Nitrons fitted....damp rate advice required...

[lig]

Hi Chaps,

just fitted Nitrons, and am after advice on damper settings that people use. Currently they are set at 14 from soft front and back (factory setting) and they seem to feel OK? was hoping that someone could give me some ideas for road and track. Have search the archives and only came up with SteveV8s post which goes into a lot of very useful detail, but no one posts figures. Would be good if someone could share.....96 500 by the way.

Cheers,
Lig.

[spend]

IMHO if you need them set so hard, you should have fitted stronger springs. The only time I really cranked up the damping was to overcome excessive rebound on the backend (jumping over hump back bridges) - but this is vastly improved with Joolz excellent longer springs on the rear. I only run 3 back & 5 front from fully soft, if I wanted stiffer I'd change the springs - at least with Nitrons you can change the springs on the car - just pop out the top and put different springs on.

Dave

[lig]

Cheers Dave,

I have just fitted them today so have yet to experiment. I was just after the views of fellow PHers.
Lig.

[starmist]

Would be very interested myself as I should be getting my car back on the road with new Nitrons over the weekend. How did you manage to set up the geometry properly, or did you not remove the wishbones?

[spend]

First set ride height, then off to friendly laser garage to set all geometry. Ride height will change geometry, so set it first! If you have the adjustable wishbones (ala peninsular) its worth twiddling a few turns and noting the difference - if you want to adjust on the fly at any time. If the operator is very nice, check the changes to the geometry when you raise / lower the ride height as well.

Dave

[lig]

Chaps,

I took the ride height settings with the old shockers (as i had the geo set up a while ago) I then fitted the Nitrons and am currently playing to set it approximately the same height (maybe very slightly lower at the back, as visually it seems to sit very high at the rear) I am then going to play with the damping, but there must be an 'average' i.e 10 turns from + for track, hillclimbing, 15 turns from + for road??

Lig.

[lig]

Sorry starmist, yep didnt have to touch the wishbone geo setting so setting it back to the same height shouldnt affect the geo, well so i think??!! makes sense doesnt it??

Went for a drive with it all set as it came from Nitron - really low at the rear and slightly higher at the front, and it still felt better than before! So once it is set correctly it will feel great....

Lig

[Guillotine]

lig

standard springs are hard enough for track/ f road if polybushed, but still soft enough for touring...JUST!

the ride height should be 1/2 inch higher at the back.
lower will get understeer, higher and the back will step out.

14 clicks from soft front, 14 rear (should never need to move rear front to 17 for fast tracks)

camber 1 neg all round = std, 1.5 front for track
(i run 2 front).

those settings will get you cerby's...if you want

[steve-V8s]

I think with Nitrons you should always set from Hard not Soft to get the same on each damper.

[GreenV8S]

I think that advice holds good for any damper.

[GarryM]

Mine were fitted and set up by the dealer - 12 from soft on front, 8 from soft on rear. Guy at Nitron has also advised me to set them again, this time starting from hard to get an even setting as some dampers may have more clicks than others but at fully hard the needle is firmly in the jet so at that point the dampers are exactly the same and each click towards soft adjusts by an equal amount.

On the settings when I collected the car, it felt fine but I have since softened front and rear by 4 clicks and this feels better on the bumpy roads where I live.

When you adjust try several clicks at one go so you can feel the difference.

Also I would have thought, as the front springs are stiffer than the rear ones, you would need the front shocks set at a higher rate. Certainly seems to work well on mine.

HTH.

[joospeed]

All sound sensible advice.

did your supplier not explain all this to you when you made the purchase Lig? if not go back and slap them around the face with a damp copy of the radio times. It's the least they deserve

[lig]

Cheers for all the advice chaps,

Set the ride height back to how it was originally. Set the rear dampers to 12 (midway) and the fronts to 10 from hard and it feels great!!

Lot more responsive (than the old dampers) like a new car (more like my old S2 Elise)!

What a great purchase would recommend to anyone...Took 5 hours to fit, bought from Nitron through Julian at BalanceMotorsport.co.uk really friendly chap and good advice......now should I get it corner weighted...??...hmmmmm

Regards,
Lig.