Neil Haughey
New member
ORIGINAL: Fen
I don't have Elephant bushes, but I did fit Weltmeister "mouse" (because of the squeaking) ones. Also done along with loads of other changes and didn't think I could isolate the benefit, but Neil H has the same as me and recently described positivity of the rear end - as absence of previous tendecy to rear-steer I think he described it as - which I have to say with hindsight I agree on, and that in all probability is due to improved bushing. I'd have fitted ER ones if I had known about them in time. I can only assume the TBs add to that as they must share some of the load of resiting torsional forces acting to move the arm against the beam in a plane other than allowed by rotation within the bush.
It is fun to fit them, or more correctly to remove the originals which are pretty much Vulcanised on rather than inserted. I'd recommend doing as I did; remove the rear beam, strip and remove the bushes, paint the parts, reassemble with new bushes and reindexed torsions, spot that the mounting brakets are failing and buy news ones, curse that they cost about 250 notes + vat when you order them (and are Porsche only) and then reassemble. I also replaced the fuel and brake lines with genuine at the time. I'd estimate my rear axle refurb cost in excess of a Grand to do all the "while you're in there" stuff...
Yes was the same for me, which is why with so much already invested in the car making it into a racer makes a lot of sense + I have the knowledge that because everything back aft has come apart in the past couple of years the torsion bar job should be straight forward. I will be going back to standard rear torsion bar bushes for 2 reasons; 1) most obvious is race rules 2) The squeky sounds are the bush binding, I am sure the ride quality is better when they are not making noise, when in mouse mode the rear of the car seems a bit jiggly to me.
Do they make a difference? Well lets just say that after I had them done the front of the car felt sloppy in comparison, it was a complete turn about face as we all know these cars as standard tend to feel fairly tight at the front and sloppy at the back. I fitted a front strut brace and preloaded it and this with solid top mounts balances the car out nicely, my 968 for example feels very loose/spongy in comparison and is a car that has never been ragged (on original front struts after 150K+ miles says the owner must have never gone round corners quickly). I haven't been in a standard S2 in a long time but I bet it would feel like a barge.