Yeah, that’s exactly it, these newer Rs have the suspension right from the SVR. Had the car up on my lift taking a look around and SVR is stamped everywhere under there. And the latest latest cars even had refinements to the rear knuckles.

I’m completely stock and have no plans to change that. In sport suspension it is really buttoned down in my view. Impressive really for a car this heavy. Comfort mode, definitely comfortable, but you feel it moving around a lot more for sure. It’s not bad, but sport makes a massive difference in handling.

 

DeMeister, I'm assuming you are talking about the SVR being comfortable in comfort? I wonder where I can get a good used set of SVR dampers?

 

I have found tires make a big difference. The original P Zero were hard from new. The Pilot Sport 4S were much better but got progressively harder after 5000 miles until they were rocks, they dated out. My new Continentals are the best so far and are a relatively new model.

 

I use Continentals on my other cars and I love them. They are quiet, comfortable, handle well, and last a long time. Personally I like them better than the Michelin tires.
The michelin's definitely handle very well but honestly at the speeds that we travel, I don't see any advantage over the Continentals in this area. On any mountain corner that I take at 100 mph, is the same with either Tire.
And the Continentals are quieter and more comfortable.

 

One thing what can cause harsh driving is tire balancing or issues on tire radial construction. If your tire is unbalanced or "jumping" your shock is constantly on "damp" mode, (fast movement closes the damp valves) when in normal driving the movement of shock are slow and damp valve stay open) Active shocks can and have ability to "eat off" some of tyre unbalancing or issues of roundness, but not much. Also misaligment, wrong pressures or bend brake disks can cause tyre jumping.
So, first i always check tyres, aligments and disks if somebody bring in their car for harsh drive or non-working suspension. After spending 10k for new parts it can be as simple as unbalanced tyre or binding brake caliber pin.

 

Again, it is my understanding that my 2024 has an improved version of the suspension they put on the SVR. The new R is essentially an SVR minus the crazy titanium exhaust, plus some further suspension tweaks/improvements. The new R is also, of course, very toned down on the general exhaust-noise-wise given the GPF filters. That is what I’ve gathered from my reading.

I am so impressed with how comfortable this car is in comfort mode, and how incredible the handling is when in the sport suspension mode. The handling is very good. Until I replace my stock tires I will mostly be driving in comfort suspension.

 

My buddy pretty much exclusively runs with Continentals on his V8 Vantage. It’s all he will use. He loves them.

I have many miles to go on the stock tires, but I will definitely consider the Continentals as an option when the time comes.

 

Wheels being out of balance can certainly cause an uncomfortable ride, but I'm really Keen to hear your theory on how your out of balance wheels or brake rotors can mysteriously be really smooth on a smooth road and really bad on a bad road. The problem with these early f-types is very basic, the dampening forces are not tuned to this chassis, springs or weight

 

Not quite follow you.
Out of balance wheels do not have nothing to do on smooth or bad road. Either nothing to do with vehicle weight or springload. Where you pick up that one?
Unbalanced wheels can make shock damper valves been "closed" all the time, so damper ever been on "normal/soft" cruise mode when it supposed so.
Note: The cheapest and cheerfull danpers do not have inbuild damper valves on the shock piston. They only work with fix fluid openings.
Premium shocks have springloaded dampervalves beside of fix fluid openings on shock pistons. (at least be most premium shock manucaturers claim so - i personally haven´t been opened them all) Active shocks have these valves controlled or another controlled opening to change fluid flow rate.
When piston speed increase inside shock the fluid movement thru piston increase. Fast flow enough closes the spring loaded valve increasing the dampening force, slowing down the wheel movement -> More dampening force conducted to the vehicle mass.
(on race cars / motorbikes shocks have settings fast inbound/outbound & slow inbound/outbound and the settings are made by chancing springs on damper valves)

 

This is really interesting, I never heard/thought of that - you are saying undulations caused by the unbalanced rotating mass are enough to "simulate" the smaller bumps in the tarmac a street damper is valved to absorb, basically causing it to stiffen up all the time?

I don't have travel specs for our F-Types but typically performance street cars don't have a lot of range (and typically have motion ratios a bit closer to 1-1.5 given the shock is maybe 15-20 degrees inboard). In my other cars (Scion FR-S) with lowering springs the bump travel was pretty short with lowering springs, with a 1.2" drop the car was about touching the bump stops so they effectively became part of your suspension all the time. They were progressive and part of the design but as soon as you get into them your springs rate goes way up. At that point I went with custom valves KW coilovers that gave me more bump travel and those problems were solved.

