I changed the tire pressure and it helped immensely !
I had the tires mounted and didn't pay much attention to the pressure.
When I checked it the rears were at 32 psi.
I dropped the rears to 26 and the front to 22
-----Original Message-----
From: Dean.Dashwood@enron.com [mailto:Dean.Dashwood@enron.com]
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 4:42 AM
To: CraigS@iewc.com; spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Tail Happy
Craig,
I've seen a few replies, mainly from racers, suggesting stiffer springs,
anti-roll bars, camber compensators, etc. I'm sure they're all very valid.
But in my (purely street) experience, every handling problem I've ever had
has fallen into one of two categories:
1) Poor handling is accompanied by a noise - usually some kind of knocking.
Solution is to locate the noise and fix the cause of it. I assume, since
you didn't mention any noises, that this doesn't apply to you.
2) Wrong tyre pressures. I forget, off the top of my head, what the tyre
pressures should be, but they're a lot lower than I expected. Most garages
don't list pressures for our cars. Every time my car goes to a non-lbc
garage for work that's in any way related to wheels/tyres or that general
area of the car, the mechanic seems to pump my tyres up - and since the car
isn't listed, they use a "generic" pressure which is too high for the car.
The last time this happened was when the car went for its MOT. Pressures
were only a bit out, and I didn't notice at first - until it rained, and
the rear started sliding all over the place. A quick visit to an air-pump
showed that all the tyres were a couple of psi over spec.
Good luck - and I hope that it is your tyre pressures, because it's free!
Dean
------------
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 14:20:28 -0500
From: Craig Smith <CraigS@iewc.com>
Subject: Tail Happy
At lunch today I took a new salesperson out for a ride in my 71.
She had never ridden in an English Sports Car, She was amazed.
Anyway I was showing off a bit and went through the parking lot and as I
was
going around the side of the building I found the limit for lateral G's.
I have had the tail swung out a few times, but this was the first time it
went all the way on me.
It scared me for a brief second wondering if I was going to bang into the
curbing but it went all the way to 180.
It was dry and the curve had a little negative camber to it. The car has NO
PUSH !
Kind of liked it after all was done.
Any ideas to how to balance out the looseness ?
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