Rear ride height
03-19-2008, 05:30 PM
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Rear ride height
Hi team,
I have an 89 S2 and I'm redoing my suspension again. I'm putting in a paragon coil over kit with 400# springs on the front and 30mm torsions in the rear
I have the fronts done and I'm looking for opinions on how much lowering of the rear to go for.
My current setup was stock springs with koni yellows front and rear.
Car is street legal, but the only street use it sees is back and forth to the track - where it spends the remainder of its time. Track tires are
225-17's up front and 255 17's rear.
I plan to lower the front only an 1" or half inch for starters (I have relatively new factory alum a-arms), then would plan to lower the front a little more when I get some aftermarket a-arms
The rear I figure I could set up at a certain ride height with the adjustable plates set in their highes settings, so that later on, I could use those to drop the rear another 1" or so along with the front's without messin with the t-bars again.
-Mike
I have an 89 S2 and I'm redoing my suspension again. I'm putting in a paragon coil over kit with 400# springs on the front and 30mm torsions in the rear
I have the fronts done and I'm looking for opinions on how much lowering of the rear to go for.
My current setup was stock springs with koni yellows front and rear.
Car is street legal, but the only street use it sees is back and forth to the track - where it spends the remainder of its time. Track tires are
225-17's up front and 255 17's rear.
I plan to lower the front only an 1" or half inch for starters (I have relatively new factory alum a-arms), then would plan to lower the front a little more when I get some aftermarket a-arms
The rear I figure I could set up at a certain ride height with the adjustable plates set in their highes settings, so that later on, I could use those to drop the rear another 1" or so along with the front's without messin with the t-bars again.
-Mike
03-19-2008, 08:10 PM
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Sounds like a good setup, but I would go lower to 1.5" at least. Factory height is excessively high and the lower you go the more orgasmic the experience.
Some other thoughts:
- check with your local CR's to see if they have a mandate for ride height on the 944 series. Some clubs are aware of the ride height issue as it relates to control arm failure and have instituted a blanket height policy for those who do not have modified arms.
- be aware the rear ride height eccentric is there for leveling, not really for allowing on-the-fly height adjustments. When indexing, you really want the eccentrics centered so that proper corner balance can be achieved. The trick of gaining lower ride height through use of the leveling eccentric is a stop-gap fix for those who are not willing to index the torsion bars. Not that I blame them - what a PITA!
Good Luck!
Some other thoughts:
- check with your local CR's to see if they have a mandate for ride height on the 944 series. Some clubs are aware of the ride height issue as it relates to control arm failure and have instituted a blanket height policy for those who do not have modified arms.
- be aware the rear ride height eccentric is there for leveling, not really for allowing on-the-fly height adjustments. When indexing, you really want the eccentrics centered so that proper corner balance can be achieved. The trick of gaining lower ride height through use of the leveling eccentric is a stop-gap fix for those who are not willing to index the torsion bars. Not that I blame them - what a PITA!
Good Luck!
03-19-2008, 11:49 PM
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OK, along these lines, I'm also redoing my suspension, waiting for 30mm Torsions to go with the 350# springs in the front. I run 15" Fuchs for autoX and have a 3+" gap between my tires (Khumo Victoracers 225.50.15), but on the street I run 16" PD's with 245.45.16 on the rear and have only a 2" gap, yea, the suspension is waaay high. Anyway, I think dropping it 3" will look too slammed for the street, but right for autoX. Maybe a happy medium 2.5"?
What do you all think?
What do you all think?
03-20-2008, 01:22 AM
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Only governance I have is the local PCA and they have no such mandate.
I know this could invite a host of opinions, but how much could I lower it in front without too much concern? I had just planned to lower it, then keep an eye on the ball joints and replace if they show signs of wear.
No way my wife would let me spend any more dough on a-arms right now - but maybe next season or if there's another stimulus package
Since the front will be adjustable, I'm less concerned, but how much could I lower the rear before it would be too low?
I only want to do the tbars once....
p.s. - as always - the guys at Paragon have been great - they know customer service
-Mike
I know this could invite a host of opinions, but how much could I lower it in front without too much concern? I had just planned to lower it, then keep an eye on the ball joints and replace if they show signs of wear.
No way my wife would let me spend any more dough on a-arms right now - but maybe next season or if there's another stimulus package
Since the front will be adjustable, I'm less concerned, but how much could I lower the rear before it would be too low?
I only want to do the tbars once....
p.s. - as always - the guys at Paragon have been great - they know customer service
-Mike
03-20-2008, 01:23 AM
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I just redid the suspension on my S2 end of last summer with 350lbs ft and 30mm rr. I targeted my rear ride height to be so tha the door sills were parallel with the ground. Not sure what the drop ended up being from before, but I am very happy with the way the car now behaves.
Good Luck-
Good Luck-
03-20-2008, 01:26 AM
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Regarding the front ride height, I do not know what a safe margin is, but Zone 1 has a rule that the distance from the wheel center to the top of the wheel opening of the fender is a 13" min in an effort to prevent ball joint bind. That is what I set the front to before I targeted the rear height.
Cheers,
Cheers,