daveb666
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 12:48 PM |
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Thanks to Procomp
This post is in my project thread but as not a lot of people delve into the sub-forms I wanted to post it here as well so that Procomp do not miss out
on the free advertising and public praise.
Since getting through the IVA test in August 2013 the car had always needed setting up properly. I'd just ticked over the 1,000 mile marker on
the car so decided that now would be as good a time as any to get everything pointing in the right direction.
I chose to take my car to Procomp Motorsport in Birmingham. Father and son team, Ivan and Matt, have worked in the kit-car industry for many years and
compete in the Locost Race series; racing their own car and providing support for many other racers.
I feel I should point out that, as the name of the car suggests (Locost) that this was never a big-budget build by the creator of my car. The front
wishbones are 'static' and made to a spec, the chassis is home-made (box section welded together by a chap in Lincolnshire in his garage)
and most significantly the car runs a big, heavy Atlas rear axle as opposed to having the independent rear suspension of the factory-built cars.
(There is an argument that live-axle cars are better on tracks than IRS but we'll save that for a later date).
After the car was loaded up on to the trailer I made the 200 mile round-trip to Procomp. Upon arriving the car is wheeled into the garage and all 4
shock absorbers are removed. They are then put on a shock-dyno and measured for rebound and compression on each 'click' setting for
consistency.
My car runs GAZ Gold shock absorbers which is not expensive suspension by any stretch of the imagination. The shock dyno, aside from highlighting any
physical issues with the shocks, also checks the pairing of the adjustment i.e. That 4 clicks on the LF shock is the same stiffness as 4 clicks on the
RF shock.
Once all 4 shock absorbers had been put through their paces on the dyno, each spring was then tested for lb-age on a press.
Once all the suspension is built back up they move on to the height and then corner-weighting of the car.
The end results, without me in the car were:
They then move on to the camber, castor and toe adjustments - however as noted already most of mine is fixed so it was more of a case of adjusting
what we can and checking to make sure none of the other readings are massively out.
Although I have a solid rear beam, there are many cases of these distorting when extra mounting brackets are welded on. In my case, due to having the
larger, Atlas rear axle instead of the English axle, mine was within a couple of mm of being straight.
Once the settings have been checked and OK'd, the car is then corner-weighted against incase any of the adjustments have altered anything.
After that, there's some complex testing in order to assess the best shock absorber stiffness setting 
The end result can be seen below:
The guys started at 10am and I didn't leave until gone 7pm, and all for a fixed price.
My car was found to have no dangerous, or worrying issues however a couple of points were noted:
1 - We ran out of camber adjustment on the RF so ideally the wishbones needs a few mm shaving off in order to obtain another turn.
2 - The RF wishbone has less castor than the LF but not enough to cause me any issues on the road.
3 - My rear springs are 160lb and ideally could do with being around 120lb due to the weight of the rear axle. (one for the shopping list)
My car isn't an out and out track car and spends most of it's time on the road, I also live in Yorkshire and, despite what the roads
looked like on the Tour-De-France route we probably have some of the worst-maintained roads in the UK.
I didn't get chance to get behind the wheel of the car yesterday so have no comparisons to make yet, I just wanted to document my day whilst it
was still fresh in my mind.
2007bc Photography - Commercial and Wedding Photographer based in West Yorkshire
http://www.2007bc.co.uk / http://www.huddersfieldcommercialphotographer.co.uk
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coozer
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 01:33 PM |
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Good post Dave, so in a nut shell are the shocks now more matched and is the corner weighting more even?
IMO that should give you a better handling more precise car.
Should be worth the trip down there.
Steve
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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daveb666
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 01:48 PM |
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Matt said that the Gaz shocks were as good as they could be. The front ones were fairly close - the settings that do anything are marked on my
summary sheet. (Any lower and the shocks aren't working, any higher and they're locked out).
On the rear shocks one was better than he other, so that was put back on the drivers side as most 'road' corners (roundabouts) and tracks
are mainly right handers.
The corner weighting isshown above without me in it. When I'm in the front corners are evenly matched to ensure level running under braking and
cornering. Matt may pop along shortly to explain in more detail if zive got it wrong - there was a lot of information to take in!
2007bc Photography - Commercial and Wedding Photographer based in West Yorkshire
http://www.2007bc.co.uk / http://www.huddersfieldcommercialphotographer.co.uk
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Matt21
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 04:33 PM |
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its nice to see a good write up
I keep meaning to send my shocks off to them to get rebuilt but haven't got round to it yet due to wedding/honeymoon spending and swapping jobs
hopefully in the next few months i'll get them sent!
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CosKev3
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 08:11 PM |
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Great write up 
Looks like you deffo get value for money service with a set up 
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alfas
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| posted on 31/7/14 at 09:05 PM |
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have you asked them if a set of "better" shocks like avo, spax or even Nitron would change anything noticeable?
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daveb666
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| posted on 1/8/14 at 08:15 AM |
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The Procomp valved protech shocks would undoubtedly make a big improvement over the Gaz ones yes.
2007bc Photography - Commercial and Wedding Photographer based in West Yorkshire
http://www.2007bc.co.uk / http://www.huddersfieldcommercialphotographer.co.uk
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