I am on H&R's now, which are great for looks but I definitely feel some weird unpredictable things with the suspension, usually in very abrupt weight transfer moves. On smoother transitions it is fine. Small bumps are ok, big bumps I feel for sure

 

Yes. The key is the flow rate on damper valve. Naturally a lot depends on shocks and mass vector caused the rotating tyre.
I found this was the issue with one of my previous vehicle, long time ago, where the original rims did not had normal center hole for (nowdays) normal tyre balancing machine quick mount lock. The tyres had to be balanced with museum piece of s*it balancing machine with bolt mount flange. Tyre shop employers did not love the extra work it caused and result were hmm.. not quite there. Until i start to bring them extra "bakery products" (read beer ) for better motivation.
It was a French made car. (Peugeout 607) Who would thought French engineer leave center hole off from rims? What kind of issues it ever going to cause?
First time after 6 years of ownership the tyres were balanced correctly and wow: 607 glided like no other. Before that it sensed every crack, stone, snails and worms from road.

After that i started use my 120fps action camera to check suspension movemets of my racecar and found some tenths out of laptimes by just balancing tyres to tame down the damper movements. But on these speeds the dampers move anyway such a velositys that i believe that the gain of tyre balancing were between tyre and tarmac, not from dampers.
However: Since that been fixed many unexplained harsh rides.
Seen warped disks sending pulsation thru caliber to the front suspension causing same issue.
Seen wrong tyre pressures causing harmonic tyre vibration over rim high enough making harmfull suspension movement. (seen this in high and low pressure)
Seen wrong aligment causing tyre "fishtailing" and causing same issue. (my x351 had this when i bought it -> "banana" arm inner bushing. x351 XJ just eat these. Now 3rd pair)

Fast action camera with good mount help a lot to find above issues.
Of course if the vehicle is made with harsh suspension, it dosent magically turn for soft. This is only someting to be aware.

 

hah, entertaining recount, I also like "Bakery products"

It makes a lot of sense actually, the damper is doing a good job at covering up these issues until they probably get out of hand. Appreciate the education - reminds me of when I was learning how to set up my KW dampers and reading about how improper compression/rebound can cause the damper to jack down over washboard road surfaces.

 

Learnt on hardway and want to share that maybe somebody don´t need to. Also wish read and learn from others that i don´t need to go hard way again. (enough bruises )
This is something what is right on front of you, but not seeing it. Once starting to think how damper work it makes sense. The fast small movements keep in/out damper valves closed, so slow bump movement is not possible and vehicle is not "floating" over tarmac. -> Driver feels firm ride. Plus vibration from unbalanced tyres -> Most unconfortable.

Yes: Some dampers do not have outbound damp valve or its much smaller. Then on washboard it can jack down.
(some say that some high class race teams use this feature stiffening outside when driving over washboard verge at end of the corner, but what i could know..?)

 

I've been noticing that my car doesn't feel quite as "planted" in a turn as it used to. I suspect that the dampers are showing a little age. It seems like they no longer have enough rebound damping, although one of my "standard" high-speed corners isn't quite as flat as it used to be. It's got a few ripples that weren't there when my car was new.

 

This vid is a bit fluffy, but it references quite directly the significant changes in the suspension and handling of the new cars vs. the old.

It even talks about the steering feel being significantly different? That one I hadn’t heard before to be honest, but I have seen and read many references about the handling rework.

At the end of the day I don’t have a lot of experience in the old F-types, only the newest, and man it seems refined in here to me.

In any case, thought you guys might find this video of some interest given the discussion here in the thread:

Cheers

 

Old, hard tires could provide that feeling, too.

And cooler weather.

 

I've been noticing this for some time, so it's neither of those things. It's feeling like the rebound damping isn't what it used to be.

 

Is it worse one direction vs the other? Usually if a damper is failing they don't fail in unison. Also does it make a difference switching between comfort and dynamic? Might be a good excuse to upgrade to KW coilovers

 

None of the dampers has failed, I'm just noticing what feels like not quite enough rebound damping. I rarely carry a passenger, and when I do I will rarely switch dynamic off; otherwise, dynamic all the way.

At ten years and 55K miles, it's not unreasonable to have some wear. I only notice when I'm alone and driving as I do not when carrying a passenger. There's sweeping section of road that has some undulations that can upset the car at elevated speeds. When it was new, that was not the case.

 

Maybe the road has got worse over time?