Steve-
I have the repro style bolt-on Traction Master type design (boy, that's a
mouthful!)
Keith Queen made them for me. I believe someone else is making them, but I
can't remember who, someone with PTC.
The additional leaf is, I guess, called a secondary. It is the longest in the
pack besides the primary, which is what I call the leaf which has the shackle
eyes. To make it work, you have to grind down the bumps or tabs on the leaf
which you are going to lay it over, as they are the same length. Like most of
the tricks on the suspension, I learned this one from Tom Hall. This extra
leaf serves to add a bit to the stiffness characteristics, how much I don't
know in terms of lbs. If I'm not mistaken, original Tiger and Alpine rear
springs are identical.
The ride with the traction bars hasn't suffered. I have mine installed so they
are barely snug against the forward area of the spring. I have heard they
should be run even looser, but then you can hear them rattle over bumps and I
wasn't in to that. Frankly, my Tiger is set up for autocross and open track,
so with the Konis,
stiffer springs etc. it doesn't ride so great, I like to think of it as "well
controlled".
I have had no problem with springs getting tweaked as a result of this set-up,
and that includes hours of abuse at WOT.
One other thing that seems to work and that is not having the car too low.
While Tigers look real cool slammed to the ground, I personally think mine
works better with a little more suspension travel. This is just my experience,
I would never profess to be an expert, or even close to one, on the art of
suspension setup.
Also, my car became much more neutral when I canned the ultra stiff CAT
springs and also dumped the rear sway bar. I think these cars might work
better with good compliant, travel in the back. Maybe this belief in
suspension travel is just a throwback to my motorcycle racing days...
Mike Wood
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