Increasing Tamora ground clerance (a little)

[Sevenman]

My Tamora has adjustable suspension (Gaz Gold Pro) and is set to the TVR factory settings for the Tamora (by Track V Road).

This gives me about 100mm of ground clearance at the front splitter, which is quite low, although it goes over all the speed bumps I have tried (but I have avoided some...)



I will be getting new tyres in spring, and am considering getting a slight raise to the suspension, towards 120mm clearance, at the same time to make it more like this.

http://www.mez.co.uk/dcam/DSCF1138.JPG

The reasons for this are:
- To be able to fit 225/40 fronts rather than 225/35 by having 1cm more room in the arch (10mm lift, 10mm increase in tyre radius) - gives more tyre choice, including R1R
- To be better able to get on/off ferries or steeper driveways etc. encountered in normal driving.

It would be a shame if the only way I could get to the continent was on the tunnel. Most of the ferries I have been on seem like 100mm of ground clearance would cause problems.

Rather than just raising the height of the suspension, which would change the camber slightly, I would want it to be part of a full geo setup, possibly including corner weighting. A lot of people I know with a range of performance cars have used these chaps with good fesults, http://www.centergravity.co.uk/, and I was impressed at a free afternoon they gave for my previous car club on the work they did.

If properly set, I can't see that the change in height is going to make a significant difference to the capabilities of the car, but I welcome people's opinions on:
- Whether it would be useful, or does everybody else get by just fine with 100mm, including different ferry companies?
- Whether it would do anything bad to the handling?
- Anything else I haven't thought of.

[Getsis]

Mines set to around 110mm and I'm on and off ferries all the time and only once the ferry people uses wooden planks to be on the safe side that the car would go on. It was an unusual high tide that day.

Handling is affected slightly above 100 mph

[Mattt]

Wouldn't 225/35 to 225/40 give a 1.125cm increase in wall thickness, i.e. 2.25cm overall height increase in tyre?

[Sevenman]

Mattt said:

Wouldn't 225/35 to 225/40 give a 1.125cm increase in wall thickness, i.e. 2.25cm overall height increase in tyre?

That agrees with my calculations. So just changing the tyre size would raise the hubs, and hence the front clearance from 100 to 112 mm.

However, at the top of the wheel, the wheel arch would need to accommodate an extra 1.125cm of tyre. Previous forum posts indicate that switching from 225/35 to 225/40 can cause rubbing since the arch is already close.

Hence raising the the spring seats by a further 10mm might give the required clearance, and increase the front ride height to 122mm - ready to take on the Land Rovers.

[Martin B Tam]

I recently changed to 225/40s (R1Rs) on my Tam but haven't had the chance to really test yet

I did change to SP12s at the same time, I found Spiders went out of true so quickly and an 8.5" rim is quite wide for a 225 tyre.

Whilst your calculations sound right I am sure my clearance went up from 110 to 135 mm, just not sure why ?

The tyres are nearer to the body but this is more noticeable to the rear of the arch on full lock, unsure whether they will rub at the top.

I am going to change the original shocks and lower this back down again with some adjustables soon, just can't decide which shocks to go for.

[LeeT350c]

For info. Toyo R1R 225/40 are actually 230mm wide and fit well on the stock spiders (I run these on the T350)

Cheers. Lee.

Edited by LeeT350c on Tuesday 17th January 13:10

[Sevenman]

After nearly 3 months of careful motoring, feeling pleased that despite Richard from Track V Road saying "you will catch that front splitter on something", I had avoided any grounding, I got caught out today.

My wife was driving, and she asked me, "will we get over that? Maybe you should have a look". I said it was fine...

Anyway, it was only a minor scrape, not visible from the front of the car, but has exposed the fibreglass on the underside.

The offending item was very innocuous - a central block in a driveway which looked quite low. In fact, it is 3" high, or 76mm






I measured the ride height as ~ 100mm, but that was with an empty car. With the load of 2 people, and maybe my 100mm measurement wasn't accurate, the ride height is too low.







There are other scrapes under there, which look like they have been fixed in the past. I should be back at Track V Road later this week, so will ask them to sort it.

Is fibreglass susceptible to problems with ingress of water when left exposed? If so, I need to avoid taking the car out when it is wet.

Other than that, the car is running well, and had a good blast on A/B roads today with some fun overtakes and the roof down

Any other views on raising ride height would be very welcome!