What is your V8S ground clearance?

[V8S]

Hi chaps!

For a long time now I've had problems with exhaust ground clearance. Often I'd shower sparks out the back on bumps as the back of the car sat down, and even sometimes on very hard acceleration.

I've had tired shocks and springs replaced with Gaz Gold Pros, rear brackets played with to eek out a couple of centimetres, and recently a whole new stainless exhaust designed from the start to be as high as possible with the back box now in the middle of the car as opposed to just in front of the rear wheels.

It still scrapes over even modest speed bumps - the smooth tarmac ones, not even the rubber or 'pyramid' ones. This is probably down to the box being moved so it now doesn't have the benefit of the tyres going over the bump to raise it up but I'm interested in why my V8S seems to suffer clearance issues when no one else seems to report it.

I wondered if those with V8Ss could measure a couple of things for me:

• height from top of rear wheel arch to ground
• ditto for front wheel arch
• lowest point on exhaust to ground

Where is your back box?


Cheers,

Graham

[Rower]

What profile size tyres are you running on ? I changed my 55s to 60's on my S3 and have practically eliminated grounding.

Rower

[V8S]

55 I believe.

Doesn't changing the profile need a speedo change? Do you need to change the wheels?

[Chuggaboom]

Yes maybe but percentage wise its less than the error in the speedo itself, so don't bother.

I thought it was widely known that V8S's actually have better ground clearance than all the V6 versions....there were many complaints to dealers apparently.

Yours appears to be the exception Graham....sounds like somebody has been tinkering with the ride height perhaps ??? Were the shocks std when you got the car ?

[Barkychoc]

I think 60 profile tyres are as per the original spec aren't they?
I had exactly the same problem when the V8S was last on the road - the back end seemed to start wagging up and down until you grounded on the road - particularly bad on bumpy country roads where it would bounce up and down unti it made a horrendous bang.
I turned the damping up - it was under damped and it stopped.

In terms of ride height use the height to the corners of the outriggers - the wheelarch method is inaccurate as it depends how many rubber spacers are between your chassis and body and the body can vary anyway.

I think its 170mm corner of outrigger to the ground but honestly can't remember accurately.

[Ragtop]

V8S said:

I've had tired shocks and springs replaced with Gaz Gold Pros, rear brackets played with to eek out a couple of centimetres, and recently a whole new stainless exhaust designed from the start to be as high as possible with the back box now in the middle of the car as opposed to just in front of the rear wheels.

As you suspected, this may have aggrevated your problems. You refer to 'back box' several times, but normally there is only one box - have you had a system with more than one?

Here's a pic of mine with a recently fitted JP exhaust system (zoom in for detail).



The lowest part of the system on mine is the pipe leading into the box, which has a minimum clearance of 4.5inches. For speed tables and bumps the clearance midway between front and rear wheels is critical. I've never had a problem with mine. The overhang behind the rear wheels is also a potential problem over bumps and under hard acceleration - again not normally a problem with mine, but I've seem other V8Ss with tailpipes MUCH lower than mine. I DID ground out the rear end occasionally after fitting Gaz suspension, but this was cured with stiffer springs. My ride height to the wheelarches is 675mm F and 690mm R.

Hope this helps. PM me for a phone number if you want to chat.

Graham

[V8S]

Thanks chaps. Car is going back to garage tomorrow to have ride height checked and adjusted, and I might stiffen the dampers a click or two. The fronts need stiffening anyway.

[tozerman]

Not wanting to hijack this thread but my V6 only has 31/4" to 31/2" clearance from under the silencer to the ground, and my car rides quite high really, outrigger corners to ground measurements are front = 175mm and rear = 185mm, it doeas give me a headache on speed bumps and my driveway, every time I enter or leave the drive the exhaust scrapes the ground, the exhaust is as high up as I can get it so I'm stuck with things as they are really.

Cheers.....Tony..