Optimal ride height for track setup

vq37818 · 05-12-2020, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cv129

Here it is

Saisei Knuckles

In short, he took the stock ones, chopped and shortened them, then welded the two ends back together. Looks like good quality, but the thought of it snapping is scary.

An old timer here did snap an OEM one during a tight curve, car was totaled as a result. Hard for me to shake that thought every time I think about nightlrkr’s knuckle, no matter how much I wanted it.

This was my greatest worry. Putting a cast suspension component through another heat-cycle will make it extremely brittle. He really pushes his car on the track on I’ve yet to hear any bad stories. He’s been testing them for a while before he began to openly sell, so I would assume that he trusts the product enough...

Brendan · 05-13-2020, 12:16 AM

Try it, but it might be too low. I've never hit the bump stops with my coils so I have my dampers set up to give me as much droop as possible. Lack of down travel can make a car handle as badly as a weird camber curve or hitting bump stops.

If you're not sure you can try setting up the damper up for maximum length and desired ride height. Take off the wheel and support the the control arm so that the damper and spring are compressed and you should be able to see how much travel you have before bump stops or coil bind.

loufitness · 05-15-2020, 08:09 PM

Bilstein B16 PSS10 are installed...here is where I landed on ride height and track alignment specs

- Lowered 26mm Front / 10mm Rear; Rake 1/8”
- Camber: -3.55(F); -2.88 (R)
- Caster: 5.17(L); 5.41(R)
- Total Toe: .06 (F); .18(R)
- Corner Balance: Left 51.5%; Rear 45.1%; Cross 50.1%

AlWakRa · 05-15-2020, 08:38 PM

Looks good except your rear camber seems high, I think -2.2 would be a good match for your front camber, if you want your car to response quicker, front toe would be better to be 0 or negative (as most alignment sheets shows toe out as negative)

Hotrodz · 05-16-2020, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlWakRa

Looks good except your rear camber seems high, I think -2.2 would be a good match for your front camber, if you want your car to response quicker, front toe would be better to be 0 or negative (as most alignment sheets shows toe out as negative)

Agreed!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Mn23 · 05-27-2020, 10:40 AM

Just measured mine and it’s 25.5” with 275/35R18 (inch smaller than OE), is that too low?

Hotrodz · 05-27-2020, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mn23

Just measured mine and it’s 25.5” with 275/35R18 (inch smaller than OE), is that too low?

On the street you are going to be hating life. I ran mine at that ride height the last time I was at ZDAYZ. I was on Toyo 295 30 18 square. My camber was -3.3 front and -2.2 rear. The handling was spot on. Turn in was quick and she was nimble. The down side is there are some sharp turns with quick rises and I would bottom out on them. When got home I had two rivets left on my Zspeed undertray and there was a small hole was forming on the undertray. Conversely getting in an out of parking areas and gas stations were a pain. If she is 80% track car go for it. I am looking at 26 up front and 26.5 rear.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

OptionZero · 05-27-2020, 01:39 PM

time for an air cup system for the parking area part

Brendan · 05-27-2020, 01:40 PM

I agree with my esteemed colleague Hotrodz. That low and your chassis will be limiting your suspension from doing it's job and it will be a pain on the street.

cv129 · 05-27-2020, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotrodz

On the street you are going to be hating life. I ran mine at that ride height the last time I was at ZDAYZ. I was on Toyo 295 30 18 square. My camber was -3.3 front and -2.2 rear. The handling was spot on. Turn in was quick and she was nimble. The down side is there are some sharp turns with quick rises and I would bottom out on them. When got home I had two rivets left on my Zspeed undertray and there was a small hole was forming on the undertray. Conversely getting in an out of parking areas and gas stations were a pain. If she is 80% track car go for it. I am looking at 26 up front and 26.5 rear.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Quote:

Originally Posted by OptionZero

time for an air cup system for the parking area part

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brendan

I agree with my esteemed college Hotrodz. That low and your chassis will be limiting your suspension from doing it's job and it will be a pain on the street.

