esprit chassis

[mlumb]

is the esprit chassis very stiff?
i ask this 'cos my car seems to have quite a bit of chassis flex similar to scuttle shake in the less stiff convertibles of days gone by.
its a 98 v8 so i would have thought it should be pretty stiff to allow the suspension to work properly,but over bad surfaces there seems to be a lot of movement.
what do you think,is it normal?
mike.

[wedg1e]

It is normal for an Esprit to have a chassis, yes.

Ian

[roadburner]

Hi,
the frame of the Esprit is for my opinion very soft.You can feel the movement.

[roadburner]

Hi,
the frame of the Esprit is for my opinion very soft.You can feel the movement.

[mlumb]

i suppose i didnt expect there to be as much flex in the chassis as it seems.
theres a road near me where the car is flexing in all directions cos of the poor surface,it didn't feel very good but if thats normal then ok.
mike

[lotustt]

Maybe you should have things checked out just to make sure if it seems a bit more than usual.

[Skerd]

I can get stiffer than the Esprit chassis.

[iceking]

Skerd,

Maybe stiffer but also faster?

>> Edited by iceking on Monday 31st May 21:41

[MikeyRide]

I would call it "normal". If it makes you feel any better (probably not), the V8 chassis is stiffer than the late S4s chassis, which is stiffer than the S4s chassis, and so on.

It would probably be amusing to see stiffness numbers compared to a modern car.

[rlearp]

Chassis stiffness isn't everything, in fact, in some cases it is not desirable. Witness lap times of some of the "flexible flier" motorcycles and a few GT cars in the early 80s - amazingly very similar to modern suspensions and lap times. Forget the reference but Kevin Cameron from Cycle World had a great many pieces on the intricacies of chassis dynamics for cars and bikes - stiffer isn't always better despite what your wife might say.

Drive the car on a road course and then see what you think. You may find that the car works very well on a smooth road course, much better than your drives on the street would suggest. I think you'll find that to be true.

[mlumb]

thanks for the comments guys,i do feel re-assured.
i had read so much about the damping and steering of the later esprit's being very good (im not disputing that , apart from a bit of kickback) that i was surprised by the amount of movement through the car body etc.
i always thought a stiff chassis was best from a suspension working properly point of view, but i guess not.
im surprised i didnt read of this in reviews though.
mike.