Is it worth a suspension upgrade for strickly road use

[SLR No.77]

Andy, see post #4 :)

Stu.

[mossy7]

Oh yes.... My bad. 

[ScottR400D]

Anyone know how large the difference is between NTR R1 and a set of standard bilsteins with only 5k on them?

[SLR No.77]

About £1000

[Chris Perry]

James,

Dampers and ride is all subjective. One persons magic carpet is anothers shopping trolley. Before you spend the money i would try and get a passenger ride in a car with the set up you are being offered.

I have an old Low Flying article written by Gary May of Juno Sports Car/Freestyle motorsport which may be of interest to you and i can email with regard to spring rates.

You could try putting some zip ties around the damper rods on your car and go for a drive. Find some pots holes and bumps and see how much of the current suspension travel you are using. This may give you an idea of the spring rates you may need if you buy some new dampers or if your car is just too stiffly sprung.

If all this is too much effort, start saving for the CSR!

Regards,

Chris Perry

 

 

 

 

[SLR No.77]

Chris, my limited knowledge (and experience of better shocks) had led me previously to think that stiffer springs would give a stiffer / harsher ride, and softer springs would give a softer and more compliant ride.

Having spent time discussing what I needed with Simon, I was initially a little stunned when he suggested a setup that involved 200 lb springs front and rear, but there's a few other owners near to me that have already invested in Nitron / Quantum setups from Simon and are extremely pleased with the results. I decided therefore to just trust him and go with his suggestions, the end result being that the car is much more compliant than previously and inspires confidence to push it harder on roads that quite honestly are pretty poor in places, the wheels simply track the surface much better.

Stu.

[Simon.Rogers]

Stu

You have the progressive primary spring with the 200 main.  It is much lighter than 200 therefore.

It will be running from around 80 up to 170 depending upon how compressed the damper/spring gets.

If it was a single spring then I would be suggesting 130lb.

[vertew]

Hi James,

When I first got a 7 (k-series roadsport vvc), I thought I'd made a terrible mistake.  The car was all over the place, jumping an skipping over road bumps.  Actually scary.

To cut a long story short, the tyres were nearly 10yrs old and set to 30psi + the geometry had never been set up.  I bought a new set of tyres, set the correct tyre pressure (~18psi).  I also took the car to a respected 7 specialist and got it flat floored + geometry set up correctly (which did involve a change of spring rate).  No change to anything else.

With new tyres, correct tyre pressures and revised geometry (+ spring rates) the car was completely transformed.  Finally, I was able to understand why the reputation for agile handling - the difference was amazing.

So, definitely worth checking that the car setup is optimal, then consider upgrades from there.  

tks, Andrew.
(Longer version is here.)