Then get some 19" wheels and use: 225/40ZR19 front and 265/40ZR19 in the rear and then lower the car 0.5". This will leave the car at the normal ride height and since the tires are larger (1 full inch) they will fit the wheel wells better.
Not without spacers. Like I said, mine is at the highest setting in the front and is 1.5" lower than stock. the springs are very progressive though so the car does not move much before the springs get stiff. I don't have much issue with bottoming out, but I am careful.
I believe the speedo is taken from the gearbox, so no issie there. However controlling ride height by wheel diameter is probably not the best idea. With suspension 'lowered' (spindle raised) and a larger than stock wheel diameter, it will not only look a tad disproportional but it brings the tire closer to the fender and possibly rub some of your paint off when going up driveways ..........
Yeah it will affect speedo (will read slower), I was spacing out and thinking this larger wheel was only up front ...... ........
The ride height effects the position of the roll centres and other parameters that define the suspension geometry. Presumably Ferrari designed the suspension for optimum performance. The adjustment is not meant to be a cosmetic add on to be changed arbitrarily until it looks right! I'm not surprised that Andrew has found that 355 competition drivers have reverted to Ferrari settings.
Correct, unlike a Corvette, where the front and rear roll centers move the same amount when raised or lowered, Ferrari uses ride height in order that they don't need a "kit' of roll-bars. Rear ride height is used to trim the roll-bar on the car and achieve whatever metric of oversteer/understeer the driver prefers. Only because they failed to realize how to use ride height to dial the car in. Me, I use factory settings on the street simply because these cars are absurdly low to begin with (at 4.2 inches at factory ride heights it is some 1.5" lower than a Corvette!) Ride height, spring rates and roll-bar can be used to get a car performing like the driver wants. Sometimes the driver does not know what he wants (90%+ fit this catagory)--in these cases) and for most drivers less that those with superlicenses this is the best route. For drivers that actual understand how they want the car to feel, the car is easily dialed in--given that the driver can feel the changes and guide the race techs in setting up the car. Challenge cars come with 3 sets of front springs 2 front roll bars 2 sets of rear springs and 2 rear roll bars, ride height is infinitely adjustible, as is camber and caster, and there are at least 5 different kinds of race tires that can go on the supplied rims. It is easy to get lost, and if you do, reverting to a factory set-up returns the car to good manners.
+1. I finally got fed up a couple years ago, and took measurements and found my car was actually 2cm lower in the front than factory setting (rear was fine). I don't know if a previous owner had it lowered, or if the springs had settled. I took it to a race shop and had everything set to factory specs, along with alignment and wheel balance. I hardly ever scrape anymore. Before a scraped just about everywhere.
I have installed H&R springs and also installed new lower rubber spacers the springs sits on, i clean everything up, cleaned the threads. However i have a huge problem with adjusting two shocks installed now in the car, the collar screw just want to grab to the rubber spacer and impossible to adjust, it's like biting in to the rubber. Do i need some special oil or grease to make it smoother? i used grease but somehow that dried before i went to adjust the collar. I have never experienced this with modern coilovers, so i need some slim spring compressor to do it installed to lower the pressure on the spring, any suggestions? I won't remove the shocks again, the fronts took along time to get right with the shims....
The Ferrari dealer told me that the only way to adjust the shocks safely is to remove them and use a spring compressor. To do so otherwise risks stripping the threads on the shock, the collar or both. Maybe you can find a spring compressor that will fit with the shocks installed?
That's really odd, this really defeats it's purpose as you want to fine tune the height with the wheels in place. Maybe Ferrari should have thought about some trust bearing between the collar and rubber space? Image Unavailable, Please Login
