Freestyle spings & dampers???

[tom7]

As I have terminal upgradeitis, I am considering that my next investment will be in a suspension improvement.

I have a widetrack K series car with standard set -up at the back and 250lb springs on the front with the usual (green?) antiroll bar. I have the standard Bilteins all round, and to be honest, up until the recent bout of understeer it handles fairly well since the ride heights were adjusted.

Is there anyone out there in a position to compare my fairly good set-up with what I could expect by investing with Freestyle?

Many thanks for your views

 

Tom

[Griff]

I fitted the Freestyle springs & dampers, also adjustable ARBs front & rear, aout 18 months ago. The transformation was amazing and the ability to change settings for different circuits & road conditions so quickly makes it even better. You won't make a better investment.

 

It's not pink, it's medium red violet... 😬

[Mark Durrant]

I have also fitted the adjustable springs, dampers and ARB from Freestyle and agree with Griff that it transformed the handling in terms of being able to adjust the set up for not only the circuit, road, sprint venue but also the conditions. A very worthwhile investment

 

Mark D

Su77on Se7ens

 

[Tyrone]

I've done it as well, and it was the single most expensive upgrade, the most startling transformation and one of the easiest to carry out. My only caveat is that my opinion comes from a position of changing from aged Spax dampers and springs with no adjustment apart from damping.

[Shaun_E]

Slight hijack 😳 but questions for those who have the Freestyle kit:

1. Did you fit the stuff yourself?

2. Who set the car up for you after fitting?

3. If you set it up yourself, how did you do it? Rake, ride hide, etc.

4. Did you have the car corner weights checked/adjusted?

5. What settings have you used (dampers, ARB) for the road?

 

Yellow SL #32

[Nick Woods]

I'm in the middle of fitting mine (in between taking the kids out and about on half term) so I cant tell you how they are yet. One thing I've found is that you need to reuse the inner sleeves from your front dampers, which is fine if you can get them out. Mine were seized in solid so I lost a day waiting for some new ones from CC - they are quite cheap so I'd recommend ordering some anyway.

 

Fitting them isnt particularly difficult although getting the ride heights even is fiddly. The instructions show how to take the measurements but there are lots of threads on here about it.

 

I may fit some helper springs to mine as when the car is on the jack the front springs come away from the platforms on full droop - the fronts are quite stiff although the rates are Freestyles secret so I cant tell you what they are. It may not be a problem on the road so I'm going to leave it for now

 

I've put 4 bags of builders sand and a couple of full cans of oil on the drivers seat to ballast the car as if i'm in it, and I'm lucky in that I have access to a set of cornerweight scales for the final setting up. I cant see the point of paying close to £500 for a set of dampers and not getting the car flat floored afterwards - Freestyle can fit and/or setup them for you although they are pretty busy at the moment so you may have to wait a little while

 

You'll also need a new C-Spanner as the AVO platforms are a different diameter to the Bilstein ones amd the spanner just slips off. You can get a spanner from AVO or Demon Tweeks - I found a local shop which sells them. It helps to cut off part of the handle as they tend to be too long to fit easily into the gaps around the dampers.

 

The service I've had from Len at Freestyle has been very good, the dampers were delivered as promised and he's always been available for help when i need it.

 

Nick

Red and Black 1.6K supersport

visit Carrotland.co.uk

 

 

Edited by - Nick Woods on 3 Jun 2005 09:13:07

[Jason Plato]

I fitted the freestyle dampers and springs but I couldnt get a setup that suited my driving style / use with the springs as supplied - not a problem as I ordered some more springs from Merlin Motorsport and trhough trial and error we are now making progress .

 

I was very concerned that after a very short period of time - 1 trackday , 2 sprints and 600 road miles , the rear 1.9" springs had rubbed on the damper body and worn the alluminum away considerably .

 

I reported this directly to AVO and they supplied me with some 2.25 " platforms and springs instead of the 1.9" to allow extra clearance around the dampewr body .

 

It was AVO's conclusion that the sprng had very long travel on the rear of a caterham and the spring was bending and rubbing the ally body of the damper away which could have resulted in a serious failier .

 

I still havent found a setup that I am happy with yet , but that is only as a result of there being so many adjustments possible that I havent struck upon a reasonable comprimise .

 

Dave

[Shaun_E]

The reason I ask is that I really want Freestyle to set the car up for me (actually will be Gary May under the Juno banner as Freestyle just supply the parts) but as said above he is very busy and I can't seem to get a slot with him to do the work. I am happy fitting the dampers and ARB myself but want someone to do the corner weights and ride height and also to check the camber, castor, toe in, etc.

Anyone got any suggestions as to who else could do the setup for me? I am concerned that as a 3rd party wouldn't know the spring rates or damper details they would not be able to get as good a setup as Gary could.

Bear in mind that I don't know much about car setup and don't have the skill or time to do lots of adjustments and tests - I want someone who knows what they are doing to give me as good a starting point as possible. I want to be able to record that setup and make small, recorded changes to learn how they will affect the car - at any time I want to be able to return to the known good setup if my changes prove to be poor.

 

Yellow SL #32

[Jason Plato]

Shaun , A good option may be to come along to a Club sprint and have a chat with a few drivers who use a car and tyres similar to yours . I'm sure they would be happy to discuss setups and spec .

