It seems that with the supply of donor parts drying up for front suspension, Sylva have made the decision to use an alternative upright. Those capri escort struts weren't going to be around forever.



And what is this new 21st century innovation bourne of year of computer aided design and R&D ?


Why, it's the good old Herald upright !!!

Just like it always should have been...




[Edited on 18/9/11 by zilspeed]

[Edited on 18/9/11 by zilspeed]

If it was good enough for the Lotus 7, then it's good enough for a Sylva...

Also I believe the reliant kitten

Look at it.

It's like Zola Budd compared to a Sierra part which is more like Hattie Jacques.

In term of mass, I reckon it's where a front upright should be, but oh no, the kit car manfacturers had to use the part available with the donor.
If this is a result of there being no Sierras / Capris / escorts left, I for one am all for it.

I presume these are still being manufactured then? What sort of price are they sold for?

I just checked.

Canley Classics charge £85 plus vat per "vertical link" as it's called.

It's £325 for a front suspension set inc hubs, arms atc.

Significant on a budget build, less so if you're into the very high thousands anyway.

Having said that, if you have the talent and the time, fabricated uprights are perfectly possible.
I am missing at least one of those skills...

From this thread (random memories and search again) http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=36901
Mad Dave seems to know who still makes them. IIRC Caterham have a slightly improved design without the troublesome trunions.

quote:

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Originally posted by zilspeed
Look at it.

It's like Zola Budd compared to a Sierra part which is more like Hattie Jacques.

In term of mass, I reckon it's where a front upright should be, but oh no, the kit car manfacturers had to use the part available with the donor.
If this is a result of there being no Sierras / Capris / escorts left, I for one am all for it.

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Triumph Herald/Vittesse hubs are used on Mallock race cars

It looks an awful lot like the MX5, which just looks perfect on these things. Mine were not that cheap though from the scrappies when I started my build.

Doesn't look like that one has a trunion either, although it's mostly obscured so not sure??

No need for trunnions any more as they've been available to buy off the shelf to use with spherical bearings for a good few years now. No idea why more people don't use them as they're as close to ideal for the job as makes no difference AND you can buy hubs for them with a Ford PCD if you don't want the Triumph PCD.

I'm (for reasons that are - like others - intrinsically complex) looking at replacing the Fiesta/Capri set-up on the Riot. Currently, having massive steel hubs, etc., on a sub-400Kg car is a bit much. I also need to increase the front track for perverse reasons.

I'm probably going to lighten the Fiesta gear, get hold of an alloy hub (difficult, since all GP4/Capri dimensions it seems), and make longer wishbones....

What I'd love to do is change it all for Cortina. I've seen RMD alloy Cortina uprights with the Metro balljoint screwed in the top - makes me shudder, but then I'm like that. That solution puts the height of the upright where the Escort one is (good, because changing the front wishbone pivot positions on a Riot isn't trivial), but with the stub axle a tad lower, suiting my application perfectly. It's ideal, combined with other stuff I've got here..... but I haven't managed to contact any folk who've done it. Some very nice sites on the web with build diaries depicting the Raceleda uprights (pre-RMD) with said modification - but my email contact has not succeeded. Their uprights might have failed I guess....

Might consider he Herald then, it's the future.

quote:

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Originally posted by JacksAvon
Triumph Herald/Vittesse hubs are used on Mallock race cars

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