I am starting to put thoughts together for the suspension set-up for my 1200 coupe build... I have a reverse leaf set up for the rear but need to start to consider what poeple are having success with for the front end.

The car is not a daily driven car at all.. it will only have race rally set up and the focus of this build is to build a serious tarmac rally car.

Love to hear your thoughts

This what you are looking for.

Competition suspension manual.

i for one have never seen nor heard of anybody doing up their suspension according to that manual

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Someone must be doing it properly, they cant all be turning their springs upsidedown and heating their coils with oxy.

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How well does that work, handling wise? I imagine there would be alot of friction between the leaves, causing an unstable spring rate.

As for the man's question, I am going to use some VW rabbit bilsteins strut inserts revalved for the front (I'm 99 percent certain they fit- they've got a 1.5 inch diameter), some bilsteins revalved for the rear (will Chevy Camaro ones fit?) and some 175-250 lb/inch springs on coil-overs for the front. Re-bush everything with polyurethane. I won't use a rear sway bar, but I'm hoping to upgrade the leaf springs somehow to make them work better.

Front camber plates are also in order.

Over the years I ended up inadvertantly doing exactly what is in the suspension set up book.
I'm running the Nissan Comp rear springs , 7/8 front bar 1/2 rear , traction bars , 4.11 LSD , Z car brakes (280ZX) etc. and the car handles very very well.
For Tarmac Rally I'm not sure I would do this. The ride is someting like 105-110 mm and if you drop wheels off the inside of the road (as is common) you're going to be beating the heck out of the undercarraige.
I would think your minimum ride hieght will be 140 mm range. As for coil overs they are not a must have , the 240Z springs fit on the 1200 struts and with some revalved inserts that would be a cheap way to go , along with modded rear springs (stiffer and re-arched) with some uprated shocks.
The biggest thing is do your home work , the suspension is cheap relative to getting a cage, seats belts , fire system , fuel cell and all the other safety gear.

Tom

Which years 240z do you get the springs from Tom? Are these the front 240z springs or the rears? Is the rate streetable? I may use those.

I found this on another forum about he 240z spring rates:

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Seems kinda soft to me. Maybe sport springs for the 240 would work well?

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worked alright for me...




my front end was just as "rough". Cut down Holden Gemini coils (aka Opel Kadett?) on stanza struts with Monroe shocks & 120Y sway bar.

I'll be doing the same to my 120Y coupe. Cheap and very effective. Not that I'd recommend that for a tarmac rally where you're shocks are going to get a workout on long stages and you want a bit more travel than I had, but its fine for sprints and hillclimbs.

L18_B110 - I've been looking through your old posts- tell us about the rest of the suspension setup on this car- what did you do for camber up front?