Hitting the Sweet Spot !!! :- )

[johno]

At last !!!!!

Went to Norfolk at the weekend to see Jools Holland and fiddle with the car again !!

I had the car set up for 4 days away in France with two of us loaded up and needed to change the suspension settings again to try and get the car right. It hadn't been right before I went to France I have struggled to get a set up I feel confident with.

But I can now say all the hours spent fiddling and mucking about have paid off !!! I'd changed all the dampers for the Gaz ones with uprated springs and all the suspension bushes for poly ones. The only ones left are the ARB mounts and the damper eye bushes.

I've finally found settings that inspire complete confidence and I spent the entire journey home last night throwing the car into every corner I could find and thoroughly enjoying myself. Absolutely superb !!!

All I need to do now is sort out the play in the steering rack. Replace the last of the rubber bushes and have another wheel refinished after bending another one whilst in France.

For anyone thats interested the following are the current settings...

Dampers front - 20 clicks
Dampers rear - 22 clicks
Front tyres - 23 psi
Rear tyres - 24 psi

The actual ride height figures I haven't got and I need to get more rear wheel camber than currently.

It's just great to get the car to a point where you feel you can fine tune it now rather than have to make sweeping changes.

So for all of you out there trying, it's really worth it as my car is transformed from where it was.

Cheers

Mr Chuffed !!!!

[Dave_H]

Cheers Mark,

Just got my front set of Gaz and poly bushes delived to the office today.

So I can start putting my S back together now!!

Cheers,

Dave.

[Paul V]

but what are the brakes like?

[johno]

Brakes - erm yeh

Were you at the Sunday meeting Paul - did they relay any stories to you ?

In my defence I was racing with Tim's wedge which has got the brakes which are going onto Steve Heath's 520 and an R1.

The R1 knew what was around the corner and made it. Tim overshot the roundabout even with those brakes and was left with the choice of the back of Tim's car (unadvisable braking zone) or lock the whole lot up at the apex of the corner and hope !

Managed to control the initial slide but unfortunately caught the front wheel onto the kerb and then had to take avoiding action due to the proximity of a sign. Managed to miss that aswell and came to a rest on the roundabout !!!

Good excuse for a brake uopgrade as I can honestly say now that I couldn't outbrake Tim !!!

My passenger was even heard to say "I thought you did bloody well not to hit anything" - this was after we helped her out of the car and she was able to walk again.

Great entrance to make to Honfleur though - hello we've arrived ;-)

Obviously this was before the 'sweet spot' had been found !!

I have to say we were very very close to the sign. Considering the car was sliding when I looked at the tyre marks by the sign they were only 8 inches away. It is more likely that the bodywork was only a couple of inches away at best ;-0

[LeeBee]

quote:

Good excuse for a brake upgrade

I've got just the thing for you!

Cheers

LeeBee

[vodkakid]

i fancy some new disc's up front to try and get rid of the fade any ideas on make and model of a good set.

andy c

[Greenv8s]

quote:
i fancy some new disc's up front to try and get rid of the fade any ideas on make and model of a good set.

andy c

If you're just replacing components, the pads will make the biggest difference. Try Tarox XF or Greenstuff with fresh DOT 5.1 fluid and it makes a big difference. Grooved or drilled discs make a slight difference to cooling and a big difference to pad wear rate. If you want a bigger improvement you can increase the disc size from 240mm up to around 280mm by spacing the calipers out. This gives you roughly 50% more cooling which should be more than enough for most people. Discs, spacers etc will cost you several hundred quid fitted or if you're feeling bold you can go the DIY route to save money. You could give Tower View a call (0208 452 6922) if you're interested. If you want the ultimate brake upgrade just tell them you want 'a monster brake upgrade like Pete Humphries has' and 'money is no object' and they will do the rest!

Hope this helps,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

[vodkakid]

cheers

andy c

[Paul V]

quote:
Brakes - erm yeh

Were you at the Sunday meeting Paul - did they relay any stories to you ?

In my defence I was racing with Tim's wedge which has got the brakes which are going onto Steve Heath's 520 and an R1.

The R1 knew what was around the corner and made it. Tim overshot the roundabout even with those brakes and was left with the choice of the back of Tim's car (unadvisable braking zone) or lock the whole lot up at the apex of the corner and hope !

Managed to control the initial slide but unfortunately caught the front wheel onto the kerb and then had to take avoiding action due to the proximity of a sign. Managed to miss that aswell and came to a rest on the roundabout !!!

Good excuse for a brake uopgrade as I can honestly say now that I couldn't outbrake Tim !!!

My passenger was even heard to say "I thought you did bloody well not to hit anything" - this was after we helped her out of the car and she was able to walk again.

Great entrance to make to Honfleur though - hello we've arrived ;-)

Obviously this was before the 'sweet spot' had been found !!

I have to say we were very very close to the sign. Considering the car was sliding when I looked at the tyre marks by the sign they were only 8 inches away. It is more likely that the bodywork was only a couple of inches away at best ;-0

I heard the tales, sounded like a scary moment, we went for a little drive after, so I hung back a bit remembering that the Griff in front would probably stop a lot quicker, still catching him was even harder. It was annoying I couldn’t make France as it sounded fun hopefully next time I’ll be there.

Paul