Pushrod suspension and.......

[RiF]

Just visited Freestyle today. Thanks for all the help from Len and Gary and all their time spent discussing suspension, anti roll bars and shock absorbers (plus the coffee).

 

Anyway ordered today their fantastic pushrod front suspension and a set for front and rears of the ally adjustable shock absorbers. If it is half as good as it looks I will be very happy.

 

Certainly recommend this route for a new build or if you are thinking of changing your suspension.

 

 

Richard in France

Build is just starting of my Duratec 7, painting this week 😬 😬 😬

 

Edited by - richard in france on 26 Feb 2003 22:16:56

[Graham Perry]

Richard, Did they mention how the testing is going and what they believe the real world advantages are to the seven owner rather than the theoretical one of less unsprung weight etc ?

 

I guess like many here I don't want to get out my chequebook until I hear that it offers significant enhancements over the current set up

[V7 SLR]

Len commented about some practical properties of driving with this suspension in another thread. Sounds like it's a winner.

 

Worcs L7 club joint AO.//Membership No. 4379//Azure Blue SLR No. 0077//Se7ens List Tours

 

[matthewwatkiss]

Appart from looking fantastic it would mean that the spring / damper units are opperating nearer the the correct angle. With all forces going down through the damper as opposed to accross it as in the 'normal' seven set up.

[RiF]

Rushing out now.....but the following points are as follows

 

Can adjust ride height independently,

The shock absorber is working on a 1:1 basis so it works more efficiently.

Steering has improved

Ride quality improved and very adjustable.

On rough surfaces the car will cope better

Plus the points already mentioned above.

Oh yes easier to clean the car 😬

 

Perhaps Len could explain in more depth if he reads this as have to go out urgently.

 

PS In answer to question:

Testing has been briliant. Right fist time and even better than expected

 

Richard who was in France but is now in UK to sell his 7 and[blue]

 

build his new Duratec 7 😬 😬 😬

[Lennie]

Thanks Richard for the endorsements. To keep everyone up to date on how things are going:

 

Testing has gone better than we could have hoped. The general ride, handling and steering is a definite improvement and more importantly, nothing creaks, groans or rattles and nothing has broken. Now, if I was Colin Chapman, we would make things lighter until they do break and then go back a bit. Unfortunately, I am not Chapman, so I think we will leave as is.

 

The car is being stripped now and pushrods, support bars and Y-piece are off to Arch to be jigged and productionised. The pushrod itself I am very keen to get in aerofoil section; Gary, on the other hand, needs to calculate the stress as it is under a severe compression load. Probably the best guy to talk to is Bruce at Arch as he has such vast experience with all things suspension, so a decision on that is imminent.

 

I have been using the car for a while now and growing more and more confident in it. The change of direction is simply sensational and the ride has not been compromised. What cars behind me think of the idiot in front driving with the nearside wheel in all the rough stuff on the outside of the road I dread to think and I am amazed that no-one has phoned the police to report me, but with the nearside wheel working very hard and the offside wheel having an easier time on the smooth part of the road, the car seems remarkably unaffected.

 

The front springs that we are running have been calculated by Gary to represent the same as our normal handling set up but we may experiment a bit more when the productionised bits come through. We feel confident enough that the design is right and spring rates and damping values can be tweaked once all hardware is up and running. We still have an issue with the roll bar. Gary is quite keen to run without one but I think from a marketing point of view and adjustment point of view, we do need one. One of the main benefits of the suspension is the preload we can give to the spring dampers without compromising ride height and as discussed on a different thread, the replacement of the top ball joint with a spherical joint has transformed the steering. We are hoping to get some pictures of the car onto the site soon and also on the Freestyle website.

 

If anyone has any questions give me a call - I will be only too happy to have a chat. My number is on the website.

 

 

[fordy]

drool.......

[I.Mupferit]

Oh noooooo!!!!!!!! Yet more money to be spent then. 😬

 

Brent

7 in bits, LOTS of bits ☹️

[rgrigsby]

And as a bonus if you have a narrow track car then it also gives you the widetrack converstion at the same time!

 

Rob G

www.SpeedySeven.com

[Anthony]

Len, any chance of looking at whether this will fit a pre 92 car ?

[Lennie]

Antony it is something we will look at. I suppose the route to go would be to get the post 96 up and running and then see how much can been taken over to fit other years. Forgot to mention that running the car without the nose cone and bonnet it is fascinating to see the set up working and how much the rockers and dampers move compared to a normal set up. I did suggest to Gary would could make perspex nose and bonnet, like the F40 but he said that they may have to wait. We did have some concerns, well I did, on how much heat would be generated in the shocks from the increase movement and the fact they are under the bonnet but there does not seem to be any problems, talking to AVO they also say that it will not be a problem. Another idea we had was to make the lower wishbones so that they run a nomal external set up but have wide track, top spherical joint all in the flat tube, this would allow, a later date,to uprate to the pushrod using the same wishbones. The problem then would be where to fix the roll bar, but I have an idea for that to.

[Laurence Wilson]

😬

 

Peardrop