Raising Suspension On VP Commodore for Offroad Race Use.

[Rusty-Tim]

Hi I am part of a group from NZ who will flying over to Melbourne to build a full Cams Spec Offroad Race Car in June 2010. The Vehilce will basically be a VP Commodore Sedan 3.8 Auto, with required race saftey modifications, (cage, harnesses etc) and a suspension lift and big wheels with flares and locked diff.

We have a few question if anyone could possibly help us out.

We need to give the car a suspension lift. Preferably travel as well as ride height. We are talking about 4-5" of lift. How much of a lift does the Country Pack Provide? Or are there other off the shelf kits that can lift a VP that much? What sort of costs are these kits?

We also need to fit large Mud Tyres 31-33". We have found with my VN ute at home the largest size tyre that will fit under the bottom of spring holder on the MacPherson Strut is a 28" tyre. The method we are considering to get around this is to run BMW rims with centers reversed to give a very extreme rim offset to move the tyres outside of the spring on the strut. The next problem created is that the tyres now rub on the front edge of the floorpan footwell. 'Massaging' the floorpan with a sledge is not the approach we want to go down for this vehicle.

We have decided that Modifying the Lower Control Arm by cutting and shifting the balljoint forwards about 1.5-2 inches will be the best method of getting around this to still give us good steering lock without rubbing on the floorpan.

We have a few VN commys here which we will be testing various components on before we fly over but has anyone had any experience with doing these sort of modifications before? Do VPs run the same pressed steel Lower Control Arm than VNs do or are they a cast item more like the VS?

Does anyone know of any genuine commodore rims which have the inner and outer rims welded together the same as BMW rims are or are they all Spotwelded? It makes spinning centers around much easier if they have been welded together rather than spotwelded together.

And who knows what lift kits are available off the shelf?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Rusty - Tim
Black Sheep Race Team.

Check out mudbash on youtube to see the sort of cars we will be competing against and the sort of terrain we are dealing with.

YouTube - Mudbash 2009 - Promo Video

[Insomniacs Dream]

This type of racing sounds damn interesting!! Will keep checking back but i dont know of any of the tings you asked for.

[fnlow1]

Hi I am part of a group from NZ who will flying over to Melbourne to build a full Cams Spec Offroad Race Car in June 2010. The Vehilce will basically be a VP Commodore Sedan 3.8 Auto, with required race saftey modifications, (cage, harnesses etc) and a suspension lift and big wheels with flares and locked diff.

We have a few question if anyone could possibly help us out.

We need to give the car a suspension lift. Preferably travel as well as ride height. We are talking about 4-5" of lift. How much of a lift does the Country Pack Provide? ROUGHLY 20mm.

Or are there other off the shelf kits that can lift a VP that much? NONE THAT I KNOW OF What sort of costs are these kits?

We also need to fit large Mud Tyres 31-33". We have found with my VN ute at home the largest size tyre that will fit under the bottom of spring holder on the MacPherson Strut is a 28" tyre. The method we are considering to get around this is to run BMW rims with centers reversed to give a very extreme rim offset to move the tyres outside of the spring on the strut. THAT MIGHT LOOK COOL- BUT WHY NOT GET SOME MODIFIED STRUTS WITH SPRING SEATS MODIFIED TO CLEAR TYRE AND WHEEL COMBINATION? THAT WAY YOU CAN RUN A LONGER STOKE ALSO

The next problem created is that the tyres now rub on the front edge of the floorpan footwell. 'Massaging' the floorpan with a sledge is not the approach we want to go down for this vehicle. -300 OFFSET RIMS PERHAPS!?


We have decided that Modifying the Lower Control Arm by cutting and shifting the balljoint forwards about 1.5-2 inches will be the best method of getting around this to still give us good steering lock without rubbing on the floorpan. I CANT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD GO CHANGING THE GEOMETREY OF THE STEERING OVER HITTING STUFF WITH A HAMMER- DO THE RULES SAY DONT HIT CAR WITH HAMMER?

We have a few VN commys here which we will be testing various components on before we fly over but has anyone had any experience with doing these sort of modifications before? Do VPs run the same pressed steel Lower Control Arm than VNs do or are they a cast item more like the VS?

Does anyone know of any genuine commodore rims which have the inner and outer rims welded together the same as BMW rims are or are they all Spotwelded? It makes spinning centers around much easier if they have been welded together rather than spotwelded together.

And who knows what lift kits are available off the shelf?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Rusty - Tim
Black Sheep Race Team.

Check out mudbash on youtube to see the sort of cars we will be competing against and the sort of terrain we are dealing with.

YouTube - Mudbash 2009 - Promo Video

Sounds like a bit of fun. Good luck mate.