Phenomenal Handling Tuscan
Discussion
Just had the shockers changed on my late mark 2 S. It had the standard Bilstein shocks fitted from new and I was very disappointed with the handling of it for some time now, extremely twitchy, bad over bumpy country lanes, and could throw you all over the place when driven hard. It was so bad I had been quietly thinking lately of changing the car for maybe a Nissan GT-R.
But now it's a totally different story all thanks to Mat Smith at Downham Market who looks after my car. He recommended Gaz Mono's, and as Mat has always sworn by Nitron's in the past, I wasn't sure to have the Mono's instead of the Nitron's. But now......wow the difference is amazing, I expected some improvement but not as much as there is, the car feels totally different, extremely well planted just absorbs the bumps without any drama. Coming back from Mat's this evening through Queen Adelaide on the outskirts on Ely, which those of you who know the area will know how notoriously bumpy it is along there, but went through with no problems at all, which I couldn't have done before.
Mat has done a fantastic job in setting it up and has corner weighted it, the balance is now absolutely perfect with near on 50/50 weight distribution, the car sticks to the intended line without deviation which allows for later breaking at corners and power through corners which can be progressively increased on exiting........wow I can't say enough about how impressed I am with the difference the upgrade has made.......thanks Mat superb job.
The only problem is it makes me drive even faster than before, but I don’t want any more points on my licence, oh well perhaps I should have a Reliant instead.
But now it's a totally different story all thanks to Mat Smith at Downham Market who looks after my car. He recommended Gaz Mono's, and as Mat has always sworn by Nitron's in the past, I wasn't sure to have the Mono's instead of the Nitron's. But now......wow the difference is amazing, I expected some improvement but not as much as there is, the car feels totally different, extremely well planted just absorbs the bumps without any drama. Coming back from Mat's this evening through Queen Adelaide on the outskirts on Ely, which those of you who know the area will know how notoriously bumpy it is along there, but went through with no problems at all, which I couldn't have done before.
Mat has done a fantastic job in setting it up and has corner weighted it, the balance is now absolutely perfect with near on 50/50 weight distribution, the car sticks to the intended line without deviation which allows for later breaking at corners and power through corners which can be progressively increased on exiting........wow I can't say enough about how impressed I am with the difference the upgrade has made.......thanks Mat superb job.
The only problem is it makes me drive even faster than before, but I don’t want any more points on my licence, oh well perhaps I should have a Reliant instead.
Good stuff Cliff!
Glad to hear you've still got the car and it's running well
Do you know what spring rates you've gone for? And if poss..what geo settings?
I recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
Glad to hear you've still got the car and it's running well
Do you know what spring rates you've gone for? And if poss..what geo settings?
I recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
Cliffedge said:
Just had the shockers changed on my late mark 2 S. It had the standard Bilstein shocks fitted from new and I was very disappointed with the handling of it for some time now, extremely twitchy, bad over bumpy country lanes, and could throw you all over the place when driven hard. It was so bad I had been quietly thinking lately of changing the car for maybe a Nissan GT-R.
But now it's a totally different story all thanks to Mat Smith at Downham Market who looks after my car. He recommended Gaz Mono's, and as Mat has always sworn by Nitron's in the past, I wasn't sure to have the Mono's instead of the Nitron's. But now......wow the difference is amazing, I expected some improvement but not as much as there is, the car feels totally different, extremely well planted just absorbs the bumps without any drama. Coming back from Mat's this evening through Queen Adelaide on the outskirts on Ely, which those of you who know the area will know how notoriously bumpy it is along there, but went through with no problems at all, which I couldn't have done before.
Mat has done a fantastic job in setting it up and has corner weighted it, the balance is now absolutely perfect with near on 50/50 weight distribution, the car sticks to the intended line without deviation which allows for later breaking at corners and power through corners which can be progressively increased on exiting........wow I can't say enough about how impressed I am with the difference the upgrade has made.......thanks Mat superb job.
The only problem is it makes me drive even faster than before, but I don’t want any more points on my licence, oh well perhaps I should have a Reliant instead.
That's lovely to hear!! But now it's a totally different story all thanks to Mat Smith at Downham Market who looks after my car. He recommended Gaz Mono's, and as Mat has always sworn by Nitron's in the past, I wasn't sure to have the Mono's instead of the Nitron's. But now......wow the difference is amazing, I expected some improvement but not as much as there is, the car feels totally different, extremely well planted just absorbs the bumps without any drama. Coming back from Mat's this evening through Queen Adelaide on the outskirts on Ely, which those of you who know the area will know how notoriously bumpy it is along there, but went through with no problems at all, which I couldn't have done before.
