How does the car ride with the coil-overs?

 

Mjs128, do you have a link to the springs you bought? Also, can you remember the thickness of the spacers you made?

 

I sent MJS128 a messeage, he aint responding.

 

Not to worry, I've ordered the kit so will wait until they arrive and measure what I need that way and make the spacers to suit.

 

Hi All, sorry for the delay, I have not been in the Jag world lately (summers are for driving the car and yard work)!!

The springs were standard off the shelf coil over parts. They are 10" tall 2.5" ID coil overs. I started with 350# but they were a little to soft, I think I ended up with 400 or 500#, I cannot recall exactly. It was a few years ago but let me look around, I am sure I have the info and the spring rates that I finally settled on. The spring ID was important because the factory upper urethane spacer fit nice and tight inside the spring to keep everything inline and square, if you look back at my pics you will see what I mean. I just PM'd Crushercurtis and will do a little measuring on the spacer when I get home from work. Off the top of my head, I started with a piece of 4" OD .5" wall 6061 aluminum tube. I cut it to about a 1.5" length and cleaned it up in the lathe. The ID and OD measurements had very little relevance as long as the spring sat securely on the spacer. The spring preload is what holds that in place anyway. I tapered the top a little to try and match the contour or the upper mounting plate (or what ever that part is called that the shocks mount to and that is then bolted into the car with 4 bolts). I wasn't able to get the contours to match but it made no difference. The only other important part was the proper setting of the preload. These kits are never set up properly and unless you set up the height and preload correctly you will lost shock travel (which is already a tad shorter with my kit at least) and have a really shitty ride. I will try to find the article I referenced when dialing my setting in.

 

Great, Thanks Mjs128

 

What are the benefits of such a kit? Is the ride more comfortable, handle better?

 

After some seat time with the Nitron coilovers at the softest setting as the goal was an OEM+ feel with modern technology. It is basically what is expected of an XKR (but was never delivered by Jag), very comfortable and virtually flat when cornering and the suspension is MUCH more responsive. The shop that did the install said that they have never driven an XKR that felt like this.

Obviously if the dampers were set to a stiffer setting it would make the car more responsive when pushed around, but for a GT car the soft setting provides more than enough performance combined with ride compliance. The ride height was lowered to a conservative level (1.5 finger gap) and wheel spacers added to make the stance look correct - the Nitrons can go significantly lower. Aside from the improved performance, the Nitrons remove the factory upper bushings which seem to be a constant item of concern on the X100, so it is nice to not have to deal with them in the future.

If someone is looking for more performance or is debating on replacing the entire factory suspension, I highly suggest Nitron.

 

Follow-up question, do the Nitron's come with camber plates or is the camber issue dealt with differently?

 

Damn now I sort of want it. Not cheap though.

 

The upper mounts do not have camber adjustment. But since the fronts are a flat plate, a machine shop could make oblong openings to allow for adjustment. The rears require shims on the driveshaft, but the negative camber added as the car is lowered (with factory inserted shims) allows the tire to tuck under the fender so there is no rubbing at a lower ride height with a more aggressive offset and helps with lateral grip.

They are not. This car has had one owner with no intent to sell, so worth the money to buy a quality component that can be rebuilt.

 

Nothing you do to change the horizontal position of the top mount is going to change camber. That would simply change the rake of the assembly.

 

Correct, for some reason I was thinking Macpherson (probably just looking at the large upper mount) not what it is (double wishbone).

 

Update.
Had 3 people in the car and a full trunk for 250+ miles this weekend and the Nitron coilovers did a great job. If anyone has questions, feel free to message me.

 

Hey, glad to see you're still around. Now that you've had the coil-overs for some time and have been able to really enjoy them, I was wondering about NVH. Does the fact that the Nitrons eliminate the upper shock mounts result in increased NVH? Specifically rattles, or clunks? Even in the softest setting I know it will be stiffer and I expect that, but does the ride become jarring and uncomfortable, or does eliminating the upper shock mounts have a negligible effect on the ride?

 

No increased NVH that I've noticed. Ride is very comfortable, what you'd expect from an XKR, an OEM+ feel.