Preparing a 75ts for some club sprints.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Re. the suspension, I am tempted to explore the Handling Kits offered by Alfaholics and EB Spares for the 75. Essentially thicker sway bar, and stiffer rear springs and Koni yellow dampers. From memory the EB Harvey Bailey springs lower the rear a little. I always think that the 75 sits too high at the rear. Doesn’t seem to slow Joe Falcone down though!!

Only my opinion of course, but I really don't think that is the way to go, in fact I'm very surprised that such a well-known outfit would recommend that as a first-stage upgrade.  If you want to do one thing to make your transaxle handle better at the track (and it will be far nicer on the road too), install bigger torsion bars, as well as Konis.  27 or 28mm will be more than adequate, and after that you can fine-tune things with rear springs and front and rear sway-bars.  The rear-end of a transaxle Alfa is the best thing about the car, it's the front that needs sorting out.  Concentrate on that area first.

Like I say, only my opinion, but also based on a few years of experience. 

[alanm]

Thanks for you input guys,

Okay, so I know where to get Koni yellows (though reds on the car may not be on their firmest setting  )
Where do you get torsion bars though??
Was interested in all of the comments a picture of Joe’s car attracted after Sandown sprint showing compression of the suspension at the front of the car.
People always seem to say things like... oh, a mate offered me a set, or, I found them in the back of so and so’s garage.
I have never seen them offered for sale new by a parts supplier.

Cheers,
Alan

[Beatle]

Has anyone come up with a reliable method of reducing the uptake in the 'slack' in the brake pedal before the brakes begin to be applied?  Most of the recommended mods are to give you less pedal travel between initial and maximum brake pressure (firewall flex, braided hoses, different fluid) but I'm yet to hear ideas on getting the functional portion of brake pedal travel further toward the top of the stroke.

All my transaxle Alfas have suffered the same fault to varying degrees. 

[MD]

This fixes it.

[Beatle]

That's not fixing it, that's replacing it     Great idea but wouldn't that render it non-registerable (without a booster?).

So you are saying all the slack is in the cross tube?  Therefore a LHD car wouldn't suffer the same problem?  Or is it also down to the m/c design?

[MD]

Paul,
All the extra "movement" is a cummulative thing which includes the booster. If you remove all the RHD brake conversion parts, it reduces the weight of the car by around 14.5kg as well.

What you lose in the pedal pressure assistance from the booster, you need to make up with an improved pedal leverage ratio to make the pressure acceptable. You also need to replace the pedal lever arm with one that's at least 8mm thick (or more) as the arm itself flexes. Bracing the pedal box also braces the firewall.

The remote reservoirs are not a requirement, they are installed here for other reasons not related to this issue.

The fact is, a careful choice of street pads (ones that work  best on cold brakes) will have the factory components working adequately for the job. However if one expects these same brakes to do the job on the track, well, they haven't experienced seriuously good brakes.

The question regarding the legal compliance is simply answered by a Blue Plate certification from a qualified mechanical engineer that the system is up to the job. (Goes for any modification within reason actually.)