Chimaera Ride Height?
Discussion
Hi - there are a few fragmented discussions on this topic. What is the best ride height for fast road use for a Chimaera.
I'm fitting a new set of Gaz Gold Pros all round and my initial targets for first set up are:
Height
Front: 135mm (ground to corner of front outrigger)
Rear: 145mm (ground to corner of rear outrigger)
Damping
Front: 12 clicks from softest
Rear: 10 clicks from softest
Any other thoughts or tried and tested recommendations would be greatly welcomed before I get stuck in with the fitting!
I'm fitting a new set of Gaz Gold Pros all round and my initial targets for first set up are:
Height
Front: 135mm (ground to corner of front outrigger)
Rear: 145mm (ground to corner of rear outrigger)
Damping
Front: 12 clicks from softest
Rear: 10 clicks from softest
Any other thoughts or tried and tested recommendations would be greatly welcomed before I get stuck in with the fitting!
ChrisA said:
Hi - there are a few fragmented discussions on this topic. What is the best ride height for fast road use for a Chimaera.
I'm fitting a new set of Gaz Gold Pros all round and my initial targets for first set up are:
Height
Front: 135mm (ground to corner of front outrigger)
Rear: 145mm (ground to corner of rear outrigger)
Damping
Front: 12 clicks from softest
Rear: 10 clicks from softest
Any other thoughts or tried and tested recommendations would be greatly welcomed before I get stuck in with the fitting!
Two fingers from the top of the tyre to the underneath of the arch and rear three fingers..I'm fitting a new set of Gaz Gold Pros all round and my initial targets for first set up are:
Height
Front: 135mm (ground to corner of front outrigger)
Rear: 145mm (ground to corner of rear outrigger)
Damping
Front: 12 clicks from softest
Rear: 10 clicks from softest
Any other thoughts or tried and tested recommendations would be greatly welcomed before I get stuck in with the fitting!
Edited by SILICONEKID343HP on Saturday 26th October 11:28
tGGP settings are personal taste and depend on use. I think you want them capable of handling B road potholes, but then adjusted really stiff at the front for the track to keep the handling under vicious braking.
On the road, when they first went on my car they were set to the same as your suggest. Went off up the road, felt an entire box of matches that had been spread over half a mile of Tarmac, came back, put my fillings back in, and softened it off a bit.
I ended up with 6 clicks from soft all round.
On the track (Snetterton, so nice and smooth) I cranked the stiffness up to 16 front, 14 rear. Felt really good, no looking at the sky on hard acceleration, no seeing the sky in the mirrors on hard braking, but on tight corners the rear of the car hopped its way round the corner.
Two experts suggested softening the rear, which I did progressively, and ended up back at 6 clicks up from soft. Car handled really well on 16/6 on track.
Did a full track day at Cadwell on that setting, 16 front, 6 rear, loved it. Set off for home without adjusting it, had to stop after a mile, put my fillings back in, and put the fronts back down to 6.
Mine go suddenly from soft to stiff at around 7 to 8 clicks. My Gaz Nickels I had before did the same. Find your GGP's stiffening point by going up two clicks at a time and bouncing the car, and work out your own comfort settings.
On the road, when they first went on my car they were set to the same as your suggest. Went off up the road, felt an entire box of matches that had been spread over half a mile of Tarmac, came back, put my fillings back in, and softened it off a bit.
I ended up with 6 clicks from soft all round.
On the track (Snetterton, so nice and smooth) I cranked the stiffness up to 16 front, 14 rear. Felt really good, no looking at the sky on hard acceleration, no seeing the sky in the mirrors on hard braking, but on tight corners the rear of the car hopped its way round the corner.
Two experts suggested softening the rear, which I did progressively, and ended up back at 6 clicks up from soft. Car handled really well on 16/6 on track.
Did a full track day at Cadwell on that setting, 16 front, 6 rear, loved it. Set off for home without adjusting it, had to stop after a mile, put my fillings back in, and put the fronts back down to 6.
Mine go suddenly from soft to stiff at around 7 to 8 clicks. My Gaz Nickels I had before did the same. Find your GGP's stiffening point by going up two clicks at a time and bouncing the car, and work out your own comfort settings.
The wishbone pairs are uneven lengths. This is so that the camber angle will change with respect to cornering load where one wheel is loaded and the opposite wheel is unloaded. Static alignment is done with the lower wishbone sitting horizontally. Your lower wishbones will not be horizontal so your static camber will be wrong and the camber won't alter correctly when your wheels are responding to cornering loads.
Rear 155mm, front 145mm outrigger corner to ground will be close enough to horizontal lower wishbones
Rear 155mm, front 145mm outrigger corner to ground will be close enough to horizontal lower wishbones
Hi,
I’ve been searching for a while but get so many different answers, thought I’d drag this up again!! Need to sort out the ride height on my Chim, it’s way too low.
