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is now in place, ie. springs and Konis. Actually it's been in place for a couple of weeks but I lost one of them while my gearbox was being rebuilt. For the other week – well, I wanted to be sure what I thought about the springs and dampers before posting anything.
First off, inevitably the rear bolts on the dampers were seized and the complete swap took Abbott Racing about four hours. We didn't do anything in the anti-roll bar department (I already had Abbott bushes front and rear).
My drive home was disconcerting. It involved the M25 orbital motorway, most of which is made up of horrible concrete sections, and on these I seemed to feel every bump, particularly through the rear end (car's and mine both). And on my favourite hill going across Salisbury Plain, I felt I was in real trouble: the steering was really good, my torque steer had disappeared, but once again the back end seemed to be hopping about. I even phoned Giles and asked him not to chuck my old springs.
However, on smooth roads the results are fantastic. Lowering the car obviously helps, but the car is very stable and roundabouts are tremendous fun. My understeer has also gone. And on broken surfaces the ride, though harder, is better controlled and less 'crashy' than before. I think I was pretty tired by the end of my drive home (I drove a total of ten hours that day) and that may have affected the way I felt about the car to some extent. Perhaps I needed time to adjust to the change.
So I drove it for a while, and this evening I took the Beast out in the twilight and bent it round my local lanes, and decided that on balance it was too much fun and I couldn't possibly return the car to its old state, and the Abbott springs will stay – but I may have to get the rear dampers adjusted, so I will take it back to Abbott Racing for a check over.
Final note - auto gearbox rebuild cost about £1,350 including tax, or $1,900.
posted by 213.122.11...
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