suspension height?

[chmercer]

i just got coilovers and i am curious about the optimal front / rear height ratio? i know most people just lower it as much as they can based on their driving conditions, but what i was wondering was, like if the ground to fender measurment of my front is 650mm, should i set the rear to like 95% of this or somthing? i am trying to find out how exactly ride height affects handling, but i dont have much info.

annnyyway, i ask because i can pretty much lower my rear until my wheel rubs because the resonator is placed under the rear wheels, so whenever i go over a speed bump etc. it just lifts up, but i cant lower the front very much because the 1st resonator will scrape.

thanks!

[Q45tech]

The optimal height is when you have equal stroke on the shocks .......when you are at the mid point of their range.

[chmercer]

could you please me more explanitory? i am an idiot

[Exar-Kun]

lets say a certain damper has a 3" long stroke, you'd want the height of the car to keep the valve at 1.5" so you'd have both rebound and boud available at your ride height.

this is why they make short strokle campers (for lowered cars)

take this example(god I hope Im explaining this right, Q45 will slap me if I dont)

you have a car, that sits say..3" fender gap, and at tha gap in ride height, the damper is at 2" out of 3" total stroke...IE too high. reduce your ride height by .5" and the damper(assuming nothing else changes) will be at 1.5" or exactly half of its stroke at the nominal ride height..

did that make sense? (also this assume you dont move the damper down with the car/rod of the damper)-chet

[chmercer]

do you know how i would measure this, to see where the spring seat should be? like should i just put the lower spring seat in the middle of the strut?

[Exar-Kun]

Im not really sure, you'd have to know where the damper is currently compressed to(under the load of the caR) and adjust from there...

maybe deniss knows how to measure it..I dont.-chet

[Ceptos]

relative height from front to rear affects understeer/oversteer, i dont want to explain anything since i am still reading about it myself. i believe they call this the 'angle of rake', there are quite a few articles online that discuss weight transfer, i found a bunch using google.

can you adjust the position of the shock body on your coilovers?

[Exar-Kun]

i guess you could move the coilover to the top of its range(IE the upper most point of the dampers stroke), then to the bottom and measure the fender gap at each height..then set the ride height in the middle...

thats the only method that seems feasible to me, right now..-chet