Ride height

[alackofspeed]

I'm going to get my alignment sorted very soon, and have some Elise geometry settings I'm going to use as a starting point - cheers Craig.

What I'm wondering, is what height people have set their cars to, and whether they feel it's too low / high, and what height the experienced owners feel I should set the car at for a good road orientated compromise. I don't want to have too many problems with speed bumps, and dither down slightly rough b-roads for fear of blowing through the travel.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers,

John.

[Jon@JNRacing.co.uk]

100-120mm all around is what is ment to work with speed humps etc,

Ken Robson i believe is running 80mm Front and 100mm Rear but this a small problem with some speed humps,

Jon

[alackofspeed]

Having looked at what 120mm looks like on the car, I suspect it's too low for speed bumps / ramp angles around here!

[Jon@JNRacing.co.uk]

Is there a minimum ride height for SVA, im going to be putting mine through this time next year, but it will be 40mm rear and 30mm front, does anyone know if this will fail?

120mm is quite high but maybe 160mm would be better to clever the humps?

[craig]

140 should clear all humps as this is standard ride height for some production sports cars

[Ric H]

Mine's running about 135 under the chassis rails now, and easily clears speed bumps. I'm wondering about dropping it 10 mill or so actually.

Jon - no limits for SVA but your figures sound a bit low for practicality off the track. Are you measuring from the rails or the body? My body extends about 30mm under the chassis so I think you're going to scrape! Also at SVA remember you need to be able to drive onto the ramps and so on, and not ground when the wheels drop into the rollers. If you want it to go smoothly I suggest cranking it up a bit for the test! Mine was running at about 85mm for the test and that didn't leave much room...
Richard

[limpabit]

Marlin set mine up at 130. Which was too low for my speed humps. I changed to 10.5"/225lb springs at the front a struggle to get near 140mm ( I think real world height round my area).

[alackofspeed]

Well as my shopping-trolley daily driver chinks the exhaust (which is totally standard, and doesn’t hang badly) on some bumps around here, I’m going be controversial and start with 150mm (and probably end up with it higher for road use – I suspect the ramp coming in to work will smack the bodywork otherwise!). I’m making adjustable links (to use in lieu of shocks when setting the geometry), so adjusting the geometry when I lower it won’t be too painful (but still unpleasant!). All I need now is for my alignment gear to turn up…….

Limpabit – is your car now on the road with the phase 2 rear setup? If so, do you have any comments on the driving experience? I’ve ordered the later setup, but don’t know when it’ll be ready (well I’ve been given a date….), so for SVA I’m going with the beefed up phase 1 parts my car has on it. Hopefully my car will be on the road in January - ideally timed to iron out all the bugs, prior to the 2008 track season, I hope!

[limpabit]

Hi John.

Not on the road yet. Hoping this weekend. Just need to silicon the lights in, finish wiring up, and rear wheel alignment.

Ride height is set at present at 150mm. Will try this and see how she feels.

Hi to all
Sorry for my delay in posting this info I had a problem getting my account activated ????
Terry at Marlin ask me to post it on the forum.

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RE : Suspension settings / Ride height

(1) At 150mm ride height, measured from chassis bottom to floor.

(2) King pin inclination not separately adjustable.

(3) Track all wheels on the car should run absolutely parallel.

(4) Camber - Your choice but I would start at half degree neg on all wheels
developing towards as much as 1 1/2 deg depending on how the car feels
when you drive it.

(5) Tyre pressures - set these at no more than 16lbs all-round

Hope this helps

Mark

************************************************** ************************************

And bit of info about me I have two 5exi's one is on the road at the mo with a 1.6 K-series.
Which I bought at the end of July needing some work done to it but as your all aware it’s on going and time is the biggest problem.
I’m planning to change this one over to a K-series vvc at some point.
The other one is still in the garage in bit’s may be on the road next year with load's of luck which will be K-series vvc using a BRM donor .

I hope the Ride height / Suspension settings are of some use to you all.

Paul

[limpabit]

Hi Paul.

Thanks for the info.

Welcome to the club. 2 5EXI's to build. You sadist!

[alackofspeed]

Welcome Paul.

Are you Marlin's appointed spy ?

The details you're posted are quite interesting, and also quite pleasing as mine isn't too far from your figures - I've set mine to 30' front camber, 5' toe out at the front, 1 deg 20' rear camber, and 30' rear toe in.

I guess I'll see how I get along with that first, as I'm not too keen on adjusting it again! It's a tedious exercise!

Cheers,

John.

Thank you both for the welcome.

And in ref : to been a sadist!
What a fella to do two kid’s and the one who must not be Questioned.
One 5EXI two seat. Two 5EXI four seats.
It’s easy just tell her she’ll own one????????????

Also Limpabit I’m not far from you.
I’m just outside of lakeside must meet up sometime as the car I bought at the end of July is on the road it’s had it’s SVA etc.

Paul

[limpabit]

Hi Paul.

No problem. Give me a shout. Hoping to have mine back on the road for this weekend after my little mishap.

Another local 5EXI owner.