New wheels / Tyres and seat.

[jimnielsen]

I am driving the Q4 at Phillip Island raceway this weekend... and I have put some 'new bits' on the car. Firstly I have bought some Compomotive 16x8" wheels. I decided to go this way because I need 8" rims to put on the Dunlop 220x600 R16 slicks that I am going to use. Also I have bought a new seat that should help me to stop moving all over the place - its much narrower and a real pain to get out from. A couple of note on the Compomotive wheels. Firstly they are available with the standard 4x98 PCD and in a range of offsets. I went with the ET30 offset - believe me this is the biggest offset 16x8" you can fit under the guards (if you remove the entire inner lip from the front guards). Quite extensive cutting is required on the double skin inner rear guard, and the part where the guard meets the rear door is very tricky. The wheels have massive caliper clearance, about 35mm on the face and about 12mm radially (that is with the 166 type calipers and using the 305mm disk.)

.. Doorhandle ... I need to buy a door handle (just the bit that you grab hold of to open the door) one of my rear ones has broken!.. Does anybody have a spare I could purchase?

cheers, jim..

[wrinx]

Email Richard:

http://www.alfabettacars.co.uk/

If he can't help let us know and I'll find one for you :)

wrinx

[AlfaJack]

Love the wheels! :cool:

[mindus]

Awsome wheels :)
But the rollcage is still missing... ;)

[jimnielsen]

Thanks Wrinx, I think I can get a door handle from the AlfaBetta..

..Mindus - roll cage probably mid next year...

also.. I have changed the rear springs.. I have found that a very common car here in Australia has front springs that suit the rear of a Q4 - and you can get them in a range of spring rates and they are low cost..

These are 540lb/in springs..

[Q4Jan]

Jim, could you tell us wich car that is?
Could be helpfull, as i am looking to upgrade the rear springs of the D2 stuff on my car.


Thank!

[jimnielsen]

Q4Jan.. the car with the springs is an Australian car. It is the FORD FALCON BF MK II XR6 SERIES SEDAN springs. (see the King Springs Catalogue..)They cost me $135.00 AUD a pair. You need to remove a coil from the top to get a sensible ride height, but this is very simply done. I am going to try them for the first time at the track this week end, so I will let you know how they go. The rear springs that came with the D2 kit are FAR too soft for track use - unfortunately the D2 shocks, even set on their hardest setting will have poor control over the rebound rate of a 540 lb/inch spring. There is no one in australia that can revalve these rear D2 shocks, so eventually I will replace them. I now have 650 lb springs on the front and 540 on the rear. You certainly feel the bumps...

[jimnielsen]

Q4Jan.. the car with the springs is an Australian car. It is the FORD FALCON BF MK II XR6 SERIES SEDAN springs. (see the King Springs Catalogue..)They cost me $135.00 AUD a pair. You need to remove a coil from the top to get a sensible ride height, but this is very simply done. I am going to try them for the first time at the track this week end, so I will let you know how they go. The rear springs that came with the D2 kit are FAR too soft for track use - unfortunately the D2 shocks, even set on their hardest setting will have poor control over the rebound rate of a 540 lb/inch spring. There is no one in australia that can revalve these rear D2 shocks, so eventually I will replace them. I now have 650 lb springs on the front and 540 on the rear. You certainly feel the bumps...

wrinx.. your guy sent me a door handle for 15 pounds delivered. I am very happy with that!


cheers, jim.

[Q4Jan]

Thanks Jim, waiting for your experience!

Maybe you could ship the rears to have them revalved?

But not sure were to do this. As the D2 stuff we got is not really appreciated by D2 suppliers.
If you really want it i could ask around here. (netherlands.)
But you would have to do without rear shocks for quite some time.

Do you have these: KFFL-53SL ?

[wrinx]

wrinx.. your guy sent me a door handle for 15 pounds delivered. I am very happy with that!

Yup, that sounds about right, glad he sorted you out :)

wrinx

[SteveNZ]

Good find on the springs, they will also fit a Coupe and Tipo etc but are probably too heavy for a FWD. Are the springs 540lb/in before or after you lopped of a coil? The rate will be lower at the wheel of course.

