[Eric_K]

Here are some pics of my latest project. I'm installing Moton Clubsport shocks in place the of the trusty old Bilsteins. The Motons are compression/rebound adjustable with remote canisters. The remote canisters definitely make the install a challenge (unless taking a hole saw to your car doesn't make you flinch <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />) The Bilsteins were custom valved and rebuilt with spherical bearings. I really had no complaints with them, but one of my goals was to add adjustability to the car - hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me! The current spring rates are 700# front/900# rear. We'll see how they do in the first race in a couple weeks.





    (Bilsten vs. Moton rears)

        [attachment=5628:attachm

ent]



Here is old pic of the rubber bushed rear Bilsteins next to some stock MO30 Konis

   

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[333pg333]

Nice one Eric. I look forward to reading your impressions in the future. Couple of questions. I assume you have removed your torsion bars? What made you decide on those spring rates? Did you specify the valving or is it standard?

Nice looking install by the way. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[rhudeboye]

nice setup, looking fwd to the results captured on video.

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[Eric_K]

What's a torsion bar? <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I haven't had torsion bars since 2001. The spring rates have been a work in progress since I went to full coilovers. I started at 450 front/600 rear on Bilsteins for street/track and I liked the balance. I have stayed near the same f/r spring ratio since. The last version on the revalved bilsteins was 650/800. The Motons range of adjustability is supposed to cover all your needs so there is not unique valving on them.

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[RS Barn]

Erik,

I think the Motons will be an upgrade over the Bilsteins after you get them dialed in. You are so familiar with your car you will be able to dial in settings that give you more grip. I still think spring rates are too high especially with damping adjustability.

Pete

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[Eric_K]

We'll see how it plays out on the springs, but I don't really consider them as being all that high of a rate - for a race car.

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[Eric_K]

The Motons are NICE! The difference was obvious in the very first session. While I don't think they had any effect on ultimate grip, they allow you to stay there longer. They did a much better job of controlling the suspension. Everything felt smoother and "settled" and that inspired a lot of confidence. In places I could use more throttle than before and the bumps were just soaked up. I didn't set any personal best times but I got close in less than optimal situations. The Motons will definitely open the doors to faster lap times.



I unfortunately had a suspension failure in Saturday qualifying that I was lucky to escape from with only minor damage. The ball joint pin in the lower control arm (charlie arm) sheared as I was going thru turn 5b. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> If you are familiar with Pacific Raceways - it is a bad place to be out of control. I barely nicked the inside curb with the right hand tire and there was a bang and the steering wheel started shaking violently. I was basically a passenger headed for the Turn 6 tire wall. Somehow I got the car to turn enough to parallel the wall and ended up just going thru the small dirt runoff. I slowly limped back to the paddock and got out to find the wheel only being held on by the strut and tie rod. The fender was damaged, Hoosier tire chewed up,wheel liner destroyed, tie rod bent. The pin was most likely fractured in the run-in I had with the wall in Portland last year and it finally let go. In that incident the wheel was not damaged and the alignment was not knocked out and everything looked okay visually. My advice is to never hit anything! It broke up inside the spindle where the spindle retaining bolt is.



I had a spare pin but not a tie rod for the manual rack. I ended up putting it back together by replacing the pin and swapping the entire steering rack to my old unpowered, power rack. I got it together just before Sunday qualifying. I threw some old Toyos on and hoped the alignment was close enough and nothing else was wrong. I got down to a 1:36.9 which is only .5 off my personal best.



In the race I had a good dice with Steve Adams (in the yellow M3 I won the enduro wih him in). I passed him a couple times, then he faded with fuel pickup issues. He was faster down the straights so it was a matter of making ground in the corners and staying close enough to get by whenever he made a mistake. The second race was on a wet track that didn't dry as fast as I hoped. The old toyos weren't up to it and I was not in the mood to take a lot of chances so I spent a lot of time waving people by. I will post some video of the first race as soon as my computer will start cooperating.

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[Renalicious]

Eric, good to hear that nothing bad happened again. How did the race go overall? Can't wait to see the videos <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[RS Barn]

Erik,

Just a good reminder to me. My Firehawk project car has Fabcar arms. This car has been" Whacked more than the Mole" I will replace ball joint pins before I drive again.

