New replacement units for the MGF hydragas spheres.

bryan young wrote:

bryan young wrote:

Tsleight wrote: Anybody tried these yet???

Yes, a set was fitted to Roger Parkers (MGOC) MGF a few months ago and was featured in their mag and MG Enthusiast , i think! ~ very little feedback at the moment, initial improvement was good. Will see if i can get some information from Roger. :thumbsup:

The article is five pages and was in the August 2011 edition of MG Enthusiast, too large to post here, if you can give me an email address i will scan as a pdf and send. Will also contact Roger for an update on results. :thumbsup:

I have received a reply from Roger Parker (MGOC) after 6000 miles of use with the SUPLEX system. his comments are:-
I now have over 6000 miles now and have experience of two specification of dampers, the originals which is covered by the MGE feature, and most of the miles have been covered with that specification. I described that as the ‘comfort spec’ to ensure that no one is under any illusion that the new system is any way following the path of the Trophy 160 SE MGF or the TF with the coil spring connection previously associated with sports suspension. In simple terms the car probably rides very slightly better but also very slightly different and I feel this is due more to a change in operating characteristics. What I mean by this is that the damping process is different to the Hydragas equipped MGF (and steel sprung TF) and this is related to the construction of the MGF body and suspension configuration.

Essentially this is where the Hydragas displacer provides a degree of internal damping, especially on the bounce (compression) side of upwards wheel and suspension movement, leaving the external dampers to add little effective damping on the bounce, but roles are reversed on the rebound when the external damper does so much more damping. Just take even a new standard MGF damper and you will find extending it will take some effort, but compressing it leads you to think the damper is shot.

That internal displacer damping action contains the energy of damping within the subframe and less in the cars body through the external dampers, and the problem is that you can’t transfer all this strong bounce damping action of the standard MGF displacer into the external damper, as the damper mounting points in the cars body are not strong enough to live with this long term without some body damage through distortion of cracking of the body plates around the damper mountings. You are probably aware of the need for competition MGFs that do take on stronger damping also have to weld reinforcing plates to the areas around the damper mountings. Of course when TF came along all the damping forces were contained within the subframes modified tower and coil over damper design of suspension, and why they have no problem.

Suplex is not looking to create an uprated spec suspension, but a sound long term reliable and stable suspension system to ensure the long term survival of the MGF. To balance the conflicting demands of the damping and forces involved means this restriction leads to a compromise with more damping action on the bounce than you have with standard MGF dampers, but not as strong as the cumulative effects of the displacers and standard dampers. On the rebound however the damping action in the Suplex dampers is much stronger and the suspensions overall operation is well controlled as a result. The feel that comes through is slightly different to a normal MGF and some will notice this more than others, but if you do it is not a major aspect and you do get used to it.

More recently I have been trialling alternative dampers, which have the same valving for the bounce settings, again because of the body issues I previously mentioned, but the ability to alter the rebound valving from the setting of the standard Suplex dampers to stiffer settings. This does allow some movement to sharpen the suspension movement up but it is important to note that it doesn’t allow the creation of a Trophy specification. Personally I prefer the slightly taughter settings that this provides although the range of adjustment easily allows the stiffness on the rebound to be well OTT and that introduces some negative characteristics beyond just a harder ride.

At this time I can’t say whether Suplex will pursue the alternative spec damper route as they have had some supplier difficulties causing delays in getting the basic systems out into customer hands, but I am hopeful that alternative dampers can be made available in a reasonable time as I feel it will help satisfy those with a demand for more sporting characteristics. However, these would obviously be a stand alone extra cost item for those with the base kits and quite whether it would appear as a separate kit I simply can’t speculate at this time. Suplex are a forward thinking company with great engineering skills and experience in the suspension field and are actually very familiar and experienced with many MG suspension systems, so I remain hopeful that if a business case can be made for future developments that they will be followed.

Regards
Rog

I think this gives a good update on this system :yesnod:

Did we ever establish what ride height the Suplex kit gives?

David Aiketgate wrote: Did we ever establish what ride height the Suplex kit gives?

Yes, the height is 358mm FRONT and 353mm Rear ~ the units are adjustable to make up for the errors in the original subframe mountings! Each corner can be adjusted now, wheras before it was each side only because the Hydragas spheres were linked :rant:

That was an excellent review by Roger.
It is nice to finally see some concrete info on the Suplex system.

Rich in Vancouver wrote: That was an excellent review by Roger.
It is nice to finally see some concrete info on the Suplex system.

Roger always writes a good comprehensive report about all things MG. You may not be aware that it was his fitting of the Rover V8 engine into his MGB that influenced BL (or whatever it was called at the time) to produce the V8 MGB themselves, followed by Ken Costello doing his V8 conversions :thumbsup: