cagotzmann

Current Rear spring is a VB&P 360. I am looking for something much stiffer for track days. Van steel shows a 420# but details show it as 400#, anyone have a custom spring made to specs. Also I do not want a high arc spring either.

Bikespace

I have a VB&P 360 that was cut down at the factory. It was marked by VB&P as 385. Does that count as a custom spring?

I'd give Van Steel a call and see what they say. Perhaps 420 is 420. Perhaps it's 400, but they can shorten it an inch or two to get the spring rate up higher.

gkull

Is VB&P currently closed? When I was stuffing in my 4.11 a few weeks ago I attempted to call them two different days and was just on hold. they made my custom 520# I ask for a 500#, but after they made it and tested it was 520#.

But anyway I tried a 420# and my rear tires were grinding on my new fender flares just out doing some practice laps. The rear spring was compressing about 2 inches from the static ride height. With for corner scales and I'll round off the rear tire weights. Lets for math purposes call them 840 pounds on each rear tire. go into the apex of the turn and hit the rumble strip. Instantly you end up with 1680 pounds on the outside tire. My wimpy 420# compressed 2 more inches and the slicks were right into the flare lips. to make it through the day I had to crank up the end bolts to lift the rear of my car.

Here are the 520# with very little arch and the tires hanging off the ground.

redvetracr

I have a Guldstrand 5-leaf Daytona style rear (fronts available too), appears 1" shorter than a stocker, if you or anyone else is interested send a PM.

cagotzmann

Called Van Steel and the spring will be somewhere between 400-420#, while they will custom cut shorter, but you cannot get a complete custom spring for a requested spring rate. If they shortened the spring it may vary by 10% stiffer.

Van Steel said there springs are made by the same factory GM uses on the current chev cars (Corvette ? ). They are also 6-8 weeks out on delivery if the spring is not in inventory,

Metalhead140

Looks like VB&P are not in a good place based on the conversation on various forums, and the website has been down a while. Shame, as I wanted to order one of their dual mount rear springs with a stiffer spring. Let us know what you end up going with.

ariba

I was considering in the future to get 360 rear spring is it grate as a street ride is there any softer?
. I just bought for the front QA1 450 adjustable and rear Bilstein HD.

cagotzmann

Looks like the only custom spring I can find is with Duntov (Steel Spring) I am not sure if this will un balance the car. Current is 800kg (1760 lbs) front 810 kg (1782 lbs) rear with me in the car and a full tank of gas.

gkull

Originally I was into drag racing my vette . 79 L-82 with a progression of motors and transmissions. I ended up with too much rear squat. We didn't have the internet with all the options back then. So I went to a steel spring shop and I had them re-arch my steel spring ( like very little arch) and add a leaf to make it very stiff. It was up around 500#

I did lots of math to figure out weight x-fer…………… The other option is rear spring coil overs and then you can dial in anything. Coil over springs are only 80-100 bucks a pair. You can buy them in 50# increments

GTR1999

We never run glass springs. We used Tom's steel springs, made by Deaver in CA. We had one made for this car to solve the squatting issue they have. I may still have the build spec's but I would have to go through the build file. This is real 1480 12 bolt with Tom complete IRS setup, no smoke and mirrors, no cut corners inside, takes the abuse.

jb78L-82

I can understand a steel spring for drag racing applications but do not think that a steel spring is ideal for road racing where balance and spring reaction time is much more important. I would be interested in hearing from Gkull and cagotzmann about your experiences with a steel spring versus composite for road racing?

GTR1999

Hi Jeff
You may be right, this car is not a road course car, strictly setup for straight high 10 -11 sec joy rides- yet fully streetable. My ride is strictly a driver but the steel spring works well for that too. You going to the Vette Show at Moroso on Sunday? I will have a table setup with demo's of diff's, boxes, and arms.

redvetracr

a steel spring has worked quite well for me...

jb78L-82

Might take a ride....Gary, knowing you are there.

jb78L-82

Thanks ..I know that it works since that was all there was up until the 80's but do you have any comparison versus a composite?

cagotzmann

Speaking with the people @ duntov they suggest a stiffer rear sway bar before making a change to the spring. For there race cars they balance the rear with lighter springs ( for reaction ) and heavier adjustable rear sway bars.

gkull

All the Vettes out there doing historic racing have to have period correct steel springs. I had a steel spring up until just a few years ago when I was trying for a weight loss. Steel is superior because it is not bouncy. It takes a lot less compression and rebound on the shocks to make the car smooth. I really have to turn up my QA-1 dual adjust with my 520# mono.

redvetracr

absolutely NOT true.

redvetracr

I was in 36 vintage races from 96-06, won six of them overall in group-6 at Road America while running a fast lap of 2:25.0, on track time is limited why bother wasting it testing?

gkull

the HMSA vettes that we maintained all had tech inspections clear down to the wheel width. I assumed that is why we used period correct steel springs also