slate blue

Guys and girls, I just bought some drop links from Carl along with the rear stabilizer bushes and was wondering has anybody had experience of these and what difference they make to the car, I would imagine that the Ott drop links are similar. I'm going to make the decision tommorow but I may buy Leda suspension to go with it. That is a big decision, I can sell my Bilsteins and change up to Leda for a $1000. That is pretty good because I am not paying any tax or any frieght on them since they are coming with my girlfriends parents.

The other thing is my mini stroker crank, I just got a quote for the machine work and I thought some of you would like to know how much for this setup.
The work I asked them to do is as follows, crack test, clean, redrill like chevy,( I was supprised to here them say we have done a few drilling conversions) weld up the journals, straighten crank, offset grind, balance, this aspect is quite complex as it requires under cutting of the counter weights, reheat treat, polish crank. That is a fair bit of work, the quote was between $2000 to $2500 AUD or roughly $1500 to $1750 USD.

This crank would then produce with my new Mahle pistons a 5.8 liter, I think as long as you didn't spend too much on the top end this is a affordable project. It should produce a bunch of torque as the engine capacity is 25% bigger. I would do this except my last project fell over due to a mishap. I know I could sell my current engine as these things have become gold around here due to short supply, I sold my last Euro engine for $5000 USD and I know I could get more for this one except I want to get back on the road. My car has been off the road for a year, itching to drive it again! The temptation remains to finance this mini stroker from the sale of this engine.

If I become more financial, I will do it, I think the secret of building these engines is to build them as spares, that way it is just a change over proposition. You can do it in your spare time and that takes the stress away.

I will also be lightning the car a little, I will drill out the B/Bars, remove the high intensity spray, my exhaust will save 20kgs, removed the air pump and associated fittings, and converted the car to late model thermo fans, and I'm also using the lightweight late model air cond pump and also I just bought a lightweight starter. This is the start of a serious lightweight build up.

I know if I went to Motec and electronic throttle you can do away with the cruise control unit, the auxilerly air valve and throttle cables. Electronic throttles open up a world of interesting prospects. I would love to learn more about them.

Cheers for now.

RDS928S

Greg,

check out my post (Friday @ P-car shop) for some before and after pics.

I have installed a complete 928 Motorsports suspension upgrade minus big sway bars. (IMO not needed for the street).
I have Carl's solid motor mounts, polygraphite sway bar bushings, solid steering rack bushings, adjustable drop links and Koni's all around set at medium stiffness.
You will like this combo. No harshness or bushing squeaks-just immediate turn in response. Body roll is reduced to just about zero. You will get some movement in the steering wheel over bumps due to the solid steering rack bushings.
The car will feel overall very planted. The cadillac ride will disapear totally if you change out the oem oil shocks.
With the above set up your approaching slot car handling characteristics especially if you've lowered your car.
My 928 is almost as much fun to drive has my 911 with a full track dedicated suspension.
I highly reccomend it

Good luck
RDS

Vilhuer

Leda's are really good IMHO. For me they would be $1000 better than any stock style option like Bilstein or Koni.

SharkSkin

The Ott drop links allow you to adjust the effective stiffness of the swaybars. The "adjustable-ness" of Carl's units(at least those I saw in the other post) do not have this feature.

slate blue

Hey Rich thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you like them, nice car btw, Errka I was thinking the same, I thought if I go this way, with Ledas that is, I can probably just use the rose jointed drop links and poly bushes, one set from Carl the other from Dave Roberts and adjust the suspension that way. Thanks for pointing out the adjustability issue also Sharkskin as it is a potentially important issue.

Just a thought on changes made to the suspension, I was thinking I would make the changes to the spring and shock setup first and if need be change the sway bars, I hoping that I won't need to change the sway bars. I have as I mentioned been lightning my car, and this will have a impact on the sway bars also, less weight means less bar required. My car has a target weight between 1400 and 1440 kgs Also the heavier the bar is, the less independant the suspension becomes. My preference be it right or wrong and I will listen to other opinions, is to tune the suspension with the Leda setup.

Any photos out there of the Ott drop links, I couldn't find any in my searches.

Cheers Greg

Shane

Here is a shot of the rear installed. You can change the setting on them by bolting the rear sway bar further in on the flat channel.

SharkSkin

928 Specialists used to have the Ott droplinks, but I can't find them on their site right now. Carl's links look a bit beefier, but only adjust to eliminate preload. What you do with the suspension is a matter of preference. Around here the best roads almost all have at least some bumpy spots, most have enough bumpy curves to be an issue so compliance is key to getting max traction. So for my locale, I would upgrade the shocks first, and if I were altering the balance of the car I would try to compensate with the swaybar stiffness. Too-stiff suspension around here can get you in the weeds quick. If your intent is tracking or running on mostly very smooth roads, you will likely get more bang for your buck with springs & shocks.

It comes down to intended use & preference... not necessarily in that order.

Darien

Just curious, do you have to do a wheel alignment after you install the droplinks?

SharkSkin

Shouldn't be necessary, no. If the bar had a lot of preload on it with the original links then setting it up with new links & no preload can have a VERY minor impact on the car's stance. Minor as in, present but probably very difficult to measure. The swaybar's torsional resistance is maybe 20-25% of the compression rating on typical springs, so something would have to be seriously out of whack in order to affect alignment by eliminating swaybar preload.

Chuck Schreiber

RDS,

Did you go with Hypercoil or Eibach springs?

RDS928S

Chuck,

I kept the stock springs in place. They seem to work fine for the street.
Rich

Chuck Schreiber

Thanks Rich.

slate blue

Guys I have just ordered my Leda suspension, so I'm really looking forward to that. I'll be using that in conjuntion with Carls drop links and the poly sway bar bushes. What I think needs to be addressed and seems none of the parts suppliers have addressed is the lower control arm bushes. The reason I say this is that there is considerable binding in this part of the suspension.

Also if this part was a bit stiffer it would prevent the caster winding off under braking. This wind off can lead to unstable braking. McLaren addressed this when they designed the F1. They of course used the 928 as a bench mark. Any ideas? Stiffer poly bushes in the top arm actually make this situation worse BTW. I also think that incorrect offset wheels play a part here too. Any feedback welcome.

Cheers Greg

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

I had poly bushings put in the lower control arms . I could look up the vendor information if you are interested.

slate blue

Yes that would be appreciated Stan, have you any photos of the said items?

Cheers and thanks Greg