Nitrons...which ones?

[mckeann]

I dont pretend to know how they work, but having driven a couple of cars with these on, they aren't as uncomfortable as you would think. Randy knows what he is doing with suspension, and Mark Anderson is a suspension engineer for nissan and he loves them.

[Shug]

Nope Tenders should be fully compressed, Helpers do some of the suspending - different things.

I thought that was the other way round.

Are 'helpers' not really soft, only extending when the car is jacked or on full droop. Wheras 'tenders' are much stiffer and can be fully compressed at or after full load...

Kevs actually have tender springs...???
Anyway, whatever the name, depending where the 'crossover' point is they might be more compliant as Shug initially suggested.

Sorry, you're absolutely right. Helpers are usually very flat though and these don't look like that - plus 300lb is way too heavy for a helper. So, Kev's are tender springs and not helpers.

My point stands though - I think it'll be comfier than you think

[robin]

The springs on them are stiffer than I thought they were. All the blue helper springs are 300lbs, the red front springs are about 490lbs and the rears are about 690lbs

Assuming normal-ish distribution of 66/33 each rear corner is subject to 250Kg and each front corner is subject to 125Kg when stationary.

300lbs = 136kg

So the fronts will compress by about 1inch and the rears by about 1.8 inches.

Cheers,
Robin

[BiggestNizzy]

excuse my ignorance but is having the 2 differently rated springs fitted do the same job as a progressive spring ? if so why not use a progressive spring ?

[ABZ-Elise]

I thought helper springs should be fully compressed at nominal load/rideheight?
I'm a bit surprised they aren't lower rate helpers at the front...

Edit. Could work out if they'll be fully compressed. We know the rates and the approx weight of the car at each corner, just need the lengths (of main and helper). Or you could just slap them on and see.
(/robin mode off)

I think it'll be pretty darn stiff on the road Kev. First run over Glenshee...biiiooonnngggg...

Sorry, I'm full of sh!te. The front helper springs are a lower rate...I think they're only 150lb going by its part number. Randy did say I didn't really need the front helpers (but they do make a differance) but because I wanted to help out the economy so I thought I'd splash out on them anyway To be honest I don't know alot about suspension thats why I phoned Randy. If he had told me a flux capasitor would make my car handle better I would have bought it

Kev.

[robin]

It depends what you mean by progressive spring ... but yes, largely speaking it's doing the same thing - soak up small movements in the baby springs and larger movements in the heavier springs.

[hiscot]

Kev ,Randy does know his stuff he has redesgned the nitrons with all the known faults droop, valving ect into his version
but did you tell him it was for a road focused car or a dedicated track / race car ?
reason i ask is the motorsport elises ran 550 / 700 on dyamics and when i enquired with plans and dynamics they both recomended far less spring rates for road tyres saying 700 rears would be very lively in the wet in fact in their words dangerous

[ABZ-Elise]

Kev ,Randy does know his stuff he has redesgned the nitrons with all the known faults droop, valving ect into his version
but did you tell him it was for a road focused car or a dedicated track / race car ?
reason i ask is the motorsport elises ran 550 / 700 on dyamics and when i enquired with plans and dynamics they both recomended far less spring rates for road tyres saying 700 rears would be very lively in the wet in fact in their words dangerous

Yeah I told him what I was going to use the car for. I'm only really going to be using the car for trackdays on 888 tyres and sprint & hillclimbs on Khumo soft tyres. Chances are I will end up doing the odd road run in the summer...it would be rude not to really!