In a message dated 96-05-14 00:51:44 EDT, reesee(at)ucs.orst.edu (Ted Reese)
writes:
>Jay, you are right, by stiffening one end, you will also soften the other.
>The book "Vintage Racing British Sports Cars" goes into good detail on the
>Alpine and Tiger as to what current vintage racers are doing. One of the
>first mods is to install tiger front springs (as the Alpines have a
>tendency to be soft from the factory) with one coil cut off. This will
>also lower the car. A good example would be my a picture of my car on
>the Alpine web page. A larger front sway bar is also installed, and as
>I remember no rear bar is added as it induces oversteer. Anyway, this
>solution may not be perfect for everyone, but it produced a stable and
>neutral handling car that is probably faster that a Tiger in an
>autocross.
>
>
Haven't tried Tiger springs on my Series V yet, but I do recommend using the
rear sway bar. In stock configuration, the Alpine is a very neutral handling
car. Installing a larger 7/8" front bar gives greater stability, but
increases understeer. A rear bar will bring it back closer to being in
'balance', which it did on my Alpine when I re-installed the rear bar before
an autocross recently. Just remember (as I should've a few years ago) not to
drive your Alpine on nasty mountain logging roads afterwards. It'll rip the
rear bar mounts apart very quickly.
Dick Sanders
P.S. Has anyone ever seen Wally Swift's setup on his Series V autocrosser?
One rear bar, and TWO front bars - held together with hose clamps!!!
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