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RTS Gemini --(Auto)

 
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hod rodder


Joined: 04 Oct 2001
Posts: 15499

PostPosted: Tue Oct 03, 2000 9:24 pm    Post subject: RTS Gemini --(Auto) Reply with quote

What are the differences between non RTS and RTS geminis? Is it easy to swap the suspension from a RTS gem into an older one?
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hod rodder


Joined: 04 Oct 2001
Posts: 15499

PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2000 3:21 am    Post subject: Re: RTS Gemini --(Paul Clausen) Reply with quote

Radial tuned suspension is a term that Holden's marketing people came up with to advertise that Holden had put more effort into engineering proper handling into their cars from around 1977. Up until this time the suspension part of holden's engineering department was run by an american (cant remember his name) who wanted the suspension he designed to be more biased to the American (soft ride/shit handling/understeer like hell) ideal. This guy was replaced at some time around 1977 by a German engineer (cant rmember his name either but his nickname was "Handlingberger") He wanted the cars to handle like euro sedans. From his arrival onwards all holdens had better springs and shockers, front and rear swaybars, decent camber/castor (compared with before anyway)and quite possibly (not sure) more significant geometry changes. They handled very differently to older holdens, motoriing journos loved them. I know that with the big holdens (kingswood etc) they also had a mcpherson strut type radius rod on the lower wishbone to prevent it from flexing back and forth as much.
I dont know if the difference in geminis is any more than just the springs, shocks and swaybars, which you'd upgrade anyway if you wanted serious handling.
It would be good to find some decent tech info on the different models and look at their castor angles etc.
BTW, whiteline make some gizmos for adjusting camber and castor for geminis apparently.
Note that TD's and later had front and rear bars standard, TC's only had a front one, and TX's have none at all, but the mounting points are there for a front one.
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hod rodder


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2000 3:43 am    Post subject: The man we owe --(Adam Gibson) Reply with quote

If it were not for the actions of Peter Hanenberger we would definitely be driving cars in australia which are marshmallows on wheels (see also: american cars). When he took the job of chief engineer at holden in 1976 he quickly climbed the ranks with his radical new approach to suspension design. Borrowing a pontiac catchphrase "radial tuned suspension" which to pontiac was nothing more than fitting radial tyres and sticking on a badge, Hanenberger redesigned the wallowing, soft and vague holden suspension geometry.

He was that quick in a HZ holden around phillip island that he began to complain about the lack of sump baffling to control oil surge.

Interestingly after returning to Opel to design the front wheel drive Kadett in 82 he came back to holden in June 1st 1999 as managing director.
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hod rodder


Joined: 04 Oct 2001
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2000 3:55 am    Post subject: Re: The man we owe --(Paul Clausen) Reply with quote

So Adam, do you know what the differences are between RTS and non-RTS geminis other than springs, shocks, bars?
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hod rodder


Joined: 04 Oct 2001
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2000 4:02 am    Post subject: Re: The man we owe --(Adam Gibson) Reply with quote

In short, no.

I will ring dave...

Different control arms, therefore different geometry and the swaybars. Not entirely sure.
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