Great news, I got it wrong!

When I drove ‘t Kreng for the last time three weeks ago it handled like a drunken pig, constantly trying to turn right of the road. First inspection showed that the complete front suspension had moved to the right a fair bit. But it also felt like the RH side shock absorber wasn’t working properly. So time for some work.

After re-alignment of the front suspension and making up some spacers to accommodate the slightly wider new tyres in the past weeks, it was time to put the wheels back on the car today and how she behaved.

So after checking the tyres pressure and the shock’s settings it was time for a little test drive this afternoon. Although I did start pretty easy to warm up everything, first impression was pretty good. Only thing that immediately became clear was that the new tyres are not very suitable for small muddy and wet-leaf covered country lanes. But for the rest the suspension behaved as it should. Which means the car’s stable in a straight line on not so good tarmac and under heavy breaking.

And after everything was on proper working temperature it was time to try some winding country lanes at speed. Can only conclude that she’s pretty much as good as she’s ever been. Things that spring to mind are lighter steering under load/while cornering, which will probably be caused by the harder (or should I say less soft?) compound of these tyres. It also has slightly better front grip in longer corners as a result of the slightly wider(12 mm) front track. On the down side, it is a bit nervous on deeply rutted roads, but nothing very worrying. To sum it all up I am quite happy with the current set up.

Remains the question, why did it feel like the RH shock absorber was gone. It clearly worked fine this afternoon!? The only solution I can come up with so far is that, due to the suspension being out of alignment quite a lot, the effective spring rate changed between left and right. Combined with the tracking being out this probably resulted in the rather nervous behaviour?