In the eternal quest to improve the handling of the car
I went to Freestyle on the way back from a business trip
for a chat about what they could do. I came away having
placed an order for their live axle handling kit (dampers
and springs). I had also decided to go for spherical joints
on the rear axle as this is meant to help with the handling
as it allows the axle to move without trying to bend the
damper. Due to the space on the live axle mounts I went
for steel bodied rear dampers as the mounting is a bit smaller,
but I went for Alloy on the fronts.
The dampers arrived a few days later and I fitted them over
a weekend. My initial impression in the garage was that
the rear felt quite stiff. To the extent that I double checked
they were set on full soft. They were. I decided I would
wait and see what they were like on the road, which would
be a while, due to the time of the year.
When I did finally get to try them out I was pleased, the
car felt a lot more composed compared to the old Spax, which
had probably served their time over the years. My only gripe
was that the rear was really too stiff and it felt quite
tiring on a long drive. I, however, decided to wait and
see if they bedded in with time, although I did try fitting
some other springs to see if the supplied ones were significantly
stiffer. They weren't. With hindsight I should have gone
back to Freestyle at this point and had a chat about them
being too stiff and giving a tiring ride, but I didn't as
I had a trip to Spain and then
Classic Le Mans planned
for the year and I didn't want to be without my car. However,
I did find a solution, see ProTech.
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Spherical Joint
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Front Damper
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Rear Damper
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Rear Damper
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