Hey everyone I realize this thread isn't for everyone so I would like to start by saying I don't care about your negative opinions on what Jaguar should be. My car my ideas.

Now for anyone else out there with interest. I'm working on developing some options for Jaguar cars equipped with CATS system suspension.

First thing on the chopping block is the rear lower control arm. Starting next week I will be meeting with a fabricator friend of mine to engineer this adjustable control arm. The goal: create an over engineered arm that can withstand a track tuned STR's power while still having a 0 to -10 camber range. It will also bolt in with no fabrication to the car.

Second, I would like to come up with a fully adjustable coil over that is actually affordable. I understand that KW variant 3's are the best and if you want the best you will need to pay 3K. This is the next best thing seeing as we are not all as rich as some of you out there that want to talk shi* on other brands. I have some ideas. I believe I can take an existing brand coilover housing, chop off the lower bracket, and replace it with the lower "U" shaped bracket off the stock strut. I'll weld it to the coilover housing then rebuild the coilover. There is more detail to doing this but I'm not ready to disclose it. I know a guy that has done a coilover set up on a s-type with another brand but he didn't have the CATS set up.

I don't sell any of the ideas and this is not an advertisement, so I am not going to disclose who is doing all this yet.

Stay tuned and feel free to contact me with any questions or interests. If there are enough people interested I might buy the jig off him to help out the community.

 

I'd be down for both.

 

I will be interested in what you come up with regarding rear lower control arms.
I started to look into this, from the perspective of adding adjustability to the sub frame, but that will not be easy.

Regarding coil-overs for 2nd gen S-types/STRs you might contact Stance and see if they are interested in modifying their LS coil-overs to work on STRs and late model S-types.

 

I have already. They are not willing. The company that I have contacted would be willing to produce them but I would need at least 10 people in a group buy to have them made.

 

Have you given up on your custom lower control arm?

I have purchased most of the parts to make adjustable upper front and rear Control arms. After looking into purchasing new rear upper arms to get a new ball joint, and then removing the rubber bushing to replace them with Urethane bushings, It is about the same cost to build up adjustable A-arms.

 

I'm still working on it. I have found someone that is interested in engineering them but he wants me to get ether my air ride or coilover suspension first so that he can see the travel and etc. The rear control arm is going to be a little tricky from what I understand due to the fact that it's pivot points are mounted at an angle on the body. So the adjustment will likely be close to the ball joint. Another problem we face is that it is cast aluminum and can't be modified where it needs to be so the entire control arm will need to be built from scratch.

 

I am curious. How familiar are you with the S-type multi-link semi-trailing arm suspension?
Do you by chance have any 3-D models of the S-type rear suspension, or geometry calculations for the suspension''s travel? Semi-trailing suspension is really good for locking in specific suspension travel/paths, but there is not much you can do to change positional locations/geometry without messing up some other important path/suspension parameter. I am planning on running 19 x 12 wheels with 345/30/19 tires. The tires are 1" larger diameter and much wider than stock. The additional 3" width will be sitting all outboard. Thus I am concerned with changes to the scrub angle, caster, anti-squat, roll center and all the other subtle geometries that will be effected.

I am concerned what will happen when the car is lowered 1 to 2 inches and the the control arms sitting higher up with shorter spring coils.
As far as I can tell so far, having an adjustable lower control arm doesn't help much in improving the suspension's arcs of travel. An adjustable upper control arm appears to have a larger impact on suspension travel/path adjustments.

I am looking into significant modifications in order to keep the correct suspension travel/geometry for very minor changes.
One thing I have found is that the lower control arm's use of an out-board bushing, instead of a ball joint. really make it difficult to improve the set-up.

I have found out so far that the S-types suspension geometry is optimized for the stock set-up and is not too forgiving to simple changes.

I am getting to the point where I may have to redesign an build up new suspension in order to achieve the geometries I want/need.

 

What will the price range be in?

 

I'd be the farm the OP has no clue what any of that is, hell I'm not 100% on some of it. Good on ya for actually being in the know on this stuff!

