Our dampers are adjustable (!!!)

[oliie]

Read this Q&A on the Renault Sport site:

=============================
jimbo666 asked: factory damper settings, clio trophy:
hi. i wonder if you could tell me how many turns of the dial from the hardest setting down to the softest setting to put back to the factory setting.

Allen Collen responds:
There is a range of 39/40 "clicks" on the front dampers on the Clio Trophy. The factory setting is in the middle of the range :20 "clicks" from the hardest. Regards
=============================

Yikes!!!! This is fantastic news if true (I can see reduced body roll already!!) but I was 99% sure that our shocks are not adjustable!!!

Has anyone actually tried this? If the shock is indeed adjustable it is the best kept Trophy secret ever...

O.

 

[Cue]

i thought they were adjustable - on the promo vid for the launch they french geezer holding shocks says they're adjustable and you can clearly see the knob to adjust them. Never actually done it but i assume its a similar principal to adjusting shock on a bike.

 

[RSTuning]

Judging by the retail price of them from renault i would say they are. If not they should be :lol:

Paul
http://www.rstuning.co.uk

 

[oliie]

I am aware of the adjustment knob but was so very, very sure that it was fixed into place by Sachs.

Has anyone tried adjusting it?

Sincerely fascinated... I am off to the Nurburgring in two weeks so I will have to give this a go if no one else has tried.

However it could also be risky to turn the shock to the hardest setting as it might upset the balance.

Hmmm... could turn into a very interesting thread...

O.

 

[George K]

I thought that they are pinned in place - any ideas on how to un-pin? Sounds great news.

 

[Jeremy]

I think that the adjustment screw is modified so that they can't be adjusted. I'll check again and also with the 'expert' answer given !

 

[oliie]

Always on the ball Jeremy. Thank-you!

O.

 

[MickD]

I was under the impression (from a question asked of the RenaultSport forum "panel of experts" a few months back) that the front struts are adjustable but that the adjusting knob is "pinned" into place by Renault.

I don't see why the locking pin couldn't be drilled out, although I must admit that I haven't checked.

 

[TrophyK3V]

Where is the pin/dial at?

 

[Steve]

Where is the pin/dial at?

At the top of the resevoir, there is acover over it and a pin through the dial to lock it in place, remove the pin and robert's your fathers brother. Although remember that Renault will see this as a warranty violation if you adjust this.

If it was easier to get to it would be great, dial them up to 35 clicks for Oulton Park and turn it back down for the drive home. You could even put them into 'comfort' mode for taking your mum in the car for instance. (My old lady doesn't like the firm ride, or my driving for that matter, it makes her feel sick.)

 

[chiefsilverback]

Where is the pin/dial at?

At the top of the resevoir, there is acover over it and a pin through the dial to lock it in place, remove the pin and robert's your fathers brother. Although remember that Renault will see this as a warranty violation if you adjust this.

If it was easier to get to it would be great, dial them up to 35 clicks for Oulton Park and turn it back down for the drive home. You could even put them into 'comfort' mode for taking your mum in the car for instance. (My old lady doesn't like the firm ride, or my driving for that matter, it makes her feel sick.)

You need small actuators on the dials so you can adjust it in car!

 

[Jeremy]

There is a pin in place to lock the damper. This was put in as the setting was considered the best from the development and also to ensure that in production there was no possible variance. The chassis engineer's view is:

"I'm not sure that customers will find that adjusting their dampers is that beneficial - for one thing the adjustment does not change all of the characteristics of the dampers and the chassis is made up of springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, all of which are normally tuned together"

 

[George K]

That seems a oit unfair/patroinising. For example on Konis only the rebound is adjustable, but it certainly makes a big difference, even without changing springs or dampers.

 

[oliie]

Jeremy - it was very good of you to take the time/effort to follow up on this and to let us know.

It makes sense not to allow the dampers to be adjusted in order to keep the handling characteristics constant across all of the Trophy's (imagine the debacle come re-sale if they were adjustable).

Now to figure out if the pin can be removed!

Cheers
O.

 

[Steve]

There is a pin in place to lock the damper. This was put in as the setting was considered the best from the development and also to ensure that in production there was no possible variance. The chassis engineer's view is:

"I'm not sure that customers will find that adjusting their dampers is that beneficial - for one thing the adjustment does not change all of the characteristics of the dampers and the chassis is made up of springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, all of which are normally tuned together"

Wow, we were talking about this some time ago! Why did it take so long for the best kept Trophy secret to come out?

This comment is interesting (in red) and I totally agree that the dampers should match the springs but if that's the case why does it improve turn-in and cornering so much to dial them up significantly?

I wish we could get the guy who actually designed the Trophy (there's bound to be a head engineer who was in charge of choosing the dampers and deciding how the car should handle) to come on here and tell us more about our cars. At the moment, I'd say this forum is the world authority on the Trophy and that's just from reverse-engineering! Crazy!

 

[g40steve]

Get Nik to pm 'bernaud' head of renault motorsport.

He has his business card.