Fully Independant Rear Suspension?

[Rich_p 23]

Has anyone fitted fully independant rear suspension to a 205/309 as opposed to the normal beam set up? (the groub B car doesn't count lol)

 

I'm assuming it has been done in racing circles but I wondered how much improvement it actually offers?

 

I know the visa had a different rear set up, has anyone ever transfered this across?

[VisaGTi16v 1]

Yes my Visa does have this

 

There are a few 205 people that have done it, Colin Satchell, Batfink and maybe others so best speak to them. It certainly allows a longer coil over to be used which gives a much better leverage ratio and thus control but best check with what ever series you compete in to make sure its legal. Probably overkill for the road as not a simple thing to do on a 205

[Rippthrough 98]

It is independent, bar the roll bar

 

It's torsion bar, not torsion beam, bit of a difference!

Edited July 1, 2008 by Rippthrough

[Batfink 201]

Mine was done by Mark Shillaber - very similar to Colin Satchell's. It was fitted to my brothers rallye along with coilovers for the front, then cornerweighted to get the chassis setup correctly. It tames the rear end and makes it far more stable when pushing the car to its limits. I guess its a little more predicable due to the better damping. We certainly were fast round castle coombe for a 1.4, and my brother was quick at Silverstone.

Certainly when I was speaking to a few guys at Xsport racing they were not sure that this type of setup would be faster on circuit over a more conventional uprated torsion bar setup but i liked it so I've gone with it again for my racecar. It gives me a lot more flexibility when setting up the chassis to individual tracks.

 

Even though I love it I wouldnt fit it to a road car as i think its a bit overkill. My mi16 with a completely recon'ed rear end felt more than capable on UK roads. Also if you plan to use your car for competition you will need to check the rules allow it as its usually only allowed in the top end classes.

[James_R 3]

Think you guys are thinking turret'd not IRS, that's like the front suspension, a la the Focus.

 

There was someone on where with an autocross or grass cross 205 who made an IRS set up, think it's generally considered for weight penalty its not worth it, espically for tarmac where suspension travel isn't exactly huge so the static geometry won't change too much.

[jackherer 543]

Think you guys are thinking turret'd not IRS, that's like the front suspension, a la the Focus.

 

I think you are thinking of multi link/dual wishbone suspension, as Rippthrough has said already, 205 rear suspension IS independent.

[James_R 3]

Yes I think you're right, I got the feeling Richp meant that as he said not grpB and not std beam set up. And everyone else was talking about vertical damping

[Batfink 201]

I once knew someone who built double wishbone rear setup for his 205 rally car and he said the rear gripped like a 4wd escort cosworth. He was trying to sell me it at the time though lol

I'm sure it was a good setup - zcars reckon they could build that setup at half the weight of a rear beam. Its really not going to be a cheap build unless you can build it yourself...

[Rich_p 23]

Yeah sorry I ment independant as in seperate wishbone and shock for each corner rather than having a beam connecting the trailing arms.

 

Was just sitting at work and it popped into my head and wondered what the pros and cons are.

 

Eventually I'd like to get the 309 turreted so I can use coilivers, purely as I want to use the car on bumpy airfields for club rallies and also on smooth tracks. It will make it so much easier to change the rear spring rates and ride height.

[Spiky 37]

anyone got pictures?????

[Sandy 191]

I've nudged Colin to vent his spleen on this subject...

[VisaGTi16v 1]

Seeing as Rich mentioned the Visa first I feel ok in posting a pic heh. Heres the underneath of mine, in a bit of a state in that photo. The coilovers are pretty much 1:1 ratio and go up as far as the parcel shelf so quite long. Rear Arb routes across bending above the exhaust. Fuel pump and filter are top left in that photo, rear brake compensator (split front/rear) is up top right, also attached photo of a rear shock. Will stop boring you now and let you get back to 205's

 

edit: photo of rear added. 205's ive seen with this sort of conversion done have box sections sticking up at each side of the boot (which is much bigger than the Visa's useless one!)

Edited July 1, 2008 by VisaGTi16v

[eeyore 0]

The main reason for me developing the rear turret conversion on my car was to get one to one wheel/shock ratio. i found after saving as much weight as possible the bilstien rear shocks were too hard and were struggling to keep up. this was more apparent if you got out of shape in a corner, the car was very difficult to catch. Using vertical coil overs allowed the use of softer more precise damping which made the car feel much more forgiving and gave me loads more confidence. Havening coil overs also gives the option of a helper spring to quickly and cheaply trim the handling with a change of springs.

[TT205 42]

Any pictures Colin?