Lola 342 Spring Rates

[Mike Jones]

What spring rates do you recommend front to rear? I have a basic set up of 300# front and 200# rear. However, I think this might be well dated data. Any suggestions on an air cleaner? I will be running the snorkel. This is for a Lola 342.

Mike

[Greg Mercurio]

Mike: Mine was set up with 460# front and 300# rears. I also ran the snorkel with the "Ramair Induction Systems" filter from Pegasus. Pg 47 bottom. It distorts a little from the snorkel, but it fits. I have some other setup data if you want it. email me at mercuryracing@yahoo.com

[SHAMELESS]

What Is The Method Of Measureing Spring Rate?

[Allan T. Chou]

Spring rate is determined by the pressure of a spring compressed to exactly one inch. Easiest way is to use a drill press, put a scale on the platform, zero out the weight with the spring and anything else you are using (plate on top of spring where the press will press) and crank down one inch. There is a formula to calculte this for a 1/2" compression since most bathroom scales will go up to only 300 pounds or so but it elludes me at this moment. Maybe someone else may know.

Greg, how do you find the car handling with the stiffer springs? I went that route about 10 years ago on my T340 HU45 inorder to obtain lower ride heights. Thinking was that later suspension technology was all going that way and I wanted to see if it would retro fit to the earlier cars. I found that in hard cornering I was losing mechanical grip (understeer). Did alot of testing with different camber, toe, castor settings, tire pressures, etc., with no improvement. Actually, it was terrible. What I found was the Lola liked the softer stock springs and a high ride hieght of 2" front and 2.5" rear. It seems that with the stock set up, the car is allowed to roll more around turns which makes the suspension grip better. I recall it felt like carving a turn on the slopes. In any case it was a faster set for my driving style so I reverted back.

Also, since you guys are fellow Lola owners why haven't you registered you cars on my site? www.TheLolaRegistry.com Check it out and please register! Good luck Allan

[Greg Mercurio]

Alan: It handled very well. Very neutral and stopped the snap spin tendency. Took a lot of work to get it right though, minimizing bump steer, getting camber and toe set etc.

[Allan T. Chou]

Alan: It handled very well. Very neutral and stopped the snap spin tendency. Took a lot of work to get it right though, minimizing bump steer, getting camber and toe set etc.

Yeah, getting the T340 set up normally was a bear. Make a castor change, and it screws up toe and bump. Adjust the camber and it throws off everything else. Not a easy car to set up. I remembered spending hours (days?) on the corner weights and then having to re adjust everything again, again and again. Kind of like sawing off the legs on a wobbly table. At the end of the day, you had no legs left lol. But I tend to be a bit anal when it comes to set up. I could see how the heavier springs would eliminate the snap spin tendency, it induces more understeer which is more comfortable for most drivers. But my driving style leaned more to being able to rotate the car on its vertical axies around tight turns and allow some understeer around faster turns. As I mentioned before, I tried both ways, and while the car was drivable in either configuration, I personally was faster with the softer set up. I was later told that the original suspension geometry was designed to allow higher roll rates on the cars horizontal axies in order to make it work effeciently. Something about the use of threaded race tires in England. So by taking the range of travel away with stiffer springs, you are limiting what the suspension was designed to do. I guess it made sense to me way back then plus the older set up felt better to me anyway. But I'm always interested in other driver's input in hopes of finding that holy grail of the quicker way around.

Just as a side note, my next car was a 85/86 Reynard, set up was a breeze mainly because the adjustment points were moved from the chassis to the uprights. One adjustment rarely effected another. Spring rates were more than doubled, but the car could be dailed in to my driving style. Ran 1.5" off the ground (or less) and it handled great and told you 3 turns ahead of time when she was going to spin on you. Later, my 95VD was much faster, but never told you when it was going to spin. Do the same thing at each turn and opps, you became a passenger. Suspension technology had evolved tremendiously. I just picked up a very original T340 with absolutely no modifications to the chassis and suspension. I'll be restoring it to 1974 configuration. It'll be a hoot to see what that 5th spring is all about in it's original form. Check out the car in projects on my web site www.TheLolaRegistry.com and register your car at the same time. Thanks Allan

[Mike Jones]

Thanks for all of the input. However, being the nubie with the Lola, I can see my nights will be filled. Don't you just hate it when you don't know what you are doing and your performance is coming up soon?

Thanks,

Mike

[Scotty]

Hey Allen & Mike:

I'm curious as to the method you guys are using to setup your Lola's.

I know where Allen is coming from, when he describes chasing the suspension on a 340.
Patience & new cuss words seem to help a bit.

[Dave Welsh]

Scotty

I have several pages of notes from Lola and Carl Hass that were included with the 342's when delivered new. They include the specs, and setup procedure (from 30 years ago!)

The jpeg files were too large to upload here, so I uploaded them to my web site. For some reason they larger than the screen, so you could right click and save each page (6 pages total) and then adjust the size of each page on your computer to fit the screen.

http://sdcarbon.com/LOLA.HTM

[Scotty]

Hey Dave!

Thank you VERY much!
Excellent info!

When I aquired my 340, (now going on 18 yrs ago, damn I'm getting old) the oil,fuel,water & electrical digrams came with it, and I bet there was some other info, like what you uploaded, that the original owner recieved but never kept with the car.

The alignment procedures, that you uploaded, is the method that I used when I first got the car. But, shortly after that, my mechanic made a flag & bar setup. (kinda hard to explain. should take some photos and upload to my site)

Anyway, I was curious as to the different alignment methods used by Mike and Allen, on there's.

These are great Lola sheets Dave!

Thank You!

Scott

[Mike Jones]

Thanks you for the information. Any photos of the "flag system?"

Mike