(T) front suspension question ???

heya ppl.... how are we all..????


I was just curious in regards to front springs... as i just had my (P) Reg Sporting go for mot and got a bad front spring so need replacing .. i found a good price on GMAX 20mm lower front springs.. was wondering will they fit standard front struts??? and also how bad will it look if i only lower the front and not the back. as a bit strapped for cash at the moment?????

cheers guys any help would be appreciated..
cheers

They'll fit and look fine. Strange fail, though -- usually the struts give up long before the springs.

If your Cinq doesn't have an anti-roll bar, I'd recommend you fit one, too. The Sei one should fit (if you can't find a Cinq one).

Where the hell sells front only springs?

I'd drive it carefully if you go for that option till you sort the back.

Liam

In my opinion, you don't need an anti roll bar.

Cheers

D

Depends on how much roll your cornering generates and/or at what speed you like to understeer off into hedges!

Anti roll bar promotes understeer, I'd rather go off backwards, hence no anti roll bar.

Cheers

D

If only life were that simple! My experience of Cinqs without ARB and Cinqs with suggests quite the opposite. There will come a point, though, where a super stiff ARB limits suspension compliance to a point where one front wheel is off the ground. That may induce understeer (although it doesn't seem to have hindered RWD Alfa GTAs and Lotus Cortinas one little bit).

or if your that strapped, get a standard from a scrappy until you can afford the lot

RWD is a completely different scenario, and I would agree that an ARB is desireable.

Cheers

D

Problem is that the book on what ARBs and ARB settings do was written for RWD. Whenever folk have tried to apply it to FWD (and especially small FWD) nothing seems to work as it should.

Of course, all this is complicated by suspension settings and grip.

But can it be for nothing that the sportier models of just about any FWD range have front ARBs or that the ARBs are stiffer? Do aftermarket suppliers of thicker ARBs for Cinqs supply them in the hope/expectation of making them handle like a Volvo?

Sometime at a track day we must put it to the test: same car, same tyres, same suspension settings with ARB and without.

Tracks are yet another situation. Due to their smoothness an ARB is desirable. Unfortunately the real life situation of lumpy roads can lead to the unloaded wheel being lifted off the road by the loaded wheel.

Cheers

D

if u need front srpings i have a set of sporting springs or sx springs going cheap £5 a peice

Any race track that has run formula cars will be pretty bumpy -- those things run so much downforce and brake so hard that the tarmac rolls up in a series of bumps just like a carpet does when the kids have been sliding on it. More importantly, all of those folk trail brake, so the bumps continue up to the apex -- a situation you'd expect to promote one wheel lifting. Others, like 3 Sisters, tend to be bumpy 'cos the budget for maintenance isn't big enough.

Roads in Liverpool are bumpy enough and tend to promote some pretty lurid behaviour from Blue and Orange (both on 14" wheels, both lowered) -- especially Blue which has wider, grippier and lower profile tyres. But nothing like understeer. Indeed, Aaron and myself have both driven Blue at considerable velocity (and in lower gears, where Blue will exhibit a fair degree of torque steer) around the undulating and bumpy B roads round Towcester. Although we were discussing understeer/oversteer at the time, I don't think either of us noticed any.