Thanks for posting that link, Dave.
As you say, in the film the rebound spring does seem to spend a lot of the time not touching the hub at all, and even when static there seems to be minimal compression of the spring. I know that on mine the rebound spring was under considerable compression when static, (so much so that it wasn’t possible to turn the spring by hand at all) which led me to believe that things could be improved by reducing its length so allowing the main spring to expand and lose some of its pre-loading, and also reducing the pressure on the steering bearing.
I didn’t want to be too drastic in my actions, so I settled on taking 20mm off the springs with careful use of an angle grinder. With bit of work I was able to get a pretty good level finish to the cut, and with the spring exerting considerably less force than before I’m reasonably confident that no damage will be caused to its mating surface.
The rebound springs can now be turned by hand when static (but only just), so I’m happy that the 20mm taken off is about right. My thoughts are that any more taken off would have left the hub ‘floating’, and any less probably wouldn’t have made that much difference.
Theory is all well and good, but I like to try the practical approach. If it works – fine. If it doesn’t - OK, let’s try something else. For me, this relatively simple (and free!) modification has softened the ride, given increased suspension travel, lightened and improved the feel of the steering, and increased the ground clearance by 20mm. The car still handles very well, and personally I can’t really notice any difference in body roll, but that maybe something to do with my driving style. If I was to try hurtling around a track sometime, then maybe I’d think differently. All I can say is that it’s improved things no-end as far as I’m concerned, so I’m a happy bunny!
