My new rear suspension is finished:
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And, because of the new stiffer springs, I was in need of stiffer front anti-sway bar:

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Yesterday I was doing the first test-drive and I'm very satisfied!
The car in much more predictable and very flat in the corners..... but I think my shocks was too stiff, I think!

Today I tuned the front shock at 16 clicks from fully open and rear shock at 8 clicks from fully open.

Tomorrow I will verify my sensation with the new shock settings.

Now the overall allignment of the car is quite conservative:

Front
1/32" Toe in
2.75° negative Camber
5° positive Caster

Rear
.5° negative Camber
0 Toe
Nearly 0 bump-steer
Roll center few millimeters under the ground

Will let you know!!!

 

Looks good I bet it will really corner with those mods.let us know how the ride is once you get the springs adjusted
Gary

 

Curious to know how your camber curve compares to stock and/or DragVette's setup.

 

Looks great! whos front bar??

 

looks good. got any more pics of the exhaust setup?

 

Looks fantastic! You da man!

 

Looks nice........................

 

Looks good. Wish I new more about suspension....

 

All it takes is becoming a student of the subject who is willing to spend a few bucks testing ideas which don't always work out, and the determination not to be deterred. Is that you?

Check out the following links, and pick up a copy of Carroll Smith's "Tune to Win" and you'll be on your way. As you read, do keep in mind that things have changed a little due to modern tires, such as the increased need to eliminate the compliance of rubber suspension bushings and for higher spring rates as cornering forces of 1.2g or more are not out of reach with a well set up C3 nowadays.

Yes, there's some sacrifice of comfort required for much improved handling, tho IMHO the complaints are often somewhat exaggerated due to the soft backsides of many wannabe posers who've spent too much time on the sofa.

If you decide to go down the path, remember that there are no dumb questions. Also, depending on how far you take it, the further you push the more you'll begin to find that the typical menu of off the shelf "performance" suspension kits will only take you so far before you end up back at the drawing board looking into hardcore bits.



http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/ChevyPower.pdf

http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/vip.pdf

 

Your upper link bars look very close to the aluminum dics and the frame support. Under full suspension compression it looks like the upper links are going to bump into this. Is this just the camera angle? How much clearance is between the rod and the aluminum disc. I like this setp and it looks good but have you taken it through full travel of the suspension with no binding or hitting anything.

 

Good question, but those are actually his toe-links (the uppers are above the 1/2 shafts), and I'm assuming it's surely only an illusion, right?? If not, it won't make it very far before some expensive noises...

 

OK. I did not see the upper links in there also. They still have to move up and down though.
Maybe I'm missing something here but with an upper and lower link why is the toe link needed. You can't move the toe link in or out without moving the upper and lower link in and out. I don't see the need for the toe link if the upper and lower are rigid mounted. Is it just to stabalize the whole setup?

 

He's replaced the stock trailing arm with upper and lower trailing links which don't control toe as they are jointed on both ends. What you're looking at is somewhat of a merge between some C4, Gulsdtrand, Riley, Greenwood, and DragVette designs with the slip yokes thrown in to eliminate the 1/2 shaft from serving double duty as a suspension link.

If properly thought out, prepared and tuned, it ought to work about as good as anything short of going to a full blown upper/lower SLA A-arm layout.




PS: Not looking for things to pick on, but still needs some NMB rod-ends tho.

 

Interesting idea and concept. Curious on how it al works out.

 

Thanks guys!

Sorry for the delay.... I now will answer to the question !

1) the sway bar is from the well known DIY company...... I was starting from the right (for my opinion and calculations) steel tubing....
Everything is done with a lathe.
Only the arms are Laser cutted from a 8mm steel plate in three parts each one and then welded to obtain the fork for the rodend.
Anyway I guess pictures are bettere than any description!!!!!

2) Yes, I need a toe rod because I have two rods in the front (like the C4 system) which cannot control the angle!

3) The toe rod looks very close to the aluminum disk..... an they are, but after checking the fully compressed condition (W/O springs and W shocks) I can say no collision!
Remeber that the rod act as a lever and the travel at the point where the disk is, is much lower than the wheel travel.

4) Keeping in mind the new rubbers avalaibles now.... the camber gain of the rearend is very low (in the range of 0.5° per inch of travel).
With absolutely no rubber in the pivots the geometry will not change under load and the car corner very very flat..... so I don't need much camber gain.

Today I make some more road test and I'm very happy with the results!!!!
The car is totally flat in corners, some 5° of positive caster do wonders for driveability and steer reaction..... thanks upper control arms!!!!
The back of the car feel very planted on the ground and I can assume the torque steer is null..... the car didn't change feeling when I change from throttle to brakes!
Anyway (as was supposed...) all the system is setting down to it's working condition and the ride is a bit too low at the rear..... tomorrow I have to increase the springs preload and I have to play with the shocks.

The exhaust is a custom job in Stainless 70mm tubing, tig welded.
...do it once and do it good!!!!

 

Sounds like the anti-dive geometry is a big plus, not to mention your toe not steering all over the place.

Are those QA1's single or double adjustable?

 

QA1 are single....... but I think I will move to double (or Koni... in case I will win some lotto...) as son I will have some money to invest!

Before I have to have a rough idea of wath is the best dumping factor for my setup...... a lot of adjustability is a good thing..... but can push you far away from the right way!!!!

 

Thanks for the update. After looking at the pictures more closely it all makes good sense now.

 

If/when you decide to get serious about stepping up to the Koni DA coil-overs, go straight to Koni North America's Racing department and have a custom set valved. Gordon is the guy you'll need to talk to, and he'll likely be giving you some homework, so it could be a good idea to brush up on the fundamentals and become generally familiar with Koni Racing's different offerings before you contact them.

For a little over $1K per pair (not including springs), they'll set them up for your specific corner weights and spring rates. I haven't inquired about 4-way pricing, but that would give you both high and low speed adjustments on bump and rebound.

http://www.koniracing.com/home.html

Adjusting shocks can get very complicated, as there's a lot more to it than simply setting up for ride comfort or just to keep the tires on the road. If you need a couple of tips you may not have found in the books about getting a handle on the adjustments, I'll be glad to share what little I can from having done a bit of racing on DA Koni's and 4-way Penske's. (I may have spent some time on Fox Shox, too.) For starters tho, the chapter on shocks in the "Tune to Win" title I mentioned earlier is a better primer than I recall finding elsewhere.

 

Thanks alot... I know I have to buy some nice book!!!!

Anyway, for the moment, let me found the limit of my actual setup before to spend some (not quite "some"....) money in new konis.

I know the main problem for "cheap" shocks like QA1 is the thermal stability and foaming... but before you have to be limited by this problem for buyng news things, agree???