wrong with it, you could take it to a suspension set up “expert” and spend a lot of money but in reality it is fairly simple stuff to sort out and a lot more rewarding to get the spanners out and learn how it all works. It will work better if you stick with the standard wheel and tyre sizes rather than the fashionable dinner plates with rubber bands round them.
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