[jimnielsen]

Steve, The springs are 540 lb before lopping off a coil... but you can get these coils in a range of strengths. Mine are the uprated ones.. they are more than twice as stiff as the ones that I was using. There is quite a pivot arm on the rear suspension, I will need to see how to calculate the wheel rate, but it may not be so simple. I can tell from the few laps that I did at PI that the rear of the car is a lot stiffer and it is much easier to get the back to slide a bit... I think the new wheels any tyres will work well, guard clearance seems to be ok, but its very marginal..

jim ~

yes the part # is KFFL-53SL.

below is a pic that shows the original spring (right) D2 Spring (centre) and Kings spring.

[jimnielsen]

pic

http://forum.berlinasportivo.org/showthread.php?t=1586&highlight=rear+springs

[peter holst]

wonder if they will fit my yellow koni shocks?

what about the front ARB - have you had a new bigger one made?

[jimnielsen]

peter, they will work better if you can have the shocks revalved to suit the spring rate. No I am using the standard front anti roll bar - the rear 24mm anti roll bar controls the cars roll well, and I am concerned that increasing the diamater of the front ARB will increase understeer.

jim ~

[Xti]

Jim, do you think I shouldn't bother trying to fit 17x8 wheels?
I see from your lines above that even 16x8 were kind of tricky to set on, isn't it?

ps: Good luck on the track with the new wheels. Really nice choice.

[jimnielsen]

Hi Xti - I think that you could make 17x 8" wheels fit IF you are VERY VERY careful with the offset. The 16x8's (with 30mm offset) I am using come VERY close to the main suspension arm on the rear suspension - with a 17" wheel you will have a bigger gap at that point. With a 17x8 You may thus be able to use a 35mm offset (putting the wheel close to the vehicle centerline) - but avoiding the problems with the rear guards. The 35mm offset will also work wit the front. But I think you also need to keep the overall wheel/tyre diameter as close to 600mm as possible. Anything over 620mm will be a problem, even with ET35. lastly with 8" rims you would ideally have a 220mm wide tyre, but if you can keep the tyre width to 200mm it will be easier. It may simply be more efficient to get the wheels in (say) ET40 and then use spacers to get the exact offset that works for both front and rear (probably different), because every mm counts when you are trying to keep the tyres from being shredded. lastly.. I have only (approx) 2" of suspension travel that also helps....

jim ~

[Xti]

Realy helpful. Thanks a lot for the good tips, Jim.

[Q4Jan]

I actualy found these:

http://i47.tinypic.com/nzj037.jpg

3 cm lowering, i will only be using the rear springs.

Front : EW4907001VA 1060KG
Rear : EW3010002HA 970KG

I hope they will arrive soon.

[jimnielsen]

Q4jan.. the rear springs cant be 970Kg/cm or per inch can they? They would need to be approx 18mm dia for that. what is the rate?

jim.

[Q4Jan]

Not sure about the rate yet.
The quoted weights are the maximum weights on the axis.(front and rear.)

But they look stiffer than standard, and the 3cm lowering is pretty good for me.

I also came across these:

http://www.hoermann-motorsport.de/index.php?link=artikel&artnr=17 835 033-Q4&katid=26&spid=1
but they lower 4 cm, wich is a bit to much for me.

[Q4Jan]

Pavs has/had these fitted already:

http://forum.berlinasportivo.org/showthread.php?t=789&highlight=eibach

[Q4Jan]

eibach australia:

http://www.eibach.ashop.com.au/p/519692/pro-kit.html

[jimnielsen]

Thanks for the tip about Eibach australia.. ! I have to try the new rear springs that I have just got first, - they haven't had a proper test yet!..

cheers, jim.

[Q4Jan]

Fitted these today.

http://i48.tinypic.com/91cwo7.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/2vdfhxc.jpg

The red eibach backs next to the D2 blacks.

Car is about the same height, but it doesn't goes down as much on bumps anymore. For road use a lot better than the D2 springs.

I think i will leave it like this. For track use i don't think they will be stiff enough.