softer suspension

[mcfadzean tvr]

Could any body advise me what type of suspension would provide the smoothist ride on my chimera at the moment it has the original bilsteen and it is as hard as *ell and rattles your teeth and my wife wont go in it thanks JOHN

[Sam_68]

If you're after an off-the-shelf package, you'd be better asking in the TVR forums, but as a general rule:

• Try looking for a decent quality set of single-adjustable dampers, so that you can play around with the settings to some extent yourself. Nitrons are as good as anything unless you want to spend silly money. Cheap single-adjustables like Protech or Spax are likely to give you a worse, harsher ride than what you have already.
• What you are actually after, hoever, is a set of dampers that offer fairly soft high-speed (ride) damping, whilst retaining fairly stiff control over the low speed (pitch and roll) damping, so that the ride comfort is improved whilst not compromising too much on handling. Unfortunately, since there isn't a big market for comfort-orientated aftermarket suspension on TVR's, you're unlikely to find a set of dampers of-the-shelf that have been optimised for this. You therefore have two choices:

A) Get a set of dampers with separate high and low speed adjustment. These are likely to be very expensive, however (a good set will cost as much as your car is worth), and they require quite a lot of expertise to set up correctly.
B) Get your existing dampers dyno'd, test your spring rates, then take the results to manufacturer of high quality dampers (try Penske or Nitron, for a start) and ask them to build you a set of fixed rate or single-adjustable dampers that will suit your requirements (not as extreme as it sounds, because they'll have a range of shims and pistons that can be mixed and matched to give pretty much whatever characteristics they want).

[plasticman]

The ride should not be bad on the standard suspension . I would check the tyre pressures first , I usually run at about 24 psi , David

[Sam_68]

plasticman said:

The ride should not be bad on the standard suspension.

That's true enough. It depends on your perspective, of course, but 'sportingly firm' is about the worst criticism you can level at standard TVR spring/damper rates.

At risk of attracting the attention of Eric the Schmoking Schtalker again, you do need to be aware that the TVR's suspension geometry is flawed and that softening things off (particularly at the rear) will potentially allow more movement that will exacerbate the problems.

[chris7676]

plasticman said:

The ride should not be bad on the standard suspension . I would check the tyre pressures first , I usually run at about 24 psi , David

It very much may be if dampers are worn.