Track Ride Height ??????


NeilVtec

Active Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
2,241
Obviously lower is better when it comes to track (aslong as you take into account for how bumpy the course is / how soft your suspention is as bottoming out FTL )

But how much differnce would say the back being 5-10mm higher than the front make? or Vise versa? Any positive / negative effects of having the front or rear higher than the other ???

or is it generally best to go for a totally level set up??

My mate said having the back slightly lower than the front helps, which got me thinking!

any i was Just wondering, i have all camber / dampening set up how i like it, just hadnt ever really seen opinions on Height variables!

Any help would be appreciated! Cheers :nice:
 
my mate said having the front higher than the back visa versa helps get rid of understeer. dont know how true this is.

helps on forza though ha
 
The lower the car the lower the centre of gravity and higher the downforce is but you won't really benifit from the down force unless the underbody of the car is smooth and you.have presicely set up aero mods the car was not originaly designed for this perpous as it's a road car at the end of the day...

As long as you get the geo set up properly which IMO is trial and error so it takes time, you can't expect to get it right first time at the end of the day it's you preferance and your driving style that determines what set up you are to use.

So get some people on this forum to tell you what they run and how it feels etc pick the one that's best suits your driving skill/ability.

That's about all the advise I can give you I'm afraid, but good luck :nice:
 
Short of cornerweighting the car, it takes alot of playing about and testing to see what suits YOU and your driving style

Aerodynamics wise, you want to have the car raked slightly. If the car is lower at the back then the turbulant air causes drag on the underside of the car (unless you have a PROPER diffuser setup to smooth out the air flow), raked forwards shouldn't create as much drag, although with the EK9 the rear bumper acts as a big parachute, something I want to try and improve some time

Also depends alot on spring rates / how much power you are running / brake stability too

I have my car setup so it's pretty much level all round, no rake at all, also the car is pretty low as it is (top of tyres in line with arches running 15x6.5 wheels and 195/50 tyres) although to run at this height i've also fitted RCA to the front to improve the lower arms angle, this is another key thing! Looking under the car, ideally you don't want the front lower arms or rear LCAs pointing up the way as it messes up the roll centre under cornering

With the car level I feel it gives the car a very neutral feel, have run it with the back higher and it just felt a bit perched up on turn in which I personally wasn't a fan of. Also for braking stability running it level is a good idea, the brakes on my car are a bit bonkers, so with it set level this allows for decent weight transfer and dive without loosing traction and stability from the rear wheels. Only downside to running the car level is traction, although again I don't have any issues with traction even in the wet, running solid engine mounts gets the power to the wheels very well, also with the stiff spring rates and all new bushes/balljoints etc there is no play anywhere

running the car level rather than raked forward can promote a touch of understeer (depending on rest of setup of course) although you can overcome this depending on what alignment you run amongst other things such as running a wider front track (within reason), again I run 10mm spacers up front to first of all clear the brakes but I moved up from 6mm to 10mm spacers to increase the track width which feels superb on turn in

if you do a bit of reading up then you can get a good understanding of what will suit you, hope that's helped though! But as a rule of thumb.........

-raked forwards suspension for oversteer
-reverse rake for understeer (wouldn't advise this)
-flat all round for neutral

:)
 
Cheers steve thats just what i was after! Good man! :nice:

i was going to stay with mine raked slightly as the turn in is awesome and i never get any understeer,
As you said it does feel very "perched" or "poised" on turn in which i personally like, i feel i could do with lessening this a bit tho as the weight transfer seems to make it want to oversteer when going from tight right to left or vise versa

il have a mess around and let you know how it feels,

PS. As we discussed before steve i will be purchasing some RCA's in the near future :)

ive got a trackday on 1st of may so ill see how it holds up :nice:
 
Good stuff :nice:

You learn so much more about your car on track, no point making adjustments just because people say it works well on track, if you're comfortable with your car as it is then leave it!

You will soon pick up on things you can improve on after the trackday, both with your driving and the car

One of the best quotes i've heard is...

"Anyone can drive a fast car, but not everyone can drive a car fast"

Sumps it up perfect, with more experience on track you will find yourself driving smoother and faster, end of the day it's down to the boy behind the wheel!

Have fun :)
 
StevenEK9 is right, I learned alot after doing my 1st few trackdays. You can obviously never drive a car anywere near as hard on the road as you can on a track! Being able to push your car really helps you to get a feel of what your car will actually do and I was quite impressed at how fast you can go round a corner without doing a 360 after the tyres are warmed up.
Also I used to think my brakes were very good until a trackday and when you are braking from 125mph to 40-50mph in some cases in a few seconds it feels like your brakes are weak, this can be helped with uprated fluid, lines and pads and obviously 4-pots etc.

The money you can spend on getting a car ready for the track is endless really so you have to draw the line somewere but, the engine, brakes, suspension and tyres should be well looked after to be safe:nice:

I got a set of dc2 rims and put advan A032r's I had from before on ready for a trackday next month, looking forward to seeing how the car goes but it will be fun:))
 
Lower is not always better except using adjustable camper kits.
Also spring rates are important on how low you can go.
Using coilovers suspension i like keeping height same front and rear but lowering the front Left side (drivers side) and the Rear right side a lil more you must try to make weight 50/50 at front and rear axles.
You need scales to do that perfectly also keep in mind aliment set up,height at all 4 corners before and after set up also the driver must be in his seat and have a full/half tank too !! ohh and tire pressures too that may affect height also spring preload ! :nerv:
 
The behavior of a chassis in relation Track Day Car Hire to its aerodynamics is directly related to the ride height. The height the chassis is set above ground. It depends on the track – some tracks for sure you need to run a much higher ride height with high fuel.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top