This would be nice

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQYXNTn...d=myg48eavt9gy

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQYXNTn...d=7u9e3wngy9pv

Mn23 · 05-27-2020, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotrodz

On the street you are going to be hating life. I ran mine at that ride height the last time I was at ZDAYZ. I was on Toyo 295 30 18 square. My camber was -3.3 front and -2.2 rear. The handling was spot on. Turn in was quick and she was nimble. The down side is there are some sharp turns with quick rises and I would bottom out on them. When got home I had two rivets left on my Zspeed undertray and there was a small hole was forming on the undertray. Conversely getting in an out of parking areas and gas stations were a pain. If she is 80% track car go for it. I am looking at 26 up front and 26.5 rear.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Oh this is the exact camber setting I have and she is 99% for track except driving back and forth to the track. Was trying to see if raising it higher (to your suggestion 26”) will benefit the handling performance on the track. Also need to figure out the suspension travel issue if any.

Hotrodz · 05-28-2020, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mn23

Oh this is the exact camber setting I have and she is 99% for track except driving back and forth to the track. Was trying to see if raising it higher (to your suggestion 26”) will benefit the handling performance on the track. Also need to figure out the suspension travel issue if any.

About 2" drop is maximum for limiting issues. If you don't have a splitter then a 1 to 1.5" drop is plenty. With a splitter that is 3" plus beyond the front bumper you want to get as low as possible to maximize downforce. There is a reason that pro racing has ride height requirements.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Rusty · 05-28-2020, 09:39 PM

You never want to go so low that you scrape. When you scrape, you unload the tires and suspension.

Sharad909 · 09-04-2020, 02:31 AM

^Yes!
And sorry, I was trying to say closer to OEM is more beneficial. But vq37818 explained it perfectly

FL 4Motion · 09-04-2020, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loufitness

Bilstein B16 PSS10 are installed...here is where I landed on ride height and track alignment specs

- Lowered 26mm Front / 10mm Rear; Rake 1/8”
- Camber: -3.55(F); -2.88 (R)
- Caster: 5.17(L); 5.41(R)
- Total Toe: .06 (F); .18(R)
- Corner Balance: Left 51.5%; Rear 45.1%; Cross 50.1%

As far as lowering the z goes, being that I’m a big idiot, I like to keep sh!t as dumbed down and simple as possible, ergo a one inch drop (Or just a hair lower), was optimal back when wifey and I had our nismo.

With stock gen 1 nismo aero at Daytona on the front straight, at around 130+ the car got scary light at stock height, with just a one inch (ish) drop, it was stable to 145 ish and the lift above the was less dramatic/scary.

I don’t remember all our alignment settings off the top of my head but I do remember the we ran -2.2 camber up front and -1.6 (or was it -1.8) out back. Like rusty and others said, there is a lot of dynamic negative camber gain so no need to run a ton of static neg camber out back.

Our toe was set 0 front and slight toe in in the rear, that gives a momentary toe out condition from weight transfer when braking hard off a straight going into a turn so we found it helped with turn in.

This was all on aggressive street tires, NOT r comps. With dedicated track tires, we would have been more aggressive with the - camber settings and possibly even run very slight toe out up front.

Our car was set up as a true dual use car that could be at home street or track so of course there were alignment setting compromises etc.

Edit: just remembered, we had caster set at 6.

05-13-2020, 12:16 AM	#32 (permalink)
Brendan Track Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Colorado Posts: 642 Drives: Poor man's Porsche Rep Power: 542	Try it, but it might be too low. I've never hit the bump stops with my coils so I have my dampers set up to give me as much droop as possible. Lack of down travel can make a car handle as badly as a weird camber curve or hitting bump stops. If you're not sure you can try setting up the damper up for maximum length and desired ride height. Take off the wheel and support the the control arm so that the damper and spring are compressed and you should be able to see how much travel you have before bump stops or coil bind. Hotrodz likes this.

