can anyone do me a favour?

[kev s3]

could someone who has a standard suspention set up give me an idea how high their car sits off the road?
i've managed to lose the bit of paper i had with this info and was needing this as a sort of benchmark to set the car up.could you measure say the distance between the top of the rear wheel and the wheel arch and say how high the bottom edge of the bonnet air intake sits.thanks

[GreenV8S]

The bodies vary so much you can't use them to measure ride height. You need to measure from the chassis or suspension. As standard, the dampers are 320mm between centers at the front and 325mm at the rear.

Cheers,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

[kev s3]

thanks peter

[keithyboy]

Peter, what exactly do you mean between centres?

[kev s3]

i took it to mean from one fixing to the other, the effective length of the shock when the weight of the car is on them. hope this is right.

[GreenV8S]

keithyboy said:

Peter, what exactly do you mean between centres?

Distance between the top and bottom damper mounting bolts.

[peter m]

Are these dimensions correct for all S's ?
Usefull to know as I am playing with the suspension to raise it so I can get over speed bumps.

[Rower]

peter m said:

Are these dimensions correct for all S's ? Usefull to know as I am playing with the suspension to raise it so I can get over speed bumps.

No S's are the same !

[shpub]

peter m said:

Are these dimensions correct for all S's ? Usefull to know as I am playing with the suspension to raise it so I can get over speed bumps.

Those dimensions are correct for those cars that have that size shock absorber but not for those cars that don't. In other words.... don't assume it's right!

[peter m]

OK then, anyone know what the dimensions should be for an S2, fitted with the original Koni shocks (not height adjustable)?

[lordb]

kev s3 said:

could someone who has a standard suspention set up give me an idea how high their car sits off the road?

I was under the impression that minimum ground clearance (below the rear exhaust) should be 5" (or at least was when leaving the factory). I've got an s1.5 (2.9) and at the mo, its about 4"........standard factory suspension is still in place (only done 40k miles) and thats with orginal wolf race wheels on 205/60's and a nearly full tank of fuel.....if that helps
I get alot of grounding when the heavy boot gets to work tho!!

[peter m]

My S2 has 80mm under the exhaust (just over 3") under the main silencer box. The car is still on the original suspension and springs (only done 28k). I am in the process of raising this due to grounding out, hence my interest in these measurements. The car has OZ 8 spoke alloys on 205/60 tyres.

Surely if the ride height is measured between the centres of the shock strut mountings, this should be valid regardless of the type of shocks/springs fitted, as it is only dependant on suspension geometry.

[kev s3]

think i'll just keep raising it until it stops scraping the exhaust off things trial and error??

[Rozza!!!]

Sounds like a good plan!

Roy.