Zafira VXR Handling Upgrades
By Thorney Motorsport
Chassis dynamics is a flash title for all things that relate to the cars handling and ride. Getting power from these cars is relatively easy but there is a true art to getting a car to handle to its maximum potential – its not just a question of bolting on a set of springs and promising race car handling – its simply doesn’t work like that no matter what people tell you.
|
Thorney Motorsport Zafira VXR Suspension Stage 1 The standard geometry from Vauxhall is designed to be a
compromise between safe handling and excitement and as with all manufacturers it
veers to near to the safe side at the expense of excitement. We all want a safe
handling car and we don’t compromise in this regard but there are certain
adjustments we can make to the vehicles geometry that have an immediate and
noticeable effect on how the car handles. By upgrading the geometry to our Fast
Road settings understeer is noticeably reduced and the car is sharper to turn
into bends (especially roundabouts), the car feels nimbler and more responsive.
All the adjustments are carried out on our state of the art four wheel alignment
rig on a customised flat floor lift, its the same set up we use to set up the
race cars so you know its perfect. The process takes about two
hours.
|
Options:
All parts are available for Fast Road Setup |
|
Thorney Motorsport Zafira VXR We’ve been developing spring kits for the Zafira chassis now for so long its hard to remember where we started but its easy to realise where we have ended up – in our opinion the best up rated spring kit available for the chassis. Much is said about vehicle height and it is crucial to get this absolutely spot on, making the car look good does not necessarily mean it will handle any better, indeed we raised up our Astra VXR race car at the back and dramatically improved its handling on road and track. Ride height is lowered by 40mm (we have a higher ride height kit available as well) and the spring rates have been custom developed for the standard cars dampers. The springs have also been designed to work in unison with the cars optional IDS suspension, turn in is massively improved, the car has more bite in sharper turns and more feel in longer sweeping corners. Weight transition (where the weight of the car moves from corner to corner in hard driving) is much more controlled and overall body roll dramatically cut – its a different car. Fitting includes a custom fast road geometry set up.
|
Springs:
All parts are available for Lowering Springs |
|
Thorney Motorsport Zafira VXR Up rated anti roll bars are a bit of a classic in the car
tuning industry, owners want less roll so tuners line up thicker anti roll bars
promising less body roll and better handling but in truth the fitting of thicker
anti roll bars tends to just move the problem to somewhere else on the chassis.
The fact is the standard anti roll bar when combined with the standard
suspension is perfectly suited to the car, by fitting a thicker anti roll bar to
a car with standard suspension you do indeed reduce overall body roll but the
added result is a compromise in grip and that easily outweighs the benefits. The
anti roll bar can be added as an option to any of the suspension
upgrades.
However, combine stiffer up rated springs with a custom
stiffness anti roll bar and the combination is perfect.
|
Options:
All parts are available for Anti Roll Bars & Lowering Springs
|
