Ride Height

[Crestronwizard]

What is the lowest ride height recommended on the street? I am thinking of going 5" and just wondered what others thought.

[Bryce]

thats about right!

[THE TECH]

5" what? From the frame?

[SR71]

nahhhh....there was a mountain dew can laying on it's side in the middle of my street a couple of days ago. I straddled it with the 69, but the scattershield still hit it.....get the picture? :)

[Crestronwizard]

5" what? From the frame?

Yes

[bg5512]

My 73 is at about 4.5" and it has some issues over speed bumps. I would leave it at 5"

[johnny68]

i got a funny true story no names so i will protect the idiot but I,ME had a toyota truck hey i was 19 back in 89-90 that when 2 guys were in the cab and one in the bed it would take out reflectors in the road with no bags(they are for groceries)
john

[Norm Peterson]

Couple of practical considerations . . .

It's nice to be able to get the jack in place if you have one flat.

It's really nice to not be scraping anything if you have two flats (preferably any two, but at least a same-side pair). Some places and sanctioning bodies may actually require some version of this.


Edit and FWIW, I've had a car with an aftermarket front sta-bar that would just barely clear the skinny Coors cans but all of the Bud/Coke/etc. ones were dead targets. Eventually I got tired of repairing the bar's chassis brackets or fabbing up new ones.


Norm

[Hotchkis]

Crestonwizard,
People usually gauge ground clearance by the distance between the asphalt and the lowest part of the car, which is typically the headers. If you lower your car too much, you can put your front suspension in a portion of the suspension travel arc that is not optimum. Every car is different depending on the make and model and what modifications you’ve made to the suspension. Many people sacrifice the optimum suspension geometry for ultra-low stance.

Here’s a 69 Camaro with a 3” front and rear drop using Hotchkis springs.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

We see many cars on the road with 3” of ground clearance, which really isn’t much clearance. Having 5” of clearance is much more streetable. What kind of car are you working on?

[Derek69SS]

I have put over 25000 miles on my car with only 3-1/2" to the lowest parts (front crossmember, exhaust, and trans pan were all at the same height). I've only scraped twice, and neither time was a big deal.

[monteboy84]

I have put over 25000 miles on my car with only 3-1/2" to the lowest parts (front crossmember, exhaust, and trans pan were all at the same height). I've only scraped twice, and neither time was a big deal.

That's a good point, because ride height is really subjective based one where you live and what the roads are like. I was talking to Marc Savitske about this a week or so ago, when they road-race in Mexico, 5" is a minimum, any less than that and the rough roads will tear your car apart. Just something to think about, but if all the roads in your area are perfect, a lower ride height than 5" might be acceptable.

-matt

[Derek69SS]

We're both in MN, when is the last time you saw a "perfect" road? :lol:

[JEFFTATE]

My Camaro is 3.5" to the header flange .
I have scraped just a little , every once in a while , on speed bumps .
And I have scraped when I dropped a tire off into a hole , on the shoulder of the road , in a corner ..

[monteboy84]

We're both in MN, when is the last time you saw a "perfect" road? :lol:

Haha I'm not sure exactly, but I'm pretty sure I was out-of-state at the time :cheers: My car will be at 5" ride height :smoke:

-matt

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Just saw this - apparently the vette guys deal w this all the time...

http://www.customcorvetteaccessories.com/thefattdaddy.html

[1red68]

I agree with the MN boys above.
It all depends where you live and your roads. Right now i have a frost heave down the road that if I'm going over 45 mph will take out the headers on my Mustang (7". i know the car sits to high). she comes down HARD.
when i do drop the car it Will only be 2" as any lower would make it really hard for me to daily drive it.
now if it was a track only car, thats a different story.

[rustomatic]

If headers are your measure of acceptable ride height, they suck. I went through this issue for months, going from four-tubes to tri-Ys. Then, I had the pipes welded to the collectors on the tri-Ys (removed flanges), so the stupid flanges wouldn't scrape on lovely CA freeway messes under heavy suspension compression. Then, I said headers are just too stupid to deal with on a daily basis. Cast iron manifolds rule (or shorty headers, if you can make them fit)... Somebody needs to do a thread on how many pointless pains are caused by headers...

[droptop73]

X2 on the manifolds. IMO there is not enough gain when running full exhaust to justify the butt pains involved with running headers.

[63Duece]

not here to offend anyone but IMO..........
"if u aint scraping, u aint sh*t!"
thats my modo & im sticking to it....

[shmoov69]

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?75792-channeling-in-the-subframe-first-gen-camaro

Here is a little discussion on ride height also

[Norm Peterson]

not here to offend anyone but IMO..........
"if u aint scraping, u aint sh*t!"
thats my modo & im sticking to it....
Not offended in the least.

But I think when the height of the little space under the sills gets below some percentage of its length that the overall appearance has begun to get distorted, and the ratio of things like body side height to clearance doesn't look quite right. Sectioning and chopping the car can help, to a point.

I think a car has to at least look like it could function as transportation and not just exist as static sculpture (or a non-driveable concept car, if done by an OE).


Norm

[monteboy84]

not here to offend anyone but IMO..........
"if u aint scraping, u aint sh*t!"
thats my modo & im sticking to it....

Right, because being as low as the car can possibly be is priority #1 with a Pro-Touring car....

-matt

[Procharmo]

Right, because being as low as the car can possibly be is priority #1 with a Pro-Touring car....

-matt

X2 ........ I just love low for both looks and centre of gravity........But after the first test drive I'm not going any lower!!!
2 1/2" Caltracs to tarmac!!!!!!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif