What is your preferred suspension damping setup?

[Amjad]

What are your suspension mods, tyres, and what damping rates do you like to run?

E.g. My GT has Meisters, ZEP Racing panhard rod, Whiteline 24mm FARB, Whiteline fixed RARB, Polybushed rear beam with adjustable camber, LSD, braces, Rainsport 3's.

F12 R8

Would be interesting to see of what people that have experimented rate as a good setup!

Amjad

Edited May 20, 2014 by Amjad

[Amjad]

^

[morgey]

Currently experimenting and not happy with it on B roads as im getting loads of bump steer that I need to look at but that's only came about since having my suspension off for a clean and service

BC coilovers standard springs 6/4 iirc

Whiteline 24mm farb

Fixed Rarb

Alk

Ad08's

Just had tracking done.

Toe is 0

Camber 0.45

Front 6

Rear 4

Tyre pressures are 23/20 front rear.

Track usage I was told to turn the damping to 18-20 front and 14-16 rear. And to turn it harder until the understeer minimises.

Seems a strange setup but was recommended by a lotus technician. I can understand the thinking behind it but yet to test it on track!

Might set it to have some toe in and see how it goes. I'd like to think that will help the bump steer?

Edited May 16, 2014 by morgey

[Amjad]

I've got - 1.3 camber, 0 toe and rear camber around -2

Not too sure about bump steer, never really thought whether I get any. But I find at the front set to around 15 or so, I have nice direct steering feel but the car tends to bounce along bad roads. And at too soft a setting it feels too wooly.

On the rear I'm trying to figure out what would be best for lift off oversteer to make the back rotate on demand. Currently it just grips (probably due to the rear camber lol)

[Mad Mike EP82]

Currently experimenting and not happy with it on B roads as im getting loads of bump steer that I need to look at but that's only came about since having my suspension off for a clean and service

BC coilovers

Whiteline 24mm farb

Fixed Rarb

Alk

Ad08's

Just had tracking done.

Toe is 0

Camber 0.45

Front 6

Rear 4

Tyre pressures are 23/20 front rear.

Track usage I was told to turn the damping to 18-20 front and 14-16 rear. And to turn it harder until the understeer minimises.

Seems a strange setup but was recommended by a lotus technician. I can understand the thinking behind it but yet to test it on track!

Might set it to have some toe in and see how it goes. I'd like to think that will help the bump steer?

I run standard farb and adjustable rear set to max geometry is top secret ;) 8kg front spring 6kg rear tyre pressure 26-30 front 28-32 rear.

[morgey]

I liked mine with the oem farb.

This was coming round some quite bumpy corners the steering was snatching and pulling me inwards quite a lot which was causing the car to get a bit unsettled.

Didn't fill me with the most confidence so I slowed up rather than binning it!

[Mad Mike EP82]

I liked mine with the oem farb.

This was coming round some quite bumpy corners the steering was snatching and pulling me inwards quite a lot which was causing the car to get a bit unsettled.

Didn't fill me with the most confidence so I slowed up rather than binning it!

Coilovers for starlet turbo are not good for B roads you want bilstein dampers with good quality springs. Car will be higher in ride height tho but will take bumps an dips in the road much better

[morgey]

Naa I've driven it down roads like this before and it wasn't anything like this. I'm going to have a look over it and see if there's anything obvious loose or maybe replace my ball joints as that's the closest thing I've had gone that felt like this.

[AdamB]

As low as possible to the ground, with the softest springs you can get away with without the car bottoming out. Bump and rebound settings depend on the surface your driving on really.

Something with the weight of a starlet a spring rate of something like F 6kg/mm R 4kg/mm. With a stiff rear anti roll bar.

[GP82]

Amjad you need more neg camber at the front! More then the rear! The dampening setup will be trial and error testing to see how the car will react with the rest of your chassis setup, more importantly in relation to your spring rates. Generally you have a more dampening rate (compress and rebound) at the front on FWD then the rear, but you can increase this abit to make it more aggressive if you have a more grippier tyre. The car will also change direction faster now, so you will have to carefully dial in the rear of the chassis so to keep it stable, for more compliance in the rear. As mentioned tyre pressure's play a big role! This is all for driving on a track, for the road i agree with what has said above that a good shock and spring combo is best.

Edited May 16, 2014 by GP82

[Amjad]

I run standard farb and adjustable rear set to max geometry is top secret ;) 8kg front spring 6kg rear tyre pressure 26-30 front 28-32 rear.

Mike what other handling mods do you have/recommend?

I liked mine with the oem farb.

This was coming round some quite bumpy corners the steering was snatching and pulling me inwards quite a lot which was causing the car to get a bit unsettled.

Didn't fill me with the most confidence so I slowed up rather than binning it!

I might try mine with OEM FARB before JF2 and see how it feels

As low as possible to the ground, with the softest springs you can get away with without the car bottoming out. Bump and rebound settings depend on the surface your driving on really.

Something with the weight of a starlet a spring rate of something like F 6kg/mm R 4kg/mm. With a stiff rear anti roll bar.

Stock Meisters are F 5kg/mm R 4kg/mm. I was thinking of getting stiffer fronts but might leave it until next year. I do want my RARB stiffer though!

Amjad you need more neg camber at the front! More then the rear! The dampening setup will be trial and error testing to see how the car will react with the rest of your chassis setup, more importantly in relation to your spring rates. Generally you have a more dampening rate (compress and rebound) at the front on FWD then the rear, but you can increase this abit to make it more aggressive if you have a more grippier tyre. The car will also change direction faster now, so you will have to carefully dial in the rear of the chassis so to keep it stable, for more compliance in the rear. As mentioned tyre pressure's play a big role! This is all for driving on a track, for the road i agree with what has said above that a good shock and spring combo is best.

Yeah think I may go for -1.5 front camber (so a touch more) and maybe look to reducing the rear to be more equal to the front.

That's what I've found, the car is a lot pointier with front suspension set harder. I've tried softer at the front and it doesn't feel right for me.

If anyone would want to swap an adjustable Whiteline RARB for my non-adjustable pne I would like to, as I'd prefer it to be set to hard all the time. Would pay too of course..

[Mad Mike EP82]

Mike what other handling mods do you have/recommend?

Depends what your using your car for as said my setup is NOT good for bumpy b roads more track suited (not daily driver)

standard farb standard drop links with poly bushes

poly bushed wishbones with white line anti lift kit standard toyota ball joints

-2 deg front camber 1mm toe in rebound varies springs 8 kg front 6 kg rear

poly bushed rear beam

whiteline pan hard rod

whiteline adjustable rarb set to max

With good quality tyres semi slicks for best results but I like 1B road tyres like Yoko AD08r or Toyo R1R

[Amjad]

Kinda similar to mine then! Are those spring rates a bit hardcore on the road?

Will have polybushed wishbones with ALK on the car in a few weeks hopefully

[Mad Mike EP82]

Kinda similar to mine then! Are those spring rates a bit hardcore on the road?

Will have polybushed wishbones with ALK on the car in a few weeks hopefully

Yes n no sum roads are ok

[Amjad]

Ah okay!

Tried F20 R15 yesterday, not bad. There's a little more flex than I'd like up front but hopefully the few mods I have coming in the next few weeks will reduce that. As for the tyres, URS3s really are great for the price!