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Having found and refinished original wheels from Sebring race meeting requiring minor suspension retune for 1964 MkIV-T

What kind of things will you be doing to improve the handling? I am working on mine as well.

Hi Frank,

By way of history our '64 MKIV-T was restored before we bought it - https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-elva-courier-mk4-t/ . Much of the work was well done. Aesthetically very well done, mechanically not so good. Car had broken vertical link and some rube Goldberg shimming of suspension to get alignment "sort of" right. We sourced new front suspension parts and had those installed and both front and rear dialed in by a friend who does suspension work for a number of racing teams including the Audi GTP endurance team. The car then could be aligned and corner weighted and cross weighted correctly but when I changed to the period magnesium wheels... the difference in offset even with correct tires introduced a bit of tire rub on the rear.

The fix now done involved change in spring rate and shock valving. The car as we bought it had 100#/inch springs and had been installed with incorrect washers that did not allow correct centering. We changed to 200#/inch and reset compression and rebound valving in shocks and have had correct spacers / washers so that the springs could be centered correctly.

I just drove the car with most of the changes in place and while the soft rear springs it had before seemed good for mechanical grip, the new springs and setup solve the rub without modifying body work and also give a more stable feeling in the rear... not unexpected.

I cannot say I have any prescriptive formula given how different these cars can be example to example but they do respond normally (without a lot of surprises) to good setup... as judged by seat of pants.

Good luck.

p.s. can provide contact information for the suspension mechanic we use... old, racer whole life, tunes well enough that even factory car teams sometimes prefer his knowledge to their own engineering. IYKYK.

Thanks Michael! Your car is a beauty! Mines on the way for upholstery now, and since we lowered the front with Spitfire springs and shocks it really needs an alignment. Then I will know where I am!

You cannot go wrong with Spitfire / GT6 parts from the right period on front, the case with E1158 anyway.

Be interested what spring rate you found best for your car.

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Did test drive our car after spring and shock work, found error with the shock location previous owner had assembled and have custom pieces being machined to improve that... maybe an idiosyncrasy of the IRS setup.

Again, car does respond to common sense type changes.

Cheers, Mike