Hi, my locost is finally on the road and have just fitted adjustable sleeves to my shocks so i can play with the ride height. How low do you go? My only issue at the front is that the pinto, even with a cut down sump, sticks out of the bottom and is only 10cm off the ground. The rear of the car is 14cm off the ground just in front of the rear arches.
Thanks in advance,
Steve.

ime in the same position as you - but my sump is only 85mm for ground! havent hit owt yet but i wouldnt attempt speed bumps

Re-Make the sump to be shallower and wider to retain the capacity, but with less depth. That will give you more clearance.

you could make some steel tubing skids to slide over high speed bumps

you need to chop the sump so its like this




if you get the new chris gibbs book it shows you how to do it.

[Edited on 29/9/09 by ashg]

100mm/4" sump clearance should be fine - mine has about the same and I've not bottomed it out yet.

The correct ride height for any car is determined by the suspension set-up. Generally for double wishbone suspension the lower wishbone pivot points (i.e. inner pivots and outer ball joint) should be parallel to the ground putting the suspension in the middle of it's travel. Rear set-up should be roughly the same for either lower wishbone or trailing arm.

I agree with Nick205, although I prefer to set mine up slightly higher so that the lower wishbones and just away from parallel with the floor. So when you corner, the wishbone will be parallel with the floor, and therefore achieve maximum wheel camber during its travel.

Just remember that changing the ride height will effect the suspension set up, i.e. you will need to check camber, ect..

Also when the car was designed in principle it should have been done for a particular ride height, changing it after can effect the geometry, I guess small ride high adjustments should be o.k.

I have a similar problem and at the moment no were to set it up (garage floor not flat and to small do to it!). I needed to add a little more ground clearance (to low for drive!) and I suspect this has put the camber ect out a bit..

Also note that the changing the ride height also will effect the corner weights, in principle you should also adjust this at the same time as the ride height...

Dan

[Edited on 29/9/09 by Bluemoon]

I've got maybe 110mm at the front, but 70mm under the sump plug (but that is to the side). I am very careful around the speed "cushions" that we have on our road.

I went over a freshly killed badger yesterday on the dual carriageway. I can report that they are more than 110mm high.

No damage, but I could feel his pain.

Matt

i think my car currently sits about 90mm from ground to chassis. the sump sits below that!
not on the road yet, so will look at a shortened sump later

Thanks for all the replies. Doesnt sound like im too far out.
Ashg, havent seen the sump done like that before. I like it. Mine has just had the usual 1.5 inches off the bottom.
The reason i set the rear higher is due to 2 things; firstly because i way 95kg's (all muscle lol) and secondly a caterham racer once told me that thats how he set his car up to make the front turn in better.

I currently have 3/4 of an inch sump clearance. The car will barley make it out of the garage without scraping

Mines not otr atm though

100mm is ok for speed bumps it's the up stands in the middle of gates that you have to look out for

I asked MNR how low mine should be and they just said it should be 25 mm higher in the rear.
But no actual hieght.
I think their info about these thing are quite bad.

Soren S2

quote:

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Originally posted by sorens2
I asked MNR how low mine should be and they just said it should be 25 mm higher in the rear.
But no actual hieght.
I think their info about these thing are quite bad.

Soren S2

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Nick i havent seen the book but will give it a go.
Interesting to hear that MNR set theirs up higher at the back at well caterham racers. Cheers