05-15-2020, 08:09 PM	#33 (permalink)
loufitness Base Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Louisville, Ky Posts: 74 Drives: 14 370Z Pearl White Rep Power: 3366	Bilstein B16 PSS10 are installed...here is where I landed on ride height and track alignment specs - Lowered 26mm Front / 10mm Rear; Rake 1/8” - Camber: -3.55(F); -2.88 (R) - Caster: 5.17(L); 5.41(R) - Total Toe: .06 (F); .18(R) - Corner Balance: Left 51.5%; Rear 45.1%; Cross 50.1% Wigjiggy likes this. __________________ 2014 Pearl White Sport Pkg / Motordyne Shockwave / 25 Row Setrab / SS Brake lines / Motul RBF 600 / Hawk DTC-60 / SPL Upper Control Arms / Enkei RP07 / Hankook RS4 275/40/18 Square / Schroth Harness / EVO-R Carbon Fiber Accents / Bilstein B16 PSS 10

05-15-2020, 08:38 PM	#34 (permalink)
AlWakRa Track Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Qatar Posts: 600 Drives: 10 370Z PW 6MT Rep Power: 13450	Looks good except your rear camber seems high, I think -2.2 would be a good match for your front camber, if you want your car to response quicker, front toe would be better to be 0 or negative (as most alignment sheets shows toe out as negative) FL 4Motion, Rusty, Hotrodz and 2 others like this. __________________ 2010 370Z Touring Sport Pearl White 6MT Powered by: Fast Intentions - Motordyne - Stillen - OS Giken - CJ Motorsports - Mishimoto - MCA Suspension - SPL - SuperPRO - RJM - Z1 Motorsport - Zspeed - Volk My Humble Journals

05-27-2020, 01:39 PM	#38 (permalink)
OptionZero A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Sacramento Posts: 3,235 Drives: 15 370Z Nismo 6MT Rep Power: 214100	time for an air cup system for the parking area part Hotrodz and NorthStyle like this. __________________ OptionZero Build Thread

05-27-2020, 01:40 PM	#39 (permalink)
Brendan Track Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Colorado Posts: 642 Drives: Poor man's Porsche Rep Power: 542	I agree with my esteemed colleague Hotrodz. That low and your chassis will be limiting your suspension from doing it's job and it will be a pain on the street. Hotrodz likes this. Last edited by Brendan; 05-27-2020 at 08:21 PM.

05-27-2020, 10:40 AM	#36 (permalink)
Mn23 Base Member Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: GTA Posts: 49 Drives: 17 Black 370Z Rep Power: 9	Just measured mine and it’s 25.5” with 275/35R18 (inch smaller than OE), is that too low?

05-28-2020, 09:39 PM	#43 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 35,219 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684438	You never want to go so low that you scrape. When you scrape, you unload the tires and suspension. FL 4Motion, Hotrodz, Brendan and 1 others like this. __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

09-04-2020, 02:31 AM	#44 (permalink)
Sharad909 Base Member Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: SoCal Posts: 65 Drives: 2012 370Z 6MT Sport Rep Power: 3361	^Yes! And sorry, I was trying to say closer to OEM is more beneficial. But vq37818 explained it perfectly __________________ 12 370Z- Touring- Sport- 6MT- Z1 Anti Starv, 34R Setrab Kit, 20/25MM \| Konig 18x10.5 W/ Hankook RS4 \| PowerStop TrackSpec Pads \| TTP Single Exit , & Swift Springs \| Previously Owned: 18 Q50- 480RWHP- 12.2 @118- Sold, 92 240SX Built SR

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Ride Height Help!	LittleWhiteZ	Brakes & Suspension	14	10-04-2019 08:25 PM
Proper ride height for Track	SPOHN	Track / Autocross / Drifting / Dragstrip	104	12-30-2013 02:09 PM
Tire question about sidewall height in relation to ride height...	chuckd05	Wheels & Tires	2	05-07-2011 05:03 AM
Ride height not even on my new Z	Aaron1	Brakes & Suspension	17	01-15-2011 04:16 PM
Stock ride height?	the_student	Brakes & Suspension	1	07-05-2010 05:09 AM