Ebay: Series 2 FHC with front coil springs?

[Nigel GT]

Hi
Just been looking at a smart looking Series 2 FHC on ebay (eBay item number:173247666762) and it appears to have coil over shocks fitted on the front, I have not seen this mod before, surely the frame is not designed to take this loading?

What`s your thoughts on this?

Nigel

[Heuer]

Very odd. Wonder if they have removed the torsion bars or are they in there as well? I think they used a pair of GAZ kit car coil overs: https://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_i ... s_id=11851

[chrisfell]

No TBs and no reaction plate showing in the engine out shot. I wonder if the reaction plate was installed after the engine was re-installed.

[christopher storey]

Those springs look pathetic for carrying the load that they do, although the ride height looks about right. I note in one picture that the upper coils on the right - driver's- side of the car are bowing slightly . I share concerns also about whether the upper part of the picture frame is designed to take such an increased load compared with a properly executed car . Bargepoles come to mind

[mgcjag]

Coilovers on the front of E types are not unusual.....both Rob Beere & M C Wilkinson sell them as upgrades for E types among many others.....if you need other upgrades to use them i dont know but i certainly seen quite a few E types with them fitted... Steve

[Heuer]

I know Rob Beere and M&C Wilkinson sell uprated torsion bars and reaction plates but I have never seen them offer coil over front shocks. I saw an E-Type with them on but that was a pointless bodge by someone who should have known better and done on a very valuable car

[mach2andy]

I think you'll find that dal2.0litrefrogeye has fitted some to the hill climb car that he is building. But he's probably fitted them because they suit the competitive environment that he's building his car for I guess? Darren has also fitted an alloy bonnet, so there will be a lot less weight bouncing around on these coil over's? Maybe that had a bearing on his decision to fit these units?
Andy

[Heuer]

Yes, but that is a very specialised machine. Maybe Darren can explain why people go down that route? The one on eBay is a road car though.

[E600]

I have fitted the above to a couple of my past E Types. They are made by Gaz and are helper springs, rated at 35lbs. These assist the TB's without applying excessive loads to the picture frame and are a cheaper alternative to uprated TB's.

I would like to say as I am a driving god I can feel the difference and it makes my track times much quicker, in reality I wouldn't know the difference, although they do look good.

Regards
Pat

[Heuer]

Thanks Pat - I learn something new everyday on this Forum!

[Nigel GT]

Thank you all for your input and to Pat for enlightening us all.

Regards
Nigel

[MarkRado]

Maybe to produce a progressive spring rate ? havent heard of a progressive torsion bar

[dal2.0litrefrogeye]

Hi . Yes I've fitted them to mine as a helper spring to the torsion bars . Mine are a duel rate 40 /90 ,
It's an up grade I spoke to good number of guys about before going ahead and all were in agreement for a track biased car it's a good upgrade . Even being told by ???? ( nope the names gone ) that the series they ran in it was banned , and things that are banned are usually so because of unfair advantage . So in what I will be initially competing in with the car it's allowed still so that seemed a good enough reason to fit them

[Kickstarter]

Maybe to produce a progressive spring rate ? havent heard of a progressive torsion bar

Exactly.
And that was the reason for the ban. In the beginning of historical race a lot of E-type used Koni with coile over. Further point is that you can save some kg.

What should there a problem be with the picture frame?

[rfs1957]

Because the torsion bars take the torque required to resist suspension movement back to the reaction plate, sparing the tubular sub-frame that was not designed to take it, essentially putting all these rotational loads into a perpendicularly (and therefore optimally) disposed diaphragm made up of the bulkhead and scuttle areas.

Putting extra loads through a supplementary coil-over addition (to the torsion bars) is already unknown territory, and substituting coil-overs for them completely makes a nonsense of the E-type's design, and of the engineers (and not mechanics) that conceived it.

[Heuer]

Also torsion bars are progressive, coil springs are not.

[rfs1957]

My understanding was that a torsion bar is absolutely NOT progressive, but a coil-spring can be, by arranging staged coil-binding so that you essentially have several springs in series.

This is how motorcycle springs are designed.

If the truth be told, a spring behaves like a coiled torsion bar, and deforming a coil spring in fact just twists the spire.

Or is there something I have missed ?

Of course, these approaches are a little simplistic as the geometry of the linkages that attack the spring can produce a rising-rate effect out of an otherwise linearly-wound spring.

References to two wheels should flush out Peter C pretty quickly.

[Heuer]

Torsion bar suspension has many advantages like being to easily adjust ride height to compensate for engine weight, small profile along the length of the car and unlike coil springs does not need heavy reinforcement of the mounting points. One of the disadvantages is, unlike springs, torsion bars cannot provide a progressive rate of travel as the torsion bar itself gets stiffer and stiffer as it is twisted.

Obviously stacked springs will allow non progressive rates of travel but there is nothing you can do to freak a torsion bar to make it progressive as far as I am aware.