couple of suspension handling questions

Belgian1979vette

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Koersel/Belgium
Ok, here goes : when doing the restoration on my car, I upgraded it with Koni shocks, 550 lbs front springs and the gymkhana rear spring + rear sway bar (lightest aftermarket). I set the shocks to the hardest setting.

This proved to harsh on the road as it was (almost) rattling my teeth out on some roads.

This weekend I took the shocks out and reset the to the least harsh setting. This mainly has an effect on rebound.

Test drive was ok as for the harshness, but during hard acceleration in a twisty road she surprised me with some understeering.

I need to change some things to make it better balanced. Not sure what : heavier rear bar ? Setting shocks on one end a lighter harder ?

Thanks
 
my experience with adjusting shocks comes from my off-road experience - but from that experience, you're correct to consider a harder ride in the front than the back

My Hummer likes a difference of 2 clicks harder on my rancho shocks front/rear....
 
You need a guldstrand 5 bar, I happen to have a NOS one that I will never use ;) wink wink
 
I've been thinking about re-adjusting the shocks. I think I need to firm up the rears. If the car rolls in the front it will jack up the opposite side in the rear. That would amplify the effect on the tire in the outside front corner. When I firm up the rear shocks it would make it less easy for the forces to raise the car in that position I would think.

I might also need a larger front sway bar. Currently I'm using the standard front bar, but I added a rear sway bar.
 
Hm, remember I was also accelerating through the twist. At rpm the engine seems to easily overpower the suspension. I'm not completly sure if I losing traction in the rear due to this.
While I prefer a slight understeer, I had the feeling it was a little too much and would like to reduce it a tad.

Above all, I seem to still have the dreaded C3 drivers side leaning issue which I cannot seem to adjust.
 
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Hmm, that is a difficult question. The car accelerates pretty fast when at rpm due to the combination of power and the 4.11 rear. I need to keep my eyes on the road and it caught me kinda by surprise. I almost missed the turn. It's not a hard turn, but a twist in an otherwise straight road. I was applying full throttle before the turn. This was above 5000 rpm where the car has the most torque. I let of the power immediatly.

Thinking back, it felt like in the middle of the corner. I was still applying power at the time.

I did not notice it as hard when the shocks were at the hardest setting.
 
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Most of the time a car will under-steer when accelerating during turn in. See what happens with power off turn in. Then slowly adding power mid turn. See what it does. This will give you a idea were to start adjusting.
 

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