We now have delivery of our new to us 2008 Copen, 1.3. This will be my wife's day car, she only does 2000 a year, and will also be on our trailer behind the motor home when off to sunny climes. She has criticised the suspension as being too hard and as we will not be attempting to qualify for F1, I am wondering about options to soften it a bit to limit the effect of road bumps etc? Michael
I looked into doing this not long after buying my car. I'd happily sacrifice a bit of speed in the bends to have a softer ride, the roads up here are in a terrible state. The only thing I found was to put 14" wheels on the car and higher profile tyres which I didn't fancy. Actually after a time you get used to the harsh ride and it becomes less of a problem. I've just had fitted two new front tyres, Potenza's, and the ride is definitely a bit softer. The previous Potenza's that were on were down to about 2mm so the extra tread on the new tyres must be softening the ride.
Thanks, we have been out a few times now and I think my wife is exaggerating and appears to be getting happier.However is anyone else has a contribution on suspension adjustment I would be pleased to hear about it?
Look on the bright side - as someone on here said earlier, you get a free shiatsu massage every trip!
I'm not bothered by the ride quality so much as I am concerned about the car shaking itself to pieces. We have roads made from concrete slabs in our area of Sydney and some of the joins are atrocious.
I guess they will only make it harder. Talk to a firm like this http://www.coilsprings.co.uk/ They will make you softer rate springs.
Has anyone experimented with putting in softer springs? How about revalving or replacing shocks? I talked to my suspension guy today and we are going to pull springs and shocks out to do some measuring so we can try to soften it up a bit. He seems to think the shock revalve might be all it needs to make it more suitable for Aussie roads. I'm hoping we can find some off the shelf adjustable shocks for the rear. I've had some Koni's on a previous car that worked very well.
There is a softer suspension kit from Showa - Showa Tuning Comfort. http://showa-tuning.com/copen.html I tried to order a Showa kit through Jesse Streeter a couple years back with no success. I was even OK to try the Showa Sport. I'm currently running stock dampers with Take Off springs. Ride height is great but the original dampers aren't up to it on the atrocious Sydney roads. I too am more concerned with long term damage to the chassis as I intend to keep the Copen for as long as possible.
I assume the Take off springs are a softer rate than standard? 28n/mm front 13n/mm rear Does anyone know what the standard Spring rate is? My gut feeling is that the dampers are the problem too.
Just adapt to the hard ride. My wife cried out with pain while driving over the Pass of Cattle to Applecross. Every driver should try it! Problem was my wife had falling before the holiday and had a broken rib. NOT KNOWN AT THE TIME. TOUGH GIRL AND I LOVE HER! This was discovered on our return from Scotland via x-ray. Car is great and is a friendly car to all the people we meet on our journey's love it. Thinking of removing all badges on the car to keep it a mystery. We have only three problems over the last 6 years of ownership. Batteries and early in ownership thin paint on bonnet and corroding brake discs. All were sorted under the 5 year warranty. Now going to fit after market discs in the spring due to once again corrosion on the inner side As far as towing on a trailer. Wise! I now believe that A frames now are illegal and we thought of getting the car plus our sons motorhome fitted with both when we bought the Copen new in 2009 . Good job we did not. Bye the way we are both over 73 years old. Try Castellane in south of France above Grasse the Verdon Gorges are fantastic.
