As I seem to in the presence of a fine pair of pedants (BillJ and Bubbles), I would just like to point out that the main components of automotive suspension systems are springs and dampers. The springs support the vehicle weight, whilst the dampers damp the oscillations of the unsprung masses (wheel, hub, brakes, suspension arms etc). If you ever happen to be alongside a vehicle on the motorway that has a dead damper, you will see the wheel bounce up and down at a surprisingly high frequency and amplitude even on what appears to be smooth road.
Having dampers in good condition is vital on any car, but particularly so on cars fitted with ABS as the oscillations caused by a bad damper really upset the ABS actuation, and result in vastly increased stopping distances. Both the Dept. of Transport in the UK, and the equivalent in Germany have issued warnings about this risk in recent years. It is in my opinion quite ridiculous that we have no objective damper test in the annual MOT test.
Quite how the misnomer "shock absorber" came to be in common use I do not know, but it must be stamped out at every opportunity.
And whilst I'm on a pedantic rant, most gearboxes that I have met can operate at an infinity of speeds, but only have a fixed number of ratios, so let's have no references to "5 speed 'boxes" and such like.
Thank you.
The Arch Pedant Pursuivant to the Court at St James's.
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Dave,
living luckily as you do close to the fine town of High Wycombe, you will be glad to know that a small garage nearby has the only proper damper tester available to the public in Buckinghamshire. I think they are called Dashwood Auto Services (or similar) and are just off Desborough Road. They normally advertise in the Star and the Bucks Free Press, but not this week. I can dig out their phone number if need be. They have a proper hydraulic test rig set in the floor, which, once you have told it what type of car is sitting on it, will oscillate the wheels and measure the induced movement at various frequencies, and compare it to the manufacturer's damper data. This will quickly tell you whether you have a damper on the way out (already gone?) and it's not expensive either.
As for tyres, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be controversial.....I think Continental are dreadful. A year or so ago, we bought an SL, which takes the opposite approach to low down grunt to Saab, i.e. good old fashioned cubic inches. Anyway, after a week, I wanted to give the car back, it was awful. Traction control when I tried to accelerate, ABS every time I braked, and awful tramlining even on what seemed to be smooth roads. Rather than take the car back however, I simply purchased a set of Michelin Pilot Sport tyres, and it is quite simply a different car. No wheelspin, no tramlining, and ABS only when I deserve it. My Saab was purchased on half worn Pirelli 6000 tyres. Wheelspin and aquaplaning were frequent travelling companions. A set of Michelin Pilot Primacy tyres soon cured most wheelspin and all aquaplaning.
In my opinion, tyres manufacturers make tyres that suite their home market. German roads are smooth, and their design is heavily prescribed in law (constant radius bends and such like). I imagine that Continental tyres might suite these roads. The French roads however are much more like ours, and so Michelin tyres always seem to perform pretty well in the UK. Also, I cannot off hand think of a seriously quick car that comes out of the factory on Continental tyres (I'm sure someone will inform me of one soon though). BillJ uses Bridgestone S03's, which I think are factory fitment on Aston Martins, amongst others. The Pilot Sport is approved by Ferrari. Abbott Racing recommend either S03's or Pilot Sports on their website. I'm sure there are other good ones about, but you can be reasonable reassured about these two. The only slight drawback is that the Michelins at least are only available in 16" sizes and larger. This why I am on the lookout for a set of Super Aero alloys.
Good night.
