gemellocattivo.com

Got a note from bimmerworld, the switch is backordered with no available date so I canceled the order and got to work on the original

600 grit on the board contacts and fresh dielectric grease

weld up the broken housing



Everything work so glue on the glass

I broke one of my new covers, but I had an extra I just had to paint it. and that is it.

Small things make a big difference and keep the project moving along.

A quick google search for cv boots said ebay had them, a search on eBay and my local ferrari dealer popped up at $28 each, so 4 genuine ferrari boots bought. I never even thought to call my local dealer, small wins

A win is a win. Nice.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

Maybe not a win...I got 3 and 1, not sure what to think about this.



Also on my mind is the condition of the suspension. When the car was last inspected in 2005 I kind of remember the guy being not to happy with the visual appearance of the bushings and they still look just awful


The ball joints and tie rod ends are tight but the boots are long past there prime.


Then I've lowered the car about 1.5" so the A-arms are not pointing in the directions the factory intended and I've increased the spri8ng rates by about 4x so the suspension travel and body roll are about 1/4 original meaning the designed camber gain isn't actually doing what it was designed to do. Also with the grip of wider modern tires (even my old ones) and extra HP there is pretty significant pitch going on throttle to brake that was never intent by the factory. And last setting the rear toe is only possible because the A-arm bushings are rubber and can twist a bit making replacing the rear bushing with, I don't know, just thinking out loud....say ball bearings or delrin or rod ends not a good idea. I think I've mentioned this before but I'm kind of leaning toward doing something that involves cutting and welding......

Step 1, get it into CAD, is not off to a great start as I can't read the frame width numbers in my manual......anybody got a legible copy?

Yes, I will text it to you.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

I was trying to find some suspension software but really haven't so back to CAD modeling. I've also been reading a bit and and best I can tell building anti-roll into the suspension is generally frowned upon because it produces "jacking" which raises the GC. I am pretty sure though that with the stiffer suspension increasing the camber gain is a good idea especially since the plan is sticky 200tx tires that like camber from what I read.

This bit is kind of interesting. The unreadable chassis drawing was a mondial, I should probably throw that book away as I keep pulling wrong info from it....but I noticed it had a little anti-drive in the front with the front A-arm at 7deg. Today i noticed the 328 is the same

308 is straight


328 and mondial 7deg


So it looks like ferrari added a bit of anti-dirve on the newer cars, likely a result of modern tires getting stickier. My original idea was just mess with the bolt on lower A-arm mounts but I'm realizing that is probably a bad idea as it will probably add too much and jacking will become an issue which is why ferrari used the top not the easier bottom. The anti-drive force is an extra force so in normal use its just the springs holding up the car, but on braking there would be the additional anti-dive force+ the spring force which results in the car CG lifting. That can be somewhat compensated for in the back as any anti-squat for acceleration becomes pro-squat on the brakes so with some math the car can stay relatively flat and steady height I guess.

In the rear both cars (308/328) A-arms are parallel to the ground, so no anti-squat...likely because the cars just didn't have the hp to need it

Last, a work buddy has a buddy with corner scales so there is a vague plan to set the engine back in and try to get so weights to make the math a bit more accurate then my guesses. We should have a pool for closest to actual weight

Oh, last last I'd never ever hear of tire spring rate. I knew they flex and different tires ride different but I never really thought about including that in the spring rate calculations and don't recall seeing it motion ratio or spring sizing formulas. I guess on most street cars the tire is stiff enough that it can be ignored without creating alot of error, but as spring rates climb, the tire rate starts to matter and is somewhere around 1500lb/in and in the rear of my car is about 1/3 total travel the way I currently have it sprung which seems too big to ignore.

Hey, I very much doubt that there's anything in here that you don't already know, but I thought you might find it interesting and at least timely. Maybe helpful:

Throttle Stop Garage on the analysis and design of a custom suspension he didn't want to do

I didn't love that video but it did help me find a gut that is pretty good. In this video he explains why liwing a car like I have makes a hot mess of the suspension.
https://youtu.be/LjCVGPEjTXo?si=E4jCbZH29MhPrNqu