Mat has done a fantastic job in setting it up and has corner weighted it, the balance is now absolutely perfect with near on 50/50 weight distribution, the car sticks to the intended line without deviation which allows for later breaking at corners and power through corners which can be progressively increased on exiting........wow I can't say enough about how impressed I am with the difference the upgrade has made.......thanks Mat superb job.
The only problem is it makes me drive even faster than before, but I don’t want any more points on my licence, oh well perhaps I should have a Reliant instead.
TVRs are such great driving cars.....when they are set up correctly suspension-wise. When I first had it, my Chimaera was trying to kill me on the fen roads. I talked to Mat Smith and he changed my knackered Bilstein dampers to some Gaz Gold Pros that I bought off a mate, and did a full geo. It handles superbly (I know what you mean about the Queen Adelaide road and agree) and now i have a bit of a reputation for being surprisingly quick on track too.
What is really nice is that Mat has the latest geo equipment and really knows all the settings for the various cars and how to get the best out of the equipment. Milky400, you couldn't go to a better place for your geo. Watch as he does it - it's interesting.
The corner weighting I had done recently is the final icing on the cake - I took my 52 kilo Mrs on a track day before I had had a corner weighting, and couldn't believe how much better the car handled with the balancing ballast (no, I don't expect to live long after calling her "ballast"
) - so Mat corner weighted it with me in it, 2/3 of a tank of fuel, and the ARBs disconnected (which matters on a Chim) and now i don't need to take the "can we go home yet?" ballast to track days.BTW, spring rates vary from damper to damper as well as from car to car, so not a lot of point copying my 400/375 set up for your Tuscans - it won't be correct.
QBee said:
That's lovely to hear!!
TVRs are such great driving cars.....when they are set up correctly suspension-wise. When I first had it, my Chimaera was trying to kill me on the fen roads. I talked to Mat Smith and he changed my knackered Bilstein dampers to some Gaz Gold Pros that I bought off a mate, and did a full geo. It handles superbly (I know what you mean about the Queen Adelaide road and agree) and now i have a bit of a reputation for being surprisingly quick on track too.
What is really nice is that Mat has the latest geo equipment and really knows all the settings for the various cars and how to get the best out of the equipment. Milky400, you couldn't go to a better place for your geo. Watch as he does it - it's interesting.
The corner weighting I had done recently is the final icing on the cake - I took my 52 kilo Mrs on a track day before I had had a corner weighting, and couldn't believe how much better the car handled with the balancing ballast (no, I don't expect to live long after calling her "ballast") - so Mat corner weighted it with me in it, 2/3 of a tank of fuel, and the ARBs disconnected (which matters on a Chim) and now i don't need to take the "can we go home yet?" ballast to track days.
BTW, spring rates vary from damper to damper as well as from car to car, so not a lot of point copying my 400/375 set up for your Tuscans - it won't be correct.
Glad your enjoying the Gaz Golds you bought from me but the Gaz Monotubes are so much better, and if your wife sits next to you on track days and is anything like mine she is called "screaming ballast" TVRs are such great driving cars.....when they are set up correctly suspension-wise. When I first had it, my Chimaera was trying to kill me on the fen roads. I talked to Mat Smith and he changed my knackered Bilstein dampers to some Gaz Gold Pros that I bought off a mate, and did a full geo. It handles superbly (I know what you mean about the Queen Adelaide road and agree) and now i have a bit of a reputation for being surprisingly quick on track too.
What is really nice is that Mat has the latest geo equipment and really knows all the settings for the various cars and how to get the best out of the equipment. Milky400, you couldn't go to a better place for your geo. Watch as he does it - it's interesting.
The corner weighting I had done recently is the final icing on the cake - I took my 52 kilo Mrs on a track day before I had had a corner weighting, and couldn't believe how much better the car handled with the balancing ballast (no, I don't expect to live long after calling her "ballast"
) - so Mat corner weighted it with me in it, 2/3 of a tank of fuel, and the ARBs disconnected (which matters on a Chim) and now i don't need to take the "can we go home yet?" ballast to track days.BTW, spring rates vary from damper to damper as well as from car to car, so not a lot of point copying my 400/375 set up for your Tuscans - it won't be correct.
billy no brakes said:
Glad your enjoying the Gaz Golds you bought from me but the Gaz Monotubes are so much better, and if your wife sits next to you on track days and is anything like mine she is called "screaming ballast"
Yes, I am still enjoying them very much thank you 
- they suit my car very well. I had to have the front pair refurbed a few weeks ago as they were weeping slightly, but Gaz were brilliant at the customer service stuff - we took them off the car on a Monday, parcelled them up and paid about £7 for a courier. Gaz got them Tuesday late, refurbed them Wednesday/Thursday and couriered them back immediately, and they were re-fitted to the car Friday. No charge from Gaz, not even a courier- they really do stand by their products, as those dampers were a few years old and definitely not covered still by any warranty.
