Sloping drive, low car -help please

[ziggy328]

Some help please.

I'm seriously contemplating changing from my Evora to an Exige.

My Evora, when level, has 142mm of ground clearance. Coming out of the garage up the drive clearance drops to 57mm. So I have lost 85mm of clearance.

When I measured the height of the splitter on the Exige I measured 110mm to the carbon and 80mm to the base of the rubber strip that's bonded to the splitter.

So unless I have messed this up, my calculation would be 80mm minus 85mm of lost clearance = (-5mm into the ground)

I'm hoping that 5mm will not be an issue, but differences in tyres, wheelbase etc you never know. The dealer is bringing the car over this week to see how we get on.

I've been looking at race ramps to see how I could get the car in the garage just in case.

Based on my wonderful diagram, how would you solution this?

[smokey mow]

Is the front overhang (ie the distance from the centreline of the front wheels to the lip of the splitter) the same on the Evora as the Exige? If it’s not then your maths would be wrong.

[ziggy328]

I don’t know tbh. Assuming it’s not in a bad way could this be fixed with race ramps?

[dunc69]

I guess you won’t know for sure until you try…..

[ziggy328]

True and we are going to. But. Could the problem be rectified with ramps planks mats. Something else if not?

[kambites]

Something as simple as laying a plank of wood on the garage floor up against where the slope starts would do.

Google implies the Exige has a ~20cm shorter overhang than the Evora, so it may well not foul anyway.

Edited by kambites on Monday 8th July 22:29

[ziggy328]

Would it? I thought that would have tipped the nose further down?

[ziggy328]

Thank you kanbites. So the overhang reduction is enough to negate the 63mm in ride height to the rubber?

[skyebear]

ziggy328 said:

Some help please.

I'm seriously contemplating changing from my Evora to an Exige.

My Evora, when level, has 142mm of ground clearance. Coming out of the garage up the drive clearance drops to 57mm. So I have lost 85mm of clearance.

When I measured the height of the splitter on the Exige I measured 110mm to the carbon and 80mm to the base of the rubber strip that's bonded to the splitter.

So unless I have messed this up, my calculation would be 80mm minus 85mm of lost clearance = (-5mm into the ground)

I'm hoping that 5mm will not be an issue, but differences in tyres, wheelbase etc you never know. The dealer is bringing the car over this week to see how we get on.

I've been looking at race ramps to see how I could get the car in the garage just in case.

Based on my wonderful diagram, how would you solution this?

If you Google "Lotus Exige approach angle" it should take you to some discussions and solutions.

https://www.lotustalk.com/threads/angle-of-approac...

Edited by skyebear on Monday 8th July 23:33

[ziggy328]

I don’t have an angle. It’s straight back.

[samoht]

The term Approach Angle refers to the steepest slope you can drive that specific car onto from a flat surface, which is what you need to know here.

Its determined by the ratio of splitter height to front overhang length.

[kambites]

ziggy328 said:

Thank you kanbites. So the overhang reduction is enough to negate the 63mm in ride height to the rubber?

I don't know but if you calculated that it would foul by 5mm if it was the same length as the Evora, then if the Exige has a 20% shorter overhang, it's going to have 20% more clearance than you calculated.

Also worth noting that the whole point of that rubber trim is to hit things, and it WILL hit things like sped bumps anyway (my Elise does and I'm running more clearance than you state to the carbon, let alone the rubber).

[kambites]

ziggy328 said:

I don’t have an angle. It’s straight back.

The angle between the two planes you want to drive on - in this case the difference between the (flat) garage floor and the (sloping) drive.

[vikingaero]

The problem here is that you only have one angle transitioning from your drive to the garage. In an ideal world you would us two angles to minimise the effects of the slope (much like this pic but in reverse):

[brillomaster]

you'd be fine, a bit of 20mm plywood, cut to size and doubled up to 40mm if applicable.

as you're leaving the garage, just before the front splitter scrapes on the drive, you need to be driving onto the first bit of ply for the extra 20mm ground clearance.

[Busa mav]

We have a sloping drive and an S2000, we need to turn the car so that the splitter comes down more at an angle to avoid scraping . We also need to drive on at an angle.
Luckily our 911 has front axle lift and isn’t ever a problem .

[MustangGT]

I once had a driveway about 100m long that required me to reverse my F348 down, otherwise all sorts of fouling issues.

[Sway]

vikingaero said:

The problem here is that you only have one angle transitioning from your drive to the garage. In an ideal world you would us two angles to minimise the effects of the slope (much like this pic but in reverse):

This. And a bit of ply bridging the angle between road and drive will create that.

[aeropilot]

ziggy328 said:

I don’t have an angle. It’s straight back.

[spikeyhead]

Two four foot lengths of scaffold plank and you'll be fine