Post
by Chris_C » 28 Oct 2008 09:59 am
With the amount of higher power cars that are getting built, I think you make a good point here Foggy (though maybe I have taken it to read different than you ment). How many have actually pushed a 300 hard off the public roads? This isn't a dig by any means, but when we were at Haynes, you were having issues keeping that 343 balanced round the corners with the B14, and I don't think it was the car, more your lack of experience at chucking them about. I'd like to think mine was more stable, a few people said so, but I still havn't got all the techniques I want under my belt. Watching what the 343 did as you braked mid corner and not in the straight before it made me realise actually quite how much it affected things, I've noticed a bit from inside mine, but I can't see the effects outisde whilst I'm driving!
Cornering like an Evo? Never going to happen, and thats a good thing. The only thing most of the roadtests ever slated the 340 for was it's 70's handling. This is what keeps a lot of us (well, me at least) here, it's well balanced and you can happily chuck it into a roundabout and get a bit of understeer then a bit of oversteer, all the time just playing with it. With the (very) few things I've done, I've removed that, my car will not slip a tyre now unless it's raining or I do something numptyish like braking mid corner. End result is I've got a very fast cornering car, that still rolls like anything. Who cares about roll... the only thing that will affect is if I need it to get round 2 tight corners immediately after each other, which in the real world isn't that often. Certainly it's the next thing on the list, but thats where money starts getting involved.
Why won't the car handle like an Evo? As thats a very boring fwd chassis that has been made to handle by installing various geometries, 4x4 and electronics that can only be described as magic. The control systems in there take all the fundamentals of damping thats being talked about in the damper thread, and using those same principles to "damp" fishtailing. It then becomes the ultimate end to what I'm doing to Fake, the cars removed all the fun from driving. I can't play with balancing my car anymore, which I only realised last week has for want of a word upset me. I took an MG midget out for a play, and it had that magic 70's feeling, chucked it into a roundabout and it was gorgeously skittish.
So, after that random long post of not much point...
*Best way of improving cars handling is learning to drive it. Stop spending money on bits, get to autotests/slaloms/anything. Foggy did one with the DAF guys a few months back, he'll back be up with how much fun they can be, and you will learn more about the car.
*Work out if you want fast or fun. seems they really arn't the same thing. I want to change my tyres back, but as well as going round any corner, the brakes cannot lock them in the dry. I'm not sure I can remove them for that alone.
Conclusion. Fast cars suck.
'89(G) 340 GLE B172k
'03 S60 D5 SE, '91 (J) MX5, 1954 Cyclemaster
Ex:
'89(F) 340 GL F7R (ex B172k) - Fake -> SBKV 300 Runner Up 08, 12; '91(H) 340 GL B14.4E - Kar; '88(F) 360 GLT B200E - Jet -> BKV 300 Runner Up 09; '89(G) 360 GLT B200E - Beast
, 100bhp isn't bad for a 1.3 really, especially when in a car that will weigh about 820kg with all the rollcage etc fitted. Oh, and this also means that if I ever have some spare pennies then I can maybe put something a little more fun in the volvo 
- hopefully next weekend should see it roadworthy 