I appreciate that Monos are a lot better for a Tuscan or T350 - their rebound speed is so much better than the cheaper GGPs, so they deal with rough roads much better. I needed a cheap option to replace my knackered Billies, and you kindly sold me yours as you upgraded yourself. Monos are a good call, and considerably less expensive than Nitrons.
My wife was actually silent ballast. It was her first (and last) track day with me, at Cadwell Park, and as she is deaf I have to turn to speak to her so she can lip-read. Benefit of being deaf is she doesn't get car-sick, but I had to say "don't talk to me while we are on track", so that I could keep looking ahead. The car handled beautifully and her only two words, under her breath but loudly, as I took to the outside rumble strip at Park Corner after rather too late braking, were "OH" and "s
t!!!!!". 
s6boy said:
QBee said:
What is really nice is that Mat has the latest geo equipment and really knows all the settings for the various cars and how to get the best out of the equipment.
Did he get that new ball of string delivered then ? Fully computerised and very smart kit, if you don't mind. MrChips said:
Good stuff Cliff!
Glad to hear you've still got the car and it's running well
Do you know what spring rates you've gone for? And if poss..what geo settings?
I recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
Hi Dave good to hear from you.Glad to hear you've still got the car and it's running well
Do you know what spring rates you've gone for? And if poss..what geo settings?
I recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
I don't know about the spring ratings I leave that sort to thing to Mat, he's highly experienced in that sort of thing and I always trust his judgement, he is also highly experienced in preparing racing TVR's.
I've got a print-out of the geo settings and Mat really knows what he's doing, so again I leave that to him. Mat set it up with 3/4 of a tank of fuel and him in in car, but made allowances for me (as he is a tall bloke), no passenger, which is fine for me as after taking my wife up the Prescott Hill Climb a couple of years ago, I don't think she want's to do a track day with me.
If you get the chance to get Mat to have a look at your car I don't think you'll be disappointed, but I know you have used Jason in the past who is also an excellent person to use.
jayemm89 said:
Sounds ace, what is Mat's place called - I should pay him a visit?
Mat Smith Sportscars Limitedwww.matsmithsportscars.co.uk
01366 386004
He's in Downham Market, Norfolk (30 miles north of Cambridge just of the A10). Easy to get to and a free courtesy car that revs to 6500 rpm
when yours is in with him.MrChips said:
Good stuff Cliff!
I recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
I run 400/325 on Nitrons car is never unsettled, are you sure is Geo corect or add a bit more castor, and make sure any slight bump steer, is bump outI recently changed to Nitrons and went for 375 front and 300 rear but it still feels quite unsettled over bumpy roads. I need to find a quiet day and spend some time changing the damping settings and tyre pressures and drive the same bit of road up and down!
jayemm89 said:
I can't help but wonder if TVR would have lasted longer if every car left the factory as good as they clearly CAN be - seems like every one of them is an excellent car waiting to be discovered....
Rumour has it, or those in the know, that they left the factory fine setup correctly in many cases, they then went to dealers, who lowered them, because they looked better, which screwed the handling up :P When TVR sent out bulletins based on testing they had done on tyre pressures etc, some didn't bother implementing it, so stuck with 24, when in fact it's much higher towards 26-28. Geo is probably the most important thing to invest your money in, as it truly transforms the car.I have to say just a year ago I knew basically nothing about TVRs other than they were "British, plastic, noisy and unreliable" but the more I learn about them the more I find myself defending them to non-TVR types.
They aren't perfect for sure, but no car is and the more I read about them the more I look forward to owning one!
They aren't perfect for sure, but no car is and the more I read about them the more I look forward to owning one!
Just jumping on the two band wagons here but I have put monos on my Tamora this spring and Mat Smith did my set up and geo with them. Strangely I had decided that they were the shocks I wanted to go for and asked Mat, as my usual TVR specialist, what he thought of them and he then rated them. I can not say a bad word about either as the set up and shocks are both excellent and made a huge difference to how my car feels to drive. Is it strange that even my passangers have said that the car feels more secure to them? Well done Mat and Gaz, quality stuff!
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