1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Strange stuff. Desinged in compiancy = deflected steering geometry.
I agree with the rear end steering designed in features. With a heavy rear sway bar you do pick up some strong features but you do feel some turn in characteristics are lost. But you soon learn to drive a different vehicle. Ones expects a change and change one gets.
The 1994's had many many serious design flaws and a huge amount of dealer rework. So much of this positive spin stuff is just that. One can see that some of the front bushing design objectives were achieved, but at a cost. They were replacing sway bars and control arms on some vehicles. There were some vehicle which had incurrable shakey wheels and the control arms were replace with ones having the hydraulic bushings. So now you know where that came from. A attempt to cover something up. The original design
had some nasty vibration modes.
As for a rubber spring seat and a rubber strut mount... give me a break. This stuff is as common as sliced bread.
As for the upper mounts. Lift you hood and with the engine running, work the steering wheel back and forth, scrubbing the tread on the pavements... sorry. Watch the shock absorber shaft and top washer move about. All of these design features have a cost as there is always a compromise between comfort and control of steering geometry.
I am still learning what my Koni's, VRK and rear sway bar can do. Last night I was on entrance ramp, new pavement. I got up to 55 mph on curve and it felt great. I could hear noise from the tread wispering about the effort. But there was no squeeling or feel of anything busting loose. I don't get enough of these ramps to learn the limits.
I have a sharp 90 turn from a parkway onto my street. The street imediately goes uphill so that the vehicle gets a heavy racking or twisting load while in the turn. The rear sway bar works hard to resists this which reduced load on the front outside tire, but g forces want to put weight on it as well. The pavement there is also very shoved. In the heat the ashvault has greatly deformed from the acceleration forces of traffic. So this is a nasty turn. I try to take it faster and faster, as traffic conditions will allow. Overall the results are very impressive. Last night I went into it very fast and the composure was not great. Got a heavy bump stop and I guess it did not look good from the outside. Still kept my line and there was no loss of steering tractive control. So I found out the limit of such an abusive entry to the turn. I was looking for limits and had jerked the wheel into the turn very heavily. I find that I can otherwise get some great cornering at that intersection. So now I know that there are limits! Need to know what those are.
posted by 209.172.20...
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
