The wrong car....

I'm in turmoil. On Friday I had a panicked request to drop what I was doing and attend to something as a matter of absolute urgency. I did and everything was resolved. However what was evident was that I was in the wrong car as punting bellerophon down a back road I know probably too well, even at legal speeds was far too much for the standard suspension to the point of almost being a ditch finder.  For reference yesterday I drove the same road in temeraire in approximately 5 minutes less point to point without speeding and without drama. What is causing the concern is I'm not wanting 2 race cars but I wouldn't mind being able to get round a corner with some sense of not being in imminent danger. 

I'm also torn between the handling of the Gen3 vs Gen 4s. Mine are all running the same lift and tyres. I do prefer the handling of my Gen 3. Feels less twitchy and sensitive on the road whereas my LCV does feel like it dances about on the road more. It could be all in my head but for the moment I would take my Gen 3s handling over my Gen 4s. Auto vs Manual is also up for debate. I like not having to use a clutch especially in traffic and the auto box makes for a plesant drive in the gen 3. However it does take a little while to warm up from cold and lacks instant power in some cases and if you do boot it, it really revs its nuts off till it finds the right gear. I also find the brakes on the Gen3 alot more rubbish compared to my gen4s perhaps they need some attention. I find my driving style becomes more relaxed in the auto Gen3. I can push the manual Gen4s harder and it will get me up to the speed I want quicker but can become tiresome crawling along in traffic.

I'm always going to prefer the automatic as I just haven't gelled with the gen4 gearbox. Normally I can just potter around and be done with it but every so often it just let's itself down. Interesting that on identical suspension it is still not as composed as the gen3.

Just following stream of consciousness but is there any commonality between dampers going from gen3 forward to the 4? Thinking that if there is then I could put the koni onto bellerophon and then get some really gucci dampers or even the tein kit for temeraire.

I always felt that the Gen 4 has a much inferior ride to my old Gen 3, but everyone was saying how much "better" the Gen 4 was so I just assumed that it was in my head and because the Gen 4 had 20 year newer springs, dampers & bushes than the Gen 3, even though I have to sit on an eggshell foam cushion in the Gen 4 to isolate me a bit from the shocks!



 

My Gen.4 was standard when I hit a pothole that threw the car across the road in one violent manoeuvre. It was not speed as I had only just exited a car park.
I put it down to the shocks being incapable of traversing an English pothole. The remedy I found was to change the shocks ( and springs ). Now I can cruise through the best that our government can force us to drive on in the knowledge that our navy has 2 formidably ugly aircraft carriers to play with, all courtesy of the money we pay out for car taxes etc.

Roger