Optimal Ride Height

[SiFan4tic]

I'm wonder what the optimal ride height is. I've searched and found nothing on what the best height is, whether it be for auto-x, drag, or whatever.

Anybody who has tried multiple ride heights for racing, what's your opinion on ride height? And the differences in height for front and back.. anyone?

[Highrev1]

There are ALOT of things to take into account. Ideally a car should be Corner Weighted.

[aki]

There is no one "perfect" ride height. What works well for any given application (drag, autox, time attack, etc) depends on the suspension setup. Lowering 1" on Tein coilovers and 1" on Koni's and 1" on Mugens would be a totally different beast. Heck even different lowering springs with similar drop give different characteristics. In general, the lower you go, the stiffer your setup needs to be to counter the increased roll as a result of the drop. But too stiff and your car loses traction too easily. This is a gross oversimplification, of course.

In short, don't worry about the ride height--I'd worry about what you want out of the car handling-wise, first.

[SiFan4tic]

yeah that makes a lot of sense, there are a crapload of variables especially with the different types of springs alone. But say i had the perfect suspension (springs , struts) at each ride height, then what would be the ideal height for center of gravity? 1" to 1.5"? lower ? higher?

Thanks for the feedback guys

[zid]

lowest possible center of gravity for maximum performance












NOT

[Bombero]

HFP Sport Suspension / Nitto 225/35 19's
Handles like a dream.....

[shutter13]

bombero your ride looks amazing, the 19's look great!.... props to you

[Sirbelch]

Just try to say above 1.5 inches lower than stock. That should do it. If you want to go lower and still maintain good handling, you need to reengineer the entire suspension.

Lowering a car doesn't automaticlaly make a car handle better. I've had 2 sets of coilovers. The instructions of both sets had the ride hight slammed. At the "slammed" height the car pushed a lot. So, i raise it up and it made a huge difference in the balance of the car. The car still pushed (which is just the physics of FWD) but it was a lot less than it was before. Honda's own Civic Type R is about an inch lower than our Si. So with all the money and knowledge Honda has, they find the best height for our cars is about an inch lower than stock. That speaks volumes about our suspensions.

[Bombero]

Originally Posted by shutter13

bombero your ride looks amazing, the 19's look great!.... props to you

Thanks dude