RE: cutting springs

["Mark Battley" <m.battley@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>> Any advice as to how best to cut a coil or so off 105 series
>> Alfa front springs?

>Yeah, DON'T.
>Just buy a set of the performance springs available on the market for your car. I
>promise you the end results will be much more satisfying. Better rates, matched
>rates front and rear, more balanced handling (cutting the front whilst leaving the
>rear unmodified will increase the roll stiffness only in the front, causing your
>105 to understeer WORSE, which it does not need).
>Joel Hailey
>Centerline Products

Joel, maybe I'm just a bit tired and grumpy this morning, but I find this a
touch patronising. There are a lot of things that I could (and would like
to) spend money on for my car... more that I am ever able to at any one
time. A set of aftermarket springs is not high on the list at present.

As for satisfying... well personally I get much more satisfaction out of
understanding the engineering and making my own judgements and modifications
rather than just spending some $ on somebody else's thoughts. Guess that's
what comes from being a research engineer.  I'm well aware of the
implications of modifying springs and changing roll stiffness, and this is
not the first car that I have modified. As you are presumably aware your
comments are a bit of a simplification: there is a significant relationship
between the camber changes with roll in the front suspension of many cars
and the balance of the car. In some cases increasing front roll stiffness
can actually reduce understeer. I guess that I didn't make it clear at first
but in this particular case the rear is already stiffer than standard, and
one of my aims is to better match the front to the rear. 

I'm aware of a few different suppliers of aftermarket springs for the 105.
Some I have heard good things about, some not so good. I'm sure that some
products are better designed than others. The difficulty for the potential
buyer is assessing how well designed any of them are, and what best suits
their particular requirements. From the data that have collected there seems
to be some very significant differences in rates and ride heights. As with
any engineering solution here is no "right" answer: everything is a
compromise.

Enough rambling, I feel better now!    :-))

Mark Battley
Auckland, New Zealand.

1974 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV

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