Harry’s Garage Project 8 Damper Issue – OBVIOUS?
In Harry’s Garage latest video he has gone deep on solving a potential issue with the rear dampers on the Harry’s Garage Project 8. And I think I have seen something in the video that explains the problem he is experiencing.
Background – Harry’s Garage Project 8 Suspension Problem
Harry took his Project 8 for service. While there, he drove the garage owner’s Project 8 and realised the rear of this car was more compliant than his.
He has taken his dampers to Nitron for them to put it on their damper dyno to see if the dampers were performing normally.
In the video he shows the damper dyno graph and this is where I spotted the potential issue.
The potential issue I see is that the compression damping on his dampers are much stiffer than the rebound damping. I believe this is not something that you would normally see.
Suspension Secrets have done an article here, in which they show a damper dyno graph and the compression being softer than rebound which I believe it typical. RaceComp have an article on dampers here.
Because a damper usually moves much faster in compression than rebound (because a damper is compressed over bumps much faster that the spring would push the damper back) the compression damping is usually softer than rebound to make the ride compliant.
However in the video it can be seen that the compression damping on his dampers are around 30% stiffer than rebound.
Electronics
The dampers on the Project 8 are electronically adjustable. Nitron tested this by seeing if the damper characteristics changed with different current being passed through the damper controller. The damper curves did change and Harry mentions in the video that he does feel the ride change when the settings are changed inside the car.
His Issue
In the video it’s stated that his car is much stiffer at the rear than the workshop’s Project 8 and the Nitron dyno graph would tend to back this up. However Nitron say nothing about the compression being stiffer than rebound in the video, they seem to treat it as normal.
Next Video
In the next video Harry says they will have sent off the garage’s dampers to Nitron to have them tested as well. I think we will see that the dampers on the garage car has softer compression than rebound and this is why the garage’s car rides so much better.
What would this mean, if I’m right?
Either something has gone wrong with the dampers he has or they were assembled incorrectly to start with. I’m looking forward to his update which you’ll be able to see on StrikeEngine TV!
