Choosing a ride height?

[atomicjoe23]

For those of you who have made ground-up Pro-Touring machines and have gone with custom ride heights. . .what ride height did you go with and have you had any problems with it. . .I've been watching Lou Santiago and Musclecar TV build a lot of the Pro-Touring/road-racing style musclecars and he sets every car at 5 inches of ride height. . .what do you guys think of this ride? My '67 Firebird will be my first project so I don't have any personal experience to go with on this and I'd like to hear some other's personal experience with the ride heights that they have chosen. . .obviously I would like a low ride height, but I don't want to drag on every single obstacle and I don't want particularly want to have to drive a slalom to negotiate a speed bump. . .thanks in advance guys.

[pav8427]

Keep your eye out for that one rig you see that gets to you.
If it sits right for you,and has similar equiptment that you plan to run, bring STANELY over and measure some key points.
That'll give you a good start.

[atomicjoe23]

Thanks for the suggestion pav8427. . .guess I'll be bringing a tape measure, notepad and pen with me in addition to the camera to the GoodGuys show this weekend at DelMar. . .and hoping that people are willing to let me take some measurements under the car as well. . .I've been seeing people use the front crossmember as the limiting factor for ride height (i.e. the bottom of the front crossmember is 5 inches from the ground).

[DarkoNova]

5" sounds pretty good if you want to be able to go over bumps quickly and without worry. I think I had 3.5-4" with my 16" wheels up front and I could go over steep driveway inclines and speedbumps no problem. The only problems I had were when I had one or two other people in the car with me.

Now with my 14" wheels I think I have just a hair over 3" at the engine crossmember, and I have to go at a wide, sweeping angle over the driveway/hill thing into my work's parking lot, other wise I scrape pretty badly. I also can't go over the speedbumps in the parking lot.

People complemented my car when I had the 16" wheels on, and still do with the 14's. You can have 5" of clearance and still have a bitchin stance, it just depends on your springs, wheels, and body mounts.

Matt

[atomicjoe23]

Thanks DarkoNova. . .I was looking at 5" at the engine crossmember with 17" wheels/tires. . .good to hear that 5" will be able to go over speedbumps and up relatively steep inclines (i.e. driveways) without a problem. . .I have really liked the stances of the cars that Lou has been building on MusclecarTV (the road-racing fastback Mustang, the pro-touring Mustang, and the Pro-Touring style Challenger). . .I was afraid that 5" might be a little on the low side because I have never had any numbers to compare with. . .I know that stance that I like. . .I just haven't ever taken a measurement (or asked about the ride height until now. . .guess I just didn't even think about it).

Thanks again guys!!!

[GBodyGMachine]

The lowest part of my car will be the headers. I will have 3 Inches below them. Yea, its low. But it is not a daily driver. If I have wo go slow over speed bumps so what. I came up with this ride height by getting as many lowering parts on my car as possible without sacraficing handling. My Spindles, Springs, and Ball Joints were all choosen to help me put it in the weeds.

Jeff