12 replies to this topic

[MIJ]

What’s the general ride height for a rally car? Tarmac and light gravel, nothing too rough. Road rallies mainly. Seen most cars in pics seem to have the rear raised higher than the front? Does anyone have any measurements? Many thanks.

[unburntfuelinthemorning]

From what I've seen in this forum before I think standard height would be recommended.  You could probably go a little lower on smooth tarmac.

[Cooperman]

I usually set my cars up at either standard ride height or a cm or two higher at the front.

With a good sump guard fitted you do lose a couple of cm ground clearance and every time the sump guard hits the ground it slows the car a bit. On typical UK rallies,you will hit the sump guard on the ground.

The only time I have lowered the car slightly, and I mean only very slightly, is for pure smooth tarmac stages, such as in Belgium. In the UK, never.

[MIJ]

Thanks. What is the std ride height and where do I measure from?

[whistler]

Not very scientific but I used to raise the front a little so that  trolley jack would slide under the sumpguard. I left the rears as standard. The method of raising back in the mists of time was by introducing a body washer between the the ball joint and trumpet.

[Cooperman]

I just went out and measured both of my rally cars.

 

The height from the ground to the highest point of the wheel arch lip on the front is exactly 525 mm and that always seems to work well.

I run full length sump guards on both cars with GAZ on one and SPAX dampers on the other. They both have Hi-Lo's and 1.5 deg neg camber lower arms with adjustable tie bars only on the 'S'. Rubber springs are standard OE spec ones from Mini Spares.

 

I hope this helps. Good luck with the rallying and I recommend that you do some of the 'Targa Rallies' - great fun and non-damaging (unless yoiu go off!). A well-set-up Mini can be relatively competitive on some of these events.

[Mudhen]

Are you using the negative camber arms to correct the camber due to the additional height?

[Cooperman]

It doesn't have any real increase in ride height - maybe 3/8" - thus camber is not an issue. For competition a bit of additional neg camber on the front does seem to work well.

[Mudhen]

Interesting. Going to be going through this with a couple rallycars soon...I know my r53 wants 0 camber with gravel rally tyres so the outer edges have maximum bite.

[MIJ]

Thanks All for help

[MIJ]

I just went out and measured both of my rally cars.

 

The height from the ground to the highest point of the wheel arch lip on the front is exactly 525 mm and that always seems to work well.

I run full length sump guards on both cars with GAZ on one and SPAX dampers on the other. They both have Hi-Lo's and 1.5 deg neg camber lower arms with adjustable tie bars only on the 'S'. Rubber springs are standard OE spec ones from Mini Spares.

 

I hope this helps. Good luck with the rallying and I recommend that you do some of the 'Targa Rallies' - great fun and non-damaging (unless yoiu go off!). A well-set-up Mini can be relatively competitive on some of these events.

just measured mine, it’s 510mm on the front so not too far away. I’m looking at targa sand these new show type events like the Lombard rally bath etc. it’s not built to msuk so no good stage events. I’m just looking at ways to do the interior etc at the moment,

[GraemeC]

I'm at about 530/538 F/R

[DeadSquare]

For what it is worth, Timo Makinen replaced a 3/8" spacer between the ball and the front trumpet, every time Abingdon removed it.