What’s the definitive answer on this? 150mm and 160mm? 140mm and 160mm? 140mm and 150mm? Or lower? 10mm or 20mm rake? How many clicks on the Gaz coilovers?
Cheers,
Dan
I’ve been searching for a while but get so many different answers, thought I’d drag this up again!! Need to sort out the ride height on my Chim, it’s way too low.
What’s the definitive answer on this? 150mm and 160mm? 140mm and 160mm? 140mm and 150mm? Or lower? 10mm or 20mm rake? How many clicks on the Gaz coilovers?
Cheers,
Dan
s p a c e m a n said:
Different wheel and tyre sizes will give different ride heights so I agree that your ride height should be determined by first making the lower wishbones level and then fine tune each side by measuring the ride height and making it even side to side.
Thanks for the reply. So, lower wishbones need to be level, front and back. I'll try to do that, could do with finding a short spirit level.
Set it to around 150mm rear and 140mm front ish. Maybe a tiny bit higher. Feels much nicer to drive now actually. Wishbones are level, certainly look level and the spirit level app on my phone suggested they were all level. Doubt that's very accurate though!
I found it difficult to measure accurately, tape measure obviously bends at the end, couldn't think of another way to measure it.
I found it difficult to measure accurately, tape measure obviously bends at the end, couldn't think of another way to measure it.
bobfather said:
The wishbone pairs are uneven lengths. This is so that the camber angle will change with respect to cornering load where one wheel is loaded and the opposite wheel is unloaded. Static alignment is done with the lower wishbone sitting horizontally. Your lower wishbones will not be horizontal so your static camber will be wrong and the camber won't alter correctly when your wheels are responding to cornering loads.
Rear 155mm, front 145mm outrigger corner to ground will be close enough to horizontal lower wishbones
Wot he said,as close as makes no differenceRear 155mm, front 145mm outrigger corner to ground will be close enough to horizontal lower wishbones
To answer the question on damper settings, there is no answer.
However with 400/325lb springs I start at 12 clicks from soft on the front and 10 on the rear and that two click difference I think is right so I would go up or down 1 or 2 clicks to suit individual drivers. This on the GGP shocks with 20 clicks
However with 400/325lb springs I start at 12 clicks from soft on the front and 10 on the rear and that two click difference I think is right so I would go up or down 1 or 2 clicks to suit individual drivers. This on the GGP shocks with 20 clicks
What he says, and I am not arguing, he knows more than I ever will. But he does say to adjust to your taste. So here's mine 
I have mine a lot softer on our lovely Lincolnshire country roads, as I found hard settings far too jarring and uncomfortable. I find that GGPs go hard suddenly (in my case at 9 clicks from soft) as you work your way up the clicks. On the road the ride is horrible with the suspension set at all hard, so I soften the fronts down below the sudden point and run them at around 6-7 clicks from soft. This was simply trial and error, trying different settings with my TVR guy until we both thought it was right.
We then took it to Snetterton and spent time trying different settings to get a good track setting. The race track is of course baby's bum smooth..... Stiffening the fronts right up stopped it diving under hard, braking/cornering, but stiffening the rears similarly made the back of the car hop on tight corners. So we gradually backed the setting on the rears off, and found it handles best back on its road setting of 6 clicks from soft.
My car handles really well on both the road and the track, but a lot of that is thanks to a good geo setting, corner weighting, and adjusting the front camber out by about one degree
I have mine a lot softer on our lovely Lincolnshire country roads, as I found hard settings far too jarring and uncomfortable. I find that GGPs go hard suddenly (in my case at 9 clicks from soft) as you work your way up the clicks. On the road the ride is horrible with the suspension set at all hard, so I soften the fronts down below the sudden point and run them at around 6-7 clicks from soft. This was simply trial and error, trying different settings with my TVR guy until we both thought it was right.
We then took it to Snetterton and spent time trying different settings to get a good track setting. The race track is of course baby's bum smooth..... Stiffening the fronts right up stopped it diving under hard, braking/cornering, but stiffening the rears similarly made the back of the car hop on tight corners. So we gradually backed the setting on the rears off, and found it handles best back on its road setting of 6 clicks from soft.
My car handles really well on both the road and the track, but a lot of that is thanks to a good geo setting, corner weighting, and adjusting the front camber out by about one degree
Quinny said:
SILICONEKID343HP said:
Two fingers from the top of the tyre to the underneath of the arch and rear three fingers..
Ah the high tech approach.......Edited by SILICONEKID343HP on Saturday 26th October 11:28
Edited by QBee on Friday 28th February 11:50
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