Suspension, handling info not RNN14 Dedicated but really nice to read!

The Doc

Moderators
Staff member
Makes a very good read and does translate on to our cars being as fwd and 4wd setup is similar .It seems that the thing about spring rates and shocks are as cambleju,red reading and warpspeed have been saying for many years.
 

KieranEG6

Member
Got halfway through reading today on my lunch. GOD why can't it be simple. Now I am even more confused as to what I should buy. Any where to get it.
 

keastygtir

Well-Known Member
it says to me that no matter what else your putting on (sway bars, polly bushes etc) if you decrease the already low amount of suspension travel you will struggle to make the car handle well
 

KieranEG6

Member
Seems to me the only way to retain the stock amount of travel or even near to, is to make a custom setup.

Are the general shock spring setups GAB/Bilstein/Koni's and likes of more modern BC/MiesterR coilovers really all that bad? There are tons of people who run them yet you don't seen tons of threads about how horrendous their suspension is.

I am trying to decide on the easiest option that won't break the bank or take me ages to accumulate parts then have to custom assemble.(Typically being lazy) Will a set of BC's with slightly higher rear spring rates and a bit of added preload to gain some travel back, really be all that bad? With the increase in spring stiffness not take out most of the travel in use anyway?

Even most of the Recommended setups in the thread sacrifice an inch or so of travel.
 
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PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
I think it all depends what you want to do with the car. - If you're tracking it for example, then the loss of suspension travel isn't an issue since the track is mostly a flat, even surface.

If you want to be able to handle pot holes and uneven roads then you probably do need the travel... and if you're rallying it you might even want more than stock travel. - I remember Andy posting a picture of a WRC car with the struts mounted on an angle for that reason.

You will occasionally see threads about how somone's Tien suspension is too hard for the road, but that seems to be less and less common now. - Maybe it's listening to the advice of those in the know about spring rates etc?
 

KieranEG6

Member
Think Teins just had shocking dampers ;-). As they tend to be difficult to get right on most cars even if you change spring rates.
 

Nick K

Member
I have BC coilovers on mine with camber adjustment things on the top. Anybody had any experience with them with handling and setup??

IMG-20140921-WA0017.jpg
 

bracpan

Active Member
I had teins on mine and the car handling was superb, even on road use it was good.
I won the Welsh and the Midland Hill Climb Championships in my class using Teins, your springs and shocks are only a small part of making the car handle well..
Plus every car is different just like any engine. If you generalise your only sorting part of it out or not?
So what you do with the car and how and where you drive it governs how you set it up.
 

The Doc

Moderators
Staff member
Bracpan tiens had differant springs fitted, tiens are over damped and under sprung for road use and actually ratchet the car down in use on bumpy roads due to the rebound damping, BC are ok for budget dampers the springs are still a little soft and to be at there best on the average road need the damping down near minimum to work, the worst thing people do is lower the car too far and then you lose a lot of usable suspension movement and also mess up the geometry of the suspension arms...this can cause bump steer and that is very bad, the modification to increase caster is good as well...just my 2 p which we can expand on
 

red reading

Active Member
I have BC coilovers on mine with camber adjustment things on the top. Anybody had any experience with them with handling and setup??

View attachment 2365

There ok if you take time to set it up properly and learn what suits the car best, I found taking 20mm from stock rear and 30mm from the front in ride height was about right and minimum damping on the front and two up on the back works for me on the road , but this is dependant on loads of other things.
 

Nick K

Member
There ok if you take time to set it up properly and learn what suits the car best, I found taking 20mm from stock rear and 30mm from the front in ride height was about right and minimum damping on the front and two up on the back works for me on the road , but this is dependant on loads of other things.
That's great info for a set up start point. Thank you. Had no idea where to start as coilovers came on the car but just thrown on judging by caster angles they were at! Moved top mounts just to get the wheels to go in a straight direction!

Is there any provens formula's/preferred settings with camber angles and tow for normal road use on the pulsar? Sorry for all the questions :oops:
 
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