P
pulsarboby
Guest
over the last few weeks ive learned a hell of a lot with regard to suspension setups etc, im far far way from what jim knows on here but i have learned something thats of very relative importance to thiose using lowering springs on stock type struts, so il pass on to you what ive learned and upto you's whether you think im talking out my arse or not lol
ok after recently fitting a set of gabs with lowering springs to my track/road based car i took it back to a motorsport company to have all the alignment etc setup again, only to get a call from them a couple hours later saying he had set it up best he could but advised me to pop down so he could show me a crucial defect in the system.
so of course i was now very curious as to what could possibly be wrong
so heres what ive learnt and seen with my own eyes so know its not a load of bull:lol:
basically all standard type struts fitted to a pulsar / sunny are designed for rally use with high springs and long outer casings.
they are designed to run with high stock springs (as standard ride height shows) to allow for compression of the centre damping rod of strut (squish i think he said its called) this is basically the amount the spring compresses when the weight of the car is on the springs.
now when you fit lowering springs to said struts you only leave around 1''1/2 of rod compression before car hits the bump stops (ive never noticed this before) now with gabs or other similar adjustable damping suspension you can stiffen the damping which does help with rebound but its still far from correct.
for those that are not aware of what im talking about or trying to put across.....as soon as the bumpstop bottoms out (either on hard road driving or circuit)
you just as well have four lumps of wood as suspension as the car will break free and lose grip completely which is obviously far from ideal and could be dangerous!
if you look at a set of coilovers and compare the bodies to a set of stock struts, gabs, konis, kyb etc you will see that the bodies are around one and half inches shorter to allow for more damping rod movement, plus the squish on them (weight of car) is only around 2'' compared to about 4'' on lowering springs so basically they are built for purpose.
theres a lot of cars running round with lowering springs on standard type struts but you are hugely compromising handling and car stability by having these fitted, its certainly made me think about going this route now that ive seen what he means with my own eyes.
he said ideally if he were designing a strut for this type of car (taking into account the weight of car with 4wd system) he would have made the stock housings around 2'' shorter for road and circuit use
so make of this what you will gents, just be carefull and aware if your nailing your car round the twisties on the road, if you hit a dip or pothole it could all end in tears!!!
ok after recently fitting a set of gabs with lowering springs to my track/road based car i took it back to a motorsport company to have all the alignment etc setup again, only to get a call from them a couple hours later saying he had set it up best he could but advised me to pop down so he could show me a crucial defect in the system.
so of course i was now very curious as to what could possibly be wrong
so heres what ive learnt and seen with my own eyes so know its not a load of bull:lol:
basically all standard type struts fitted to a pulsar / sunny are designed for rally use with high springs and long outer casings.
they are designed to run with high stock springs (as standard ride height shows) to allow for compression of the centre damping rod of strut (squish i think he said its called) this is basically the amount the spring compresses when the weight of the car is on the springs.
now when you fit lowering springs to said struts you only leave around 1''1/2 of rod compression before car hits the bump stops (ive never noticed this before) now with gabs or other similar adjustable damping suspension you can stiffen the damping which does help with rebound but its still far from correct.
for those that are not aware of what im talking about or trying to put across.....as soon as the bumpstop bottoms out (either on hard road driving or circuit)
you just as well have four lumps of wood as suspension as the car will break free and lose grip completely which is obviously far from ideal and could be dangerous!
if you look at a set of coilovers and compare the bodies to a set of stock struts, gabs, konis, kyb etc you will see that the bodies are around one and half inches shorter to allow for more damping rod movement, plus the squish on them (weight of car) is only around 2'' compared to about 4'' on lowering springs so basically they are built for purpose.
theres a lot of cars running round with lowering springs on standard type struts but you are hugely compromising handling and car stability by having these fitted, its certainly made me think about going this route now that ive seen what he means with my own eyes.
he said ideally if he were designing a strut for this type of car (taking into account the weight of car with 4wd system) he would have made the stock housings around 2'' shorter for road and circuit use
so make of this what you will gents, just be carefull and aware if your nailing your car round the twisties on the road, if you hit a dip or pothole it could all end in tears!!!