 

I'm not to clear about all of the geometry. Involved as I am contracting someone to figure out the best way to accomplish this. I'm just the blank check so to speak. What I can tell you is that the original Idea was to refabricate the control arms to what would be almost stock specs and add the adjustment to the end of the CA at the point where the spindle attaches. This is after all the point at which the camber is currently being adjusted. The Idea was that it would retain the same geometric travel paths but offer negative camber adjustments. The engineer has yet to decide on this as a viable option and is also considering the upper control arm for the adjustment. I have temporarily put this project on hold as I have decided to run an air ride set up in place of my original plans for a custom coilover. This may pose clearance issues, so I'm working on getting that finished first. I will however forward your concerns to him in hopes of getting you more specific answers.

 

I gave up on using the S-type rear suspension and have been designing a new suspension based on using corvette C6 spindles. I think I may have mentioned that because I am using 19X12 rims/345/30-19 tires, on the back of the car the stock suspension just doesn't cut it.

The S-type's semi-trailing Control arm design is a really good design within the parameters it was designed. Unfortunately there are no adjustments for caster and camber. Only Toe-in, toe-out. If the camber and caster is off, it means you have to start replacing parts because something is worn out. If you put on wider rims that stick out father, or lower the car, you need to adjust several suspension geometries and that adjustment doesn't exist.

I have the rear suspension mapped out and have designed most of my new suspension. I have been purchasing the parts to fabricate new lower and upper control arms. But it will not be a direct bolt-on to other S-types. If it works, I'll see if I can modify the parts to upgrade my STR.

I attached an image of a C6 spindle with a Wilwood C5/C6 rotor hat, with a 14.4" (365) rotor, and a caliper adapter to fit a Camaro rear Brembo Caliper. The rim is a 19X12 Corvette wheel with 59 offset. (Not shown is the standard Corvette parking brake assembly that is used for the parking brake.) - I have a unique situation in that it is easier overall for me to use the C6 spindle/hub/axles/rotor/corvette rims. Since my engine swap is GM based, I am better off using the stock GM ABS reluctor that comes inside the C6 hub. This is worth a lot to me. I don't have to worry about, or adapt to the S-types reluctor sensor/ring on the axles.

I would recommend not designing a new lower control arm, but instead build up a new adjustable upper control arm. If you want to tighten things up a little more, Make new press in mono-ball bearing housings that replace the stock bushings. (I had a really bad experience with a set of urethane bushings that some guy in the UK sells on E-bay- unsafe design!!!)
- The stock lower control arms are light and strong!, It is the bushings they use that cause all the problems. (Getting harder to get and expensive!)
If I tackle this problem, I'de design and install inner bushings that let you use camber bolts, so you can add some adjustment to fine tune the lower arms.

 

I been looking through posting on rear suspension trying to figure out the best thread to post a couple images of the spindle/hub carrier I am fitting to my S-type conversion car. Since I posted an Image of the CAD model, I figure I would post a couple images of the real thing. Now that I am getting the spindle/hubs/rotor/brake combination actually together I can focus on putting new upper and lower control arms together.

- C5 spindle with stock Corvette hub that will fit my 19 X 12 corvette wheels.
- Caliper adapter to fit 14.4" X 1.1 brake rotor with new Camaro rear Brembo Caliper.
- No decals yet on the Calipers, but I painted them silver rather than red, in Jaguar tradition.
- This uses a 28 spline heavier duty Corvette outer CV joint with custom axle to mate with the 31 spline Mark 8 Torsen LSD differential, good for at least 600HP.

Enjoy

Joe

 

I stumbled by chance on this post because I have a XKR (x100). These are the changes that I love to read! many are concerned only to increase engine performance ... but the power is nothing without control!
NTP Italy had built especially for me a new suspension kit full adjustable Bilstein-Eibach, completed the job with limited slip differential, bushes kit powerFlex "black series" competition, new shims for the drive shafts and .... I planned to make new front suspension upper arms more long to adjust the camber. I will follow this work even if the S-Type has nothing in common with my car.

 

An old post alive again! I finished up the majority of the work on my modified S-type rear sub frame and suspension, but got stuck on sway bar arm routing to the lower control arms, plus I still still need custom coilovers. I didn't want to spend the $$$ due to other projects. I was hoping the starter of this thread would have actually posted on his project. I suppose it became another non-starter.