Pete



PS: Dyno time tomorrow (again) with some more interesting stuff. A little bit of this / a little bit of that

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[Cloud9...68]

Just found this old thread as I was doing a search for something else. Eric's set-up is very similar to mine - I'm in the process of installing dual-adjustable Moton Clubsports, the rear torsion bars have been deleted, I have the Racers Edge A-arms (along with pretty much everything else Karl sells) with the thicker ball joint pins, etc. At my meager experience level, this set-up is kind of like giving a toddler a space shuttle for his third birthday, but hopefully I'll "grow into" it quickly, especially with Driveway Austin being only a couple miles from where I work, so I will be able to get A LOT of seat time. Can't wait - should be a blast.



Eric,



Do you happen to have a photo of how you mounted your rear reservoirs that you could re-post? The pictures are no longer visible in this old thread. Thanks.

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[Eric_K]

Here are the original pics again.

   

   

   

   

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[MB968]

Eric, that doesn't look like your strut tower bar though. If memory is correct, you've improved on that by installing one with a lot less flexibility and better moment carrying capabilities where it connects.

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[Eric_K]

Yeah, that was the KLA that was on there in 2008. Now the car as turbo cup replica bolt in bar.

   

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[MB968]

Eric, speaking as a structural engineer, that's the best application of a tower strut bar I've seen on a 968. Nice tight attachment, and double bolted to improve the moment carrying capability of that joint. Are the turbo cup bars still available? including the weld in mount?

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[Eric_K]

I'm not sure that it will clear the 968 head/intake, don't know if anyone has ever tried.



MIne came from "Oddjob" on R.L.. He made exact copies of the factory piece, which is harder to make than it looks.

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[flash]

off topic, and specifically related to the brace, i looked at that design back when i was working out mine. it initially does what it is supposed to do, but i've seen problems with the design. in a static world, the design may be structurally sound. however in a car, things are not static.



one of the the flaws in that kind of design is that it does not provide for torsional movement. the front corners of the car move quite a bit relative to each other. unless there is a swivel joint on the other end, that bar will twist and eventually either rip loose, or damage the tower.



i can't see the rest of the bar, but if it is just flat stock, in resisting compression movement, it flexes up or down. it has to. flex is not necessarily a bad thing though. it could relieve pressure placed on the wrong spot. how much it flexes will depend on the material chosen. if it is too thin, that may or may not cause issues with other items that might be in the way.



i would be looking at the welds for paint cracks, which would be a sign of tower stress, as well as the shape of the blocks to see if they had stressed, and i would do a compression test of the towers to see what happens to the bar.

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[Cloud9...68]

Eric,



Thanks for the info - unfortunately, since I still have my interior pretty much intact, I won't be able to utilize your mounting points for the rear canisters, but Karl (Poeltl) gave me a good recommendation of where to mount them.



I'm glad to hear you're so happy with them. They were insanely expensive, but Karl insisted that it will ultimately be cheaper to buy them up front, because of the likelihood that I'd eventually want to upgrade to them. I look forward to the day when my skill level is such that I can utilize these shocks' adjustability to improve my car's grip.



What race series do you compete in? Do the shocks cost you a lot of points? I seem to remember reading somewhare (I think it was in Grassroots Motorsports) that some classes charge a lot of points for shocks with external reservoirs. Your car looks like a dedicated track car. Is it still streetable, or is it 100% track now?

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[Eric_K]

The Moton Clubsports are expensive but sadly motorsport shocks just go up from there. I know people who've spent $8k on race shocks.



I race mainly in a class where power to weight ratio is the main determining factor and there are no limitations on the shocks. My car is a dedicated race car now and hasn't seen the street in about 8 years.

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[Eric_Oz_S2]

Eric



Have you had any feedback from others on motion control suspension shocks? I think these are similar to the motons and the development was partially done by ex- moton employees. Looking forward to the release of their 2 way non remote shocks soon.

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[Cloud9...68]

[quote name='Eric_K' timestamp='1361415727' post='139002']

The Moton Clubsports are expensive but sadly motorsport shocks just go up from there. I know people who've spent $8k on race shocks.

[/quote]



Wow, that's sobering. Another reason why so many people never make the transition from DE track days to wheel-to-wheel racing. Yes, I did just go there...

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