Why lower?

[Victimiza]

pretty sure my ride is fe2 or SL, I certainly havent lowered it. Handles great, cant go over speed bumps too quick though. Doesnt look too bad on the 19's, wouldnt mind a little lower in the back.
My car is just low enough to look good, but get me over even the biggest speed bumps if im going slow enough

 

[S.O.S]

I could post a 200 page essay on what is wrong with this post but I can't be bothered right now. I'll keep it to a few lines. To say rock hard springs = better rear grip is 100% wrong. Like **everything** it's a compromise. The springs and dampers are supposed to control the tyre and keep it in contact with the road. To be honest - most of these ultra low (and lower) cars are a menace to itself and every other car on the road.

Reaper

I said rock hard springs = better rear grip ?. You must have read something i didn't write ?.
I actually wrote ultra low cars are all show, more the super low height is show with handling. Those cars height is just below fe2 factory sports suspensions.
I'm not sure what you seen but i can't see what your getting at, since I'm not sure what your saying has anything truly to do with my post. If it's just a rant fair enough.

One other thing about increasing dampers rate and cutting body roll. Lowering your car will give you better centre of gravity and does increase grip. Sure it might also cost you in steering or other areas, but it does increase grip.
Keeping that standard ride height whilst using larger away bars and stiffer springs might increase grip and rebound for better contact of road. But that lower height better centre of gravity can't be emulated with the standard height.
Look there is plenty more behind lowering a car then just looks. Some of the best handling cars (using commodores as an example) sit and ride best lowered around 30-35mm from standard. 2mm increase in sway bar thickness, sportier shocks, still enough room for the springs to work it handles at its best. Set of 17" rims you got yourself a very capable handling car. Adn i see nothing wrong with lowering cars, i see wrong in 60-70mm lowered.

 

[greenfoam]

If anyone can remember when HRT were the major force in supercar racing(clearly they don't lol) but they used to run VERY soft suspension, so soft that the other teams reckons they were cheating because they didn't believe you could go so fast with such soft springs, but the drive they used to get out of the corners was the reason they were winning

 

[simmyz1]

Haha yeah my 1996 VS V6 commodore is a country pack, hence higher than normal springs. And they rock I can hit speedbumps tonnes faster than a lowered car. The lowest needed is the stock sports suspension in the sport model commodores, called FE2? Not sure on the name of them.

you must be stoked to be able to go so fast in shopping centre car parks...hope for your sake i don't spot you doing going "tonnes faster" in my local shopping centre...:bang:

are we all under the assumption that lowering a car does not affect handling?..think some of you lads need to go back to school!..

 

[davey g-force]

Optimum ride height is made up of many things. Lower center of gravity is generally advantageous however reducing the potential wheel travel in the up direction from what it needs to be is counter productive. It causes the car to bounce and loose traction.

Umm, did you read my bit about how "the right balance needs to be found"?

I pretty much said the same thing but in less words! :yeah:

 

[S.O.S]

If anyone can remember when HRT were the major force in supercar racing(clearly they don't lol) but they used to run VERY soft suspension, so soft that the other teams reckons they were cheating because they didn't believe you could go so fast with such soft springs, but the drive they used to get out of the corners was the reason they were winning

I do remember the days the commodores had better rear exit speeds, the rear used to hunker down and bite hard out of corners, they didn't have great entry speeds, but exit was always better. It was like they were running the 80's irs lol.

 

[TMM]

Way I see it as more for show too, but when you want your car to sit at the same height when you fit 19's to ya VN then a pretty much gotta lower it to even sit where it was with standards.

If your ride height is different after changing your wheels, then you have the wrong profile tyre. Even if you increase your rolling diameter by 15mm (legal limit) then your car will only be raised by 7.5mm which is sweet f*** all.

 

[GetToDaChopa]

you must be stoked to be able to go so fast in shopping centre car parks...hope for your sake i don't spot you doing going "tonnes faster" in my local shopping centre...:bang:

are we all under the assumption that lowering a car does not affect handling?..think some of you lads need to go back to school!..

I don't remember learning about cars in school. Either way i don't think that he was implying that he was going over 50Km/h over speed bumps.

 

[TMM]

It's happened even when I'm driving their cars so I put it down to the soft suspension.

Doesn't sound healthy, their shocks are probably stuffed.

Also here's a test Fifth Gear did with two identical cars riding at different heights. The car riding 2 inches lower suffered significantly more damage.
YouTube - Fifth Gear - height crash test

are we all under the assumption that lowering a car does not affect handling?..think some of you lads need to go back to school!..

lowering alone helps make the center of gravity lower, therefore the car rolls less. The increased spring rates and shock absorbers are what help the handling, that's why chopping springs f**ks up a cars handling. Having suitable shock absorbers and swaybars for the springs is also important.

Remember the whole point of suspension is to keep the wheels in contact with the road. If you go too low and have to use a high spring rate to prevent bottoming out, you also introduce the tendency for the wheels to skip over uneven road surfaces and loose traction. The optimal suspension setup for a super smooth track doesn't necessarily perform optimally on bumpy public roads - for example look at cars on tarmac rally stages. The roads aren't super smooth race tracks so softer suspension with more travel gives them more grip.

 

[VYMAD]

I'm quite happy with my standard suspension in the VY. It handles really well around corners and over bumps and dips on all types of roads, (and qld roads are really bad.)

In my personal opinion the car looks great at the standard height with 225/50/16's on it. So many cars are lowered now and the rear camber does look really stupid and dangerous when the wheels are running on the inner 1 third of the tyre, particularly VT and VX. Doesn't any one else also think this? Oh yeah you can then go and spend heaps on camber kits etc and hope that makes the camber a bit better!

LOL is all I can say when I see these lowered commodores, unless of course they are racing them on a perfectly paved track somewhere with no humps, bumps and potholes, but I don't think so! :bow: