Following a very pleasant and informative conversation with Planenut Ian at TOTH last week, I was spurred into action to address my exhaust/OSF suspension clearance and setup - I think I had been in denial for months in truth.....
I commented to Ian that his car had what I considered to be the perfect combination of options and setup - G56, Spax Adjustables, lots of clear daylight between his header and shock, Empire top wishbones and most importantly, near horizontal track rod control arms. Mine has all the same hardware, but none of the clearances and setup.....
Anyhoo, having removed the entire drivers side exhaust and remounted the header to achieve said clearance properly, refitted the G56 silencer and tightened everything up, I too had realised a heap more fresh air between the header and that pesky OSF shock. Wanting to make good use of this new gap, I then painstakingly wound the spring platforms down as far as was reasonable, such that I could
_just_ about get my track control arms close to horizontal.
I was able to drop the car by almost 1" and after much jacking, dropping, bouncing, and measuring, we now have a setup not dissimilar to Ian's. Note that I have never had the Comfort Kit fitted, so I run the original pre-comfort uprights and the original track rod ends. I was pleased....
Before the adjustments, the TCAs were very obviously dropping down from the rack to the steering arm, but once horizontal the the wheels were Toe'ing IN by a huge amount - certainly made the drive to the tracking shop a little lively, to say the least (REALLY sharp turn-in with then what felt like an increasing about of lock appearing without any further turns of the steering wheel). A decent adjustment to return to Parallel and I am a happy bunny again.
To celebrate, I rewrapped the headers (adding more wrap on top of the very faded original) to clean up the look once more.
So, what of the differences. Firstly the steering feel is excellent and the turn-in, consistency and feedback through the wheel are now exactly as I would have hoped. Bumpsteer however is once again minimal, with just enough pushback over bumps and potholes, but nothing like it was before. Note that although bumpsteer disappeared with the Empire raised track rod ends too, the steering rate, weight and feedback was waaay too 'comfy' for my liking, as I said at the time. In addition, the suspension control over bumps and undulations feels better, as if the shocks are now working in a range more suited to the UK roads (probably more aligned to their original design spec) and overall the car feels spot on. Well, in a 1930's kind of spot-on way, whilst maybe not exactly Cayman GT4.....!
So a big Thank You to Ian for making me do it
Slightly rubbish over-backlit picture, but you get the idea.