 

You could then take this information to someone like Hyperion or Mc Millian or Caterham who could then set the car up to this spec for you .

 

Dave

[Shaun_E]

Good idea Dave, I'll see if I can get along to one although looking at the dates probably can't do one until August. I'd love to come along to Llandow again but I'll be in Paris celebrating my wedding anniversary . Looks like I might be able to get to Loton Park.

 

Yellow SL #32

[Beelzebub]

Anybody know for a fact what the spring rates as supplied by Freestyle are 🤔 I'd be interested to hear.

 

I'll say this from the outset that my car's on my own set-up & has'nt been flat floored. I'm still experiencing entry & mid corner understeer & would like to try softer springs on the front.

[ben7]

Fitted the Freestyle shocks & springs around xmas. I went from a reasonable good set up much as tom7's - 250lb on the front and I think 200lb on the rear.

 

The transformation was significant (for the better), although I suffered from very poor understear in the begining. This was subsequently resolved by completely removing the front arb.

 

I can only compare against what I had previously, but the following set up seems to work very well for me (superlight) and pretty much follows Freestyle own recomendations (I prefer a quick turn in to a corner):

 

Camber either parallel or -1 degree all round.

Caster I've never changed from factory.

Toe'd in 20 minutes at the front, IIRC you can't adjust rear toe?

I have the low slung rear arb on the second (softest) of the four holes

I run with 65mm sump clearance although CC recomend 75mm

The rake is 20mm higher at the front bottom ( 😳) of the rear wing compared to whatever the measurement is at the point where the square sill becomes rounded about halfway along the engine bay.

Of course the last measurement is not an exact science as it will change when you cornerweight the car and you must get cornerweights done.

I also use 6 clicks front and 8 rear FWIW, which I stiffen further for track use.

 

Oh, and if you haven't specc'd your order already, make sure you get the rose jointed shocks.

 

Hope this helps

 

Ben

 

 

 

 

[Richard Price]

V500OSV,

Camber either parallel or -1 degree all round.

With what tyres??

 

Radials need much more -ve camber.

 

 

[ben7]

Richard, you're right of course I should have said .

 

I run 13" acb10s on road and avon slicks, so both sets are crossplys.

 

Ben

[Tyrone]

Len advises against rose joints for predominant road use.

[tom7]

Thanks chaps for all the good info.

The trick seems to be to fit the Freestyle kit but for maximum benefit get Gary May to set the cornerweights and ride heights in combination. Which I s'pose will also cost...Oh well, back to the saving up

 

Tom

[zak]

Hi guys,

 

complete novice at this - so totally in Gary's hands. The car when I got it had a slip diff and non adjustable ride height with Bilsteins and wooden tyres. Was a little interesting to drive. Scared the bejeezers out of myself to be honest.

 

Since then, I have got a qauiffe lsd AVO freestyle suspension and adjustable front ARB with the rear ARB adjusted to full soft with the 'bracing arm thingy' moved up to a softer position too. Dont ask me what its cooled - the bit at the back in front of the rear wheel.

 

Well, it was the difference between my selling the car and buying a subaru or keeping it. Glad I kept it - its just the way I thought a 7 should be. Awesome. It doesnt head for the ditch on a bump mid corner, its neutral and soft road settings are fine in the wet/damp too.

 

On friday I went back to see Gary and he 'fine tuned' the setup a little after some bacon butties and coffee.... 😬 thanks Geoff.

 

Went out for a blat this morning. Got a big grin on now! My first thoughts were - ooh dont like that too much - bit of understeer into the roundabout. But.. I have now found out that 'if you set it up a bit better Zak' that it bites into the corner and is just MAD on the exit - completely neutral powered 4 wheel drift out of the corners with the line tightening if I lift off - hell fire - I need to learn to drive this beast!!

 

Suffice to say "if you havent had the Freestyle experience - you have only got half the 7 you should have" - its the Nike line but it fits "Just DO IT!" 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬

 

Zak

 

www.zak7.com

 

[MikeE]

Gary from Freestyle set up my Nitron (275lb/in front, 170lb/in rears, one-way adjustable) shod R400 a week ago as well as fitting an adjustable front ARB.

 

Setting the corner weights/ride height, camber, tracking and fitting the ARB took Gary around 3 hours for a very reasonanble labour cost of £105 (plus £165 for the ARB).

 

Tried the set up out at Bedford autodrome last Monday and certainly seems to be better under braking and has reduced the understeer, although it now seems to be very susceptible to the weight change with/without a passenger. During the day I got some advice from Michael Caine (ex-Caterham R400 champion and Le Mans TVR driver, and a mate of a mate) and found a good setup but once my passenger got out I found I was getting huge amounts of oversteer

 

Having played around with the front and rear damper settings, front ARB and finally disconnetting the rear ARB I think the experience has taught me that it's going to take a lot of tweaking each of these settings to get a good compromise setting and that compromise is the relevant word, as soon as the track conditions change, the weight of the car (heavy/light fuel load or heavy passenger) or you drive a different track you're going to have to change the settings again to get a nice balance. Still gives me a whole new set of excuses for my on-track performance 😳

 

 

 

R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

[silver-7]

I didnt realise Freestyle (Gary) would set up cars fitted with Nitrons.

 

£105 seems excellent - i was charged about £160 last year by Caterham