Ride comfort from 18'' hairpins

[bendrick]

Originally Posted by patrolman pete

So it appears that the only good thing about the wheels is the looks as I've had plenty of compliments about them but I'm struggling to live with them. Surely someone has the 17'' serpents fitted and can advise on the ride to help me decide Oops ! Someone did whilst I was typing this out !��

I've got 17" serpents on mine the tyres are 225/45/17

Unfortunately I've no idea what your definition of what a harsh ride is compared to my own and to be perfectly honest in all my years of motoring I used to just get in a car and drive it round quite happily until joining this forum which altered my previous blissfully unaware of any much difference driving experiences to the now delights of constantly worrying about tyre brand, spring set up, wheel size comfort experience etc etc etc.

I'm now reduced to a constant state of worryment about whether my car ride is too harsh, too soft, too slow, too fast, too bouncy, too smooth, too hesitant, too just about everything.

I almost yearn for the good old days when I used to just get in, turn the key and drive around quite happily in blissful ignorance.


I didn't even know that a smaller wheel can possibly give a softer ride until Jules mentioned it when I took the car with it's already fitted 17' serpents for him to give a check over.

I now seem to live for the day that someone can swop over my wheels for some 16" or even 15" ones temporarily just so that I can satisfy myself that I'm not missing out on a much smoother softer cushioned drive so that I can be released from the imagined hell of my 17" serpents. Or whether the difference would be so minimal that I wouldn't even notice anyway.


Mind you having just changed all my rear suspension I do genuinely feel a more refined ride has resulted but am fearful that the £hundreds spent has induced an imagined improvement that really isn't there.


So I'm awfully sorry but I can't really say anything much more than the ride on my 17" serpent wheels seem fine to me but I've no idea whether it seems harsh to anybody else, you're quite welcome to pop round to go for a spin in my car if you're as tortured as me about matters that I didn't even know existed before this forum.

[slovcan]

Originally Posted by bendrick

I've got 17" serpents on mine the tyres are 225/45/17

Unfortunately I've no idea what your definition of what a harsh ride is compared to my own and to be perfectly honest in all my years of motoring I used to just get in a car and drive it round quite happily until joining this forum which altered my previous blissfully unaware of any much difference driving experiences to the now delights of constantly worrying about tyre brand, spring set up, wheel size comfort experience etc etc etc.

I'm now reduced to a constant state of worryment about whether my car ride is too harsh, too soft, too slow, too fast, too bouncy, too smooth, too hesitant, too just about everything.

I almost yearn for the good old days when I used to just get in, turn the key and drive around quite happily in blissful ignorance.


I didn't even know that a smaller wheel can possibly give a softer ride until Jules mentioned it when I took the car with it's already fitted 17' serpents for him to give a check over.

I now seem to live for the day that someone can swop over my wheels for some 16" or even 15" ones temporarily just so that I can satisfy myself that I'm not missing out on a much smoother softer cushioned drive so that I can be released from the imagined hell of my 17" serpents. Or whether the difference would be so minimal that I wouldn't even notice anyway.


Mind you having just changed all my rear suspension I do genuinely feel a more refined ride has resulted but am fearful that the £hundreds spent has induced an imagined improvement that really isn't there.


So I'm awfully sorry but I can't really say anything much more than the ride on my 17" serpent wheels seem fine to me but I've no idea whether it seems harsh to anybody else, you're quite welcome to pop round to go for a spin in my car if you're as tortured as me about matters that I didn't even know existed before this forum.

That was AWESOME!

[first-things-first]

lol @ bendrick

I drive a ZT with the 18 inch grid spokes (225/45 tyres XL rating). I use the "father" method of determining ride comfort. On my FIAT Coupe he would say that "he can tell if it was a 5p or 10p" (code for "harsh" ). Now, the ZT on these wheels should get such a coded reference, but he likes it.

I have sports comfort suspension as it a late MK 2 model, so softer than earlier models. The tyres must have stiffer sidewalls due to the XL rating. I keep the tyres at 2.2 bar all round as per the manual.

I hate a bone hard ride (I drive on the road, not the "not bothering" ), but accept "pitter patter" of big tyres on road surfaces that are nowhere near up to smoothly surfaced. I like control from my suspension, but with compliance as you when you go round a bend you can often find lumps and bumps, potholes, etc. and want to feel the tyres gripping and handling the imperfections, not skipping over them and placing you off line.

I think you need to find members local to you who can give you a lift to see how they "feel" to you.

Maybe lower pressures might help a little. I fully agree with bendrick that it is down to individual interpretation, as I am used to sports suspension.

One last thing - did I not read somewhere that modern tyre designs are mostly all about control, handling, emissions, longevity (depending on marketing or vehicle). All this at the expense of ride comfort as sidewalls are stiffer because of these regulations and car designs (trend towards heavier vehicles, due to crash regs)??

[bsafly]

I have had my connie SE tourer for four years now, it has had serpents on from new (including spare wheel) and i like the ride, it certainly isn't harsh. My ZT-T 190 on the other hand........

[gnu]

I had hairpins on my ZS. I liked the look of them. The ride was hard, but I thought that was because it was a ZS! Got nearly ten years out of them before I sold on the car. That's ignoring the one which was ovalled by a bit of wood lying in the M4; but not it's fault. Difficult the clean though...

[patrolman pete]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Now to decide on another set of wheels to give my joints a rest!

[Russp]

I've got 18" Hairpin's on the ZT I don't really find it hard compared to my ZR on 17" straights

[LeRich]

The ride on my 75 is better than most cars I've ever owned, but far from 'magic carpet' soft, possibly due to it riding on 17" Starspokes and being mk2 1.8T, it has no rear ARB. The car filters surface texture well enough and deals with the surface topography nicely thanks to its solid shell and good damping but doesn't handle sharp bumps well at all, especially mid corner when the suspension is under compression.

In contrast, my 2006 Mazda 6 doesn't ride as smoothly nor does it feel as well pinned down as the 75, but copes with sharp bumps better and body roll is more subdued. The 6 is also a far sharper drive and belies its size with its agility and nimbleness, whereas you never escape the size and mass in the 75.

My previous ZTs were both pretty firm but not uncomfortable, unlike my TF which was both. The ZS I owned rode far better than I expected, thanks in part to riding on 16" wheels.

[hamster19]

16 inch are the way to go, much more comfortable, and they don't look daft like the bigger wheels.

[victorgte]

My wife’s 75 has Meteors with 225/50/17 tyres. Better ride than the original 45 profiles tyres. Yes the speedo is out slightly.
The other extreme is my 75 running on 195/65/15 tyres. Lovely ride from a lazy V6. I sold my serpent wheels as 17” tyres are so much more expensive than 15” and I don’t regret it. Comfort all day long thanks and even the Meteors are ok with a slightly bigger profile.
I have some 18” hairpins but just don’t want to fit them!