I know there is such a thing as to low when it comes to AutoX and Road Course Racing as it affects the roll center. I am going in tomorrow to have my car corner balanced and aligned. While I am there I was going to have the ride height adjusted as well for optimal performance.

Does anyone have any input on this subject?

 

That's a pretty open ended question with the minimal amount of information given.

Everything has to be taken into consideration:

- Overall weight
- Overall suspension rates and settings (Adjustable bars set to? Camber, toe, etc)
- Spring rates plus type and amount of adjustability
- Shock jounce/rebound adjustment?
- The type of course it's being tuned for (autocross versus road versus.... <you name it> and venue would be great, e.g., what are the majority of the turns and how much bias you need for a given track or pylon course)

Point of corner balancing is to set your suspension to optimum weights and rates given usage, right?

However, this isn't to scare you or discourage you at all; just be prepared with the answers, e.g., "I'll be running at Laguna which is predominantly a left turn course but those rights at 3 & 4 are extreme left loading...." blah blah blah. Or hopefully, the shop will know what's the hot set up for a given criteria. (Presuming this is for a track/AX/FD setup.)

That all said, if you are running a fully adjustable coilover (height, pre-load, jounce, rebound), figure on the shop setting height at somewhere around -0.75 inches or so then weight jack and align from that point. You do NOT need to go deeper than that unless you need more spring.

I'm open to suggestion/debate from the racers amongst us but this is pretty much less-than-specific theory on baselining and adjustment.

I'd like to hear where the car ends up after having it done so in for updates.

Mic

 

Agreed- there is no ideal ride height to recommend. Different tracks take different setups- say, Road Atlanta vs. Nelson Ledges and you'll likely have different ride heights to handle the bumps.

There's also driver preference, which can vary from someone who likes to ride as low as possible to someone who likes more lean at the limit. Weather conditions can play into this too, as rain races usually have me raising the car slightly and softening damping rates and sway bar settings.

Ask the shop for recommendations if they have racing experience at the tracks you frequent.

 

Thanks for thE info I searched and dint find anything so it seemed like a good question. The shop is familiar with race setups and I will be relying on them a lot for advise. Figured I'd learn what I could before I go in.

This will be setup for AutoX for now and pretty much everything is adjustable.

I'll post back with results and reviews Sunday.

 

You forgot aero, the more aero the more geometry you may give up to max out the aero.

Most ideal, that is what an engineer get paid big money to study for each particular track.

 

In autox I wouldn't worry so much about the roll center. You do what you have to do to get enough camber and be legal unless you run SSM and up.

 

In an autocross course he probably will not have the speeds or aero to make a difference or need lowering wise. I would likely not go more than an inch lowered but it is personal preference up to the point where you reach class limits for your alignment settings or your spring/shock combo range.

 

I'm running SSM so its pretty much free game. I need to measure what I'm at right now but its definitely not as low as it could go but it do like the look of it currently.