Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Leda Suspension

thanks for the reply. i dont plan on dropping it 3" (probably the highest setting for winter and 1"-2" for summer. if i keep the height higher than 3", does it decrease the amount or likelyhood of "bounce" as u describe it. i didn't realize the gc's eibach springs were linear. hmm, so right now i'd do the koni/gc setup unless price is the same or very close w/ th's setup. thanks. i'll hold out as long as i can to see what happens w/ th's.

Won't be a problem if you're not dumping it to the bottom.

There's a chance that Terry's coilovers would work better than the GC/Koni combo, simply because they would have been developped and tested by a single company on the cars.

Hopefully they would provide a LOT of damping, and softer spring rates. Adjustable damping, of course!

If you can hold off I'm sure you won't regret it.. I'm not really followong the story though, is this really gonna happen?

man i hope so

Pascal,

Was it your car I saw at HMS around this time last year? I am asking because I thought I saw it with electronic adjustment. I am pretty sure it was your since it had zip ties and an interesting mount at the top.

A few more questions if you have a minute.
Also how did your corner weights balance out on the tour?
You mentioned that the sway bar mounts were not availible on the front, did you ever solve this or were the struts firm enough that you just removed the bar?
Did you run a lower height at the track, if so how much lower; did you run into any camber/suspension troubles?
You said on the street you couldn't run lower than half damping with your springs... why? Do you mean firmer than 50%, or was it bouncing with looser than 50%?
The wheels stay in the wells when jacked, what kind of dampening did you go with? (holds 1000lbs for longer than it takes to jack the corner )

Did you buy the tour before or after watching the newer btcc mondeos? (I myself bought the svt after watching the 123 mondeos, and dreamed of cutting the fenders to match)
(btw hypercoils=wow)

Thanks for your time, and response.

Gonna try and get all your q's answered here.

Was it your car I saw at HMS around this time last year? I am asking because I thought I saw it with electronic adjustment. I am pretty sure it was your since it had zip ties and an interesting mount at the top.

Nope. There's other sets of Ledas for Contours in existence. A guy named "semaj" on here had them like 3 years ago.. he sold them to a guy I met last year at SZ'02... There was an electronic adjustment setup (from Morriss Dampers IIRC) added onto those Ledas. They can't be had with elect. adjustment from Leda directly.

You mentioned that the sway bar mounts were not availible on the front, did you ever solve this or were the struts firm enough that you just removed the bar?

It's got to do with the springs. The springs have to be strong enough to fight body lean. I selected 500lb/in springs for the front, which was enough to have less than 1" body lean on Toyo T1-S rubber, with the bar disconnected. So I did remove it the next time the car had the subframe bolts removed.

Did you run a lower height at the track, if so how much lower;

Same height all through summer. The only thing I would play with for the track is damping.

did you run into any camber/suspension troubles?

Camber wasn't the prettiest thing but some track driving seemed to compensate for the street driving as far as tire wear was concerned. Camber was around -2deg last time I aligned it IIRC .. it's been a LONG time!

You said on the street you couldn't run lower than half damping with your springs... why?

I'm not sure what I meant back when I said that..
Let's see, out of 24 points, the lowest I could run was about "8" up front, otherwise I'd start getting a bit bouncy. So "8" was the most comfortable setup. I had it at 12 to 16 most of the time though. The rear was usually about 3 clicks down from the front.

Track setup was full-tilt up front (24), and the rear anywhere between 18 and 24, depending if the main corners wanted to break the car loose or not.

The wheels stay in the wells when jacked, what kind of dampening did you go with? (holds 1000lbs for longer than it takes to jack the corner )

Remember that without a sway bar up front, the suspension is 100% independant. So the only thing the damper has to hold, is the wheel, brakes and hardware. The rear would extend a little (because of the swaybar) .. It wouldn't do it on a lift though, which had some tech's puzzled once in a while.

Did you buy the tour before or after watching the newer btcc mondeos?

I bought mine without knowing about the Mondeo's involvement in BTCC. It was just a spur of the moment thing.. a buddy of mine was selling it, and I decided to grab it..

(btw hypercoils=wow)

Yes. They don't cost any more $ than other brands of 2.5"ID springs, so why not indulge!

I hope this helps, let me know if I missed anything!

Thanks for your response, very helpful and informative.

Nope. There's other sets of Ledas for Contours in existence. A guy named "semaj" on here had them like 3 years ago.. he sold them to a guy I met last year at SZ'02... There was an electronic adjustment setup (from Morriss Dampers IIRC) added onto those Ledas. They can't be had with elect. adjustment from Leda directly.

I will look up Morriss Dampers; This probably explains why Racers Edge was very confused when I asked them about this; It seems Leda developed a similar system for a couple of rally racers, but never really released it.

It's got to do with the springs. The springs have to be strong enough to fight body lean. I selected 500lb/in springs for the front, which was enough to have less than 1" body lean on Toyo T1-S rubber, with the bar disconnected. So I did remove it the next time the car had the subframe bolts removed.

I expected as much.

Track setup was full-tilt up front (24), and the rear anywhere between 18 and 24, depending if the main corners wanted to break the car loose or not.

Do you recall any damping numbers or just click settings?

Remember that without a sway bar up front, the suspension is 100% independant. So the only thing the damper has to hold, is the wheel, brakes and hardware. The rear would extend a little (because of the swaybar) .. It wouldn't do it on a lift though, which had some tech's puzzled once in a while.

In wheel well = neutral position (zero spring compression) I thought you meant compressed spring position (1000lbs compression). If this were the case your damping would be simply unreal.

Two other quick ones,
1. What was the overall ride height relative to stock (drop)?
2. If you corner balanced the car, how did you adjust? Just the fronts (no sway bar) or all four (tweak the r-sway / adjust mounts). Also if you recall any prelimary and/or adjusted numbers (with driver). (alright this one isn't so quick)

Thanks again for all you help, I just really want to make sure if I spend $$$$ on a suspension, that I get everything I want.