The Big End - Understanding Handling - Part IV

Getting to grips with a vehicles handling, ride and performance, is a long and tedious process. Again I will compare setting up a Formula 1 car to your special Morris on which you have spent many hundreds of pounds, and of course many dedicated hours of time developing it into a car you feel proud to own and drive. The same rudimentary tuning adjustments are used in all cases, as the same forces act on each vehicle in the same way. So irrespective if you drive at 20mph or 200mph, correctly setting up the vehicles handling, ride and performance is mandatory and can only be carried out one way, and that is the correct way.

Oh dear, it doesn't do the things you were told it would by the chap who sold you the bolt on bits. They are supposed to be the next best things to sliced bread. What has happened to make Morris handle like a wet cornflake in a pond of porridge? Just about everything I'd say. You see, just the act of bolting on that piece could change the cars ability to handle properly. Weight alone will alter handling, small alterations can manifest in larger handling problems later on and catch you out. In a vain attempt to remedy this problem you try fitting something else. The knock on effect in compounding the deterioration is quite often the case.

Back to the drawing board is the only way to address these problems, at the same time you must gain an understanding of the causes, then map out a route to remedy them. Don't take that chaps fast angle sales blurb which you then, blindly follow. You must be very cautious and ask advice from a qualified specialist. The best advice I can give here is to seek factual evidence that the tuning part is up to the task in hand and not just window dressing. Ask the salesman to give you the tech spec and the effect on the vehicles handling when you fit the part to it. This must also be a proven aspect and should be backed up with case histories. And if used in off road situations, by achievements records. Getting back to our comparison. Make no bones about it, when tuning you can only really tune the vehicle as a complete unit. Not just the front end or one aspect alone. To really benefit from extra performance the vehicle must handle in a balanced mode. Adjustment at the front end will affect the rear end and visa versa.

You should by now be beginning to accept that tuning is a very specialised area of vehicle management. Get it wrong and you will be bitten hard.

Brakes are very important when adding large amounts of power to Morris if, when using this power, you want to stop. But then again a correctly set up vehicle will maintain the ability to be driven through bends and fast straights using the engines braking power alone. Slowing down using the gearbox coupled with the engine will be very satisfying if the vehicle has been set up properly. You will find that you don't have to use heavy braking, and therefore don't need large vented brakes. Also if the brakes are correctly balanced, then this alone will complement the vehicles tune. Again in this area of tune much understanding of brake effects and transfer of weight must be considered to implement a balanced system. The brakes must also be coupled with a suitable suspension which works in harmony with the tune package.

The vehicles stance e.g. its sitting position on the road, must also be considered. If the vehicle sits too high off the ground the ride height, centre of gravity and roll centre is most probably too high. One of the most beneficial tuning tweaks is to lower the vehicle sufficiently to give the best handling stance. It will, on a vanity aspect, also add to a better looking vehicle. However you must not lower the vehicle to a point that whenever you go over a manhole cover the underside bottoms out. This would make the vehicle completely useless to drive on the road.

I've not said much about you the driver. Well think about it, its no good you doing all this work on the car if you yourself when driving it feel uncomfortable. In other words you are bog standard, and the car is the bees knees. You must get in harmony with the vehicles' tune and get tuned yourself by having the correct tailored seats and suitable seat belts that do not cut into you when ever you go round a corner or brake. The seats should be well anchored, not like the standard Morris seats which are only anchored at the front, and in a sudden stop will tip forward smashing your skull into the windscreen.

Lets face it they are completely naff and quite useless for a tuned high performance Morris, and they would certainly not be passed by approval for use in modern vehicles. The seats that you fit must have good side bracing to prevent you sliding out of them and they must be comfortable to you. Nothing could be more disastrous than you driving a distance and then finding out that you are going into a cramp lockout. In this area alone, one of the most important aspects is all too often overlooked.

Continued Next Month.

© Chris Street, April 2000