Suspension change on my Aerotop - am I wasting my time?

Opinions please - I want to make the suspension on my Aerotop softer, and with the car at 88,000 miles I'm considering going the whole hog - UK springs, UK shocks, new bushes, new control arms (gulp).

At the moment I've only splashed out on the springs, so before I go mad and get the rest I'd like to know if I'm largely wasting my time because of the whole Aerotop floppy business. Is the chassis just too flexible to make this exercise worthwhile?

I'm finding my car to be a total money pit at the moment - admittedly the £2000+ on the interior was entirely my own decision, and the £500 decat was probably a waste because my second turbo gets used so little, but with stem seal replacement looming I'm pondering on the suspension situation. Add to that my depression at driving a car with no carpet, a broken passenger seat and no dash panels (or radio) for 3 months and I'm very much out of love with my car at present (Aerotop? Pah, only had the roof off once this year)

dave, sounds like you've hit the mid project depression. you just have to get the project finished, don't run out of gumption. keep focused on your original plan and work at one part at a time, get the interior sorted and then start to think about the suspension.

have you got a garage? can you take it off the road?

Yeah having a second car made me feel a hell of a lot better about the Supra.

I really doubt you'll find a lot of difference with regard to enjoying/driving your Supra with the UK setup. If you want a more civilised ride, just go for it I'd have thought the Aerotop factor wouldnt make too much difference at all.

UK springs with Bilsteins work really well on the Aerotop. But welding the roof back on works better...

I've bought my supra already lowered (11cm off the ground behind the front wheel) & I am considering raising it because of the state of the roads & speed bumps in my area.

Would be interested to see what people recommend.

dave, sounds like you've hit the mid project depression. you just have to get the project finished, don't run out of gumption. keep focused on your original plan and work at one part at a time, get the interior sorted and then start to think about the suspension.

 

have you got a garage? can you take it off the road?

Thanks matey - I'm going to try and make some serious progress over the bank holiday weekend with it. Got plenty of garage space now but I need the car for work everyday. I could get another car but to be brutally frank I just can't be arsed. It's perfectly driveable, it's just no *fun* to drive at the moment - noisy, rattly, bits hanging off. Just a 'get me from A to B' car and not the spinkey driving experience it should be. The interior should look great when it's finished as I'm trying a couple of new things that people haven't done before (nothing amazing, but just some little tweaks and differences) but... urgh, bloomin' months of it now. Not helped by this year's OU course having a rush of assignments and exams recently so time has been short.

Chris, why the use of Bilsteins in particular? I'm finding it really tricky to get accurate info on what combination of shocks/springs to go for (even the same sources are quoted as saying different things on different threads!). I was on the verge of getting some UK shocks...

I want a super-subtle, bump-absorbing ride. As long as the handling doesn't go to sponge-like qualities I'm quite prepared for a drop in handling if it makes a difference to the ride.

I put Ohlins coilovers all round on my TT Aerotop.

If I want it squishy, I just back off the dials on top of the shocks until it's soft enough. Doesn't take long to backoff the pre-load with a couple of C-Spanners either. Then if I decide someday that I'm going to take it on a track, I'll just crank them all back up a bit!

Sorted.