Bill:
I agree that Armstrong lever arms are quite suitable for regular use,
and I would recommend them to most owners. But in the real world a
correctly valved, modern high quality tube shock is going to give far
superior performance.
Stiff is fine on a race car, and I'm quite happy with the uprated lever
arms on the front of my race B too, but the factory installed adjustable
shocks on the rear of the works cars for a good reason. Being able to
tune the suspension for different driving makes all the difference,
particularily with the cart spring suspension on the back of our cars.
I'm probably going to be in the same boat as you, with my MGC GT and MGB
V8, as I have off the shelf big bore exhaust systems that will probably
not clear a tube shock. But I have used a number of different tube
shocks over the years on my cars. I've also recently had some pretty
interesting experiences test driving different shocks on our MGB and can
absolutely state that the right tube shock can make an incredible
difference. My old Pro Rally skills got put to use as I made part of
the test drive a high speed run across a building site. Some may
cringe, but a stock spring B has a pretty good suspension travel, and if
you can use all of it the ride and handling become amazing. These cars
were, and are used for International Rallying and damped correctly the
suspension can really shine.
Kelvin.
Btw. I have the 7/8 front bar, but am having to put some savings aside
for the Koni shocks.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of WSpohn4@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:47 AM
To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Tube shocks on MGC
I couldn't use tube shocks on my C even if I wanted to, as I run twin
exhausts that don't leave room.
I agree with Kelvin that single bolt mounting to the frame would make me
nervous.
I would not bother switching to tube shocks even if I could, as while
theoretically superior to lever shocks, they in fact offer little or no
real world
advantage. I manage just fine with Armstrongs on my MGA race car,
thanks.
This falls into the category of busy-work for people who want to think
they
are accomplishing something, right beside all of the superfluous twin
point
distributors and other faux zoomie bits that either make no worthwhile
difference, or actually hurt performance.
Much better to spend time and money on fitting a sway bar on the MGC (if
you
haven't already) and good tube shocks up front. I use a 7/8" front bar
and
Konis - transforms the car!
Bill
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