Improving my W124's handling
Improving my W124's handling
Yes, stock sways.
Are you sure you don't want to lower? The early W124's look like rally cars next to later ones. Mine is lowered slightly from stock height and is about the same as my wife's stock '91 300d. Before lowering I was getting some weird bumpsteer over dips. Regardless, the R129 springs will require cutting in the rear unless you like the '70s jacked up in the rear look. I was cutting a quarter coil at a time to find the desired height. You can't lower the rear very much with the R129 rear springs before the springs will be loose in the perches at full droop, so beware.
I love driving my car. The spring rate is in no way exceptionally stiff compared to modern cars. Tire wear is great. My wife and I have the same tires and her car is eating them much faster than mine. The real difference in handling came from the Hedgehog Motorsports urethane bushings. In hard cornering, the car is resting on the bumpstops anyway, so the bulk of the increase in cornering force came from the suspension being able to better maintain ideal alignment through less bushing deflection.
Edit, alignment is -1.5* front camber and zero toe at all corners. I was getting a little extra outer edge front tire wear with -1.0* front camber so I moved it to -1.5*. This is with the urethane bushings. I'm not sure a stock bushed W124 would achieve the same tire wear results with the same alignment.
raysorenson
12-18-2015, 04:07 PM #13Now that I look back, I suspect the stock '87 300d springs are probably about the same in stiffness but the 400 springs have slightly lower ride height. I agree, it looks like the cabrio springs are a little stiffer.
Yes, stock sways.
Are you sure you don't want to lower? The early W124's look like rally cars next to later ones. Mine is lowered slightly from stock height and is about the same as my wife's stock '91 300d. Before lowering I was getting some weird bumpsteer over dips. Regardless, the R129 springs will require cutting in the rear unless you like the '70s jacked up in the rear look. I was cutting a quarter coil at a time to find the desired height. You can't lower the rear very much with the R129 rear springs before the springs will be loose in the perches at full droop, so beware.
I love driving my car. The spring rate is in no way exceptionally stiff compared to modern cars. Tire wear is great. My wife and I have the same tires and her car is eating them much faster than mine. The real difference in handling came from the Hedgehog Motorsports urethane bushings. In hard cornering, the car is resting on the bumpstops anyway, so the bulk of the increase in cornering force came from the suspension being able to better maintain ideal alignment through less bushing deflection.
Edit, alignment is -1.5* front camber and zero toe at all corners. I was getting a little extra outer edge front tire wear with -1.0* front camber so I moved it to -1.5*. This is with the urethane bushings. I'm not sure a stock bushed W124 would achieve the same tire wear results with the same alignment.
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