Starting ride height for S13 ?

[charles]

Just finished installing a koni yellow and
ERS 450 6 in - Front
ERS 350 7 in - Rear setup on my S13.

I think the previous owner(site member) had a KA in his 240. He left the perches exactly where he had them but installed on my 92' coupe with SR(a/c delete) I have 25.25" rear height and about 26.25" up front. This is floor to center of fender arches.

Rear looks pretty low but maybe it's fine..... plan right now is to just lower the front a bit......

Cam phone pic


Thoughts?

[SoSideways]

The S13s and S14s both have a higher front fender arch compared to the rear arch, so if your car was level, and have the same sized wheel/tire front and rear, you will be tucking a little bit of sidewall by the time you eliminate all the wheel gap up front.

[2Fass240us]

Have the car corner-weighted.

[Def]

Drop the front about .75-1" and the rear about .25-.5" and go from there. Just monitor front strut travel.

[djsilver]

The factory spec's Front/Rear are 27.05"/26.10" with the 195/60/15 tires and 27.32"/26.38" with the 205/55/16 tires. It's in the service specifications of the FA section of the FSM (Front Axle and Suspension)

[Racecartech]

as already stated get the car corner balanced, the shop should understand road course set up. the best rideheight is: car on level surface, have the inner lower arm pivot points the same height as the lower ball joint pivot points.

[charles]

thanks guys...... this gives me a place to start..... I also did a quick DIY alignment tonight just to make sure I'm not rubbing anywhere with my 255/40/17 +20 17x9's...... just want to make sure I have clearance at the ballpark ride height before I pay for a corner weight etc....

[SoSideways]

If you haven't done so, please relocate your driver's side wiring harness underneath the frame rail (on top of your driver's side front wheel) so that it won't get owned during hard cornering and what not.

The passenger side harness is a bit smaller, you can run that through the engine bay without as much headache as the driver's side.

[charles]

The S13s and S14s both have a higher front fender arch compared to the rear arch,

Any idea if this holds true for the Silvia fenders vs USDM front S13 fenders?

[98koukile]

Should be the same. A lot of guys like the keep the line that runs done the side of the car level. Overall the car looks good but like someone else said the rears are tucked to make the fronts fit right

[charles]

Looks like I can't go anywhere near this low with my 17x9 + 20 255/40/17's.... I've already rolled the lip in the rear and it still barely rubbed the inner lip in the rear and rubbed pretty good in the front right on the lip as well. Was running ~ -3.5 F and -2.5 R camber so far.

I do still have some wheel to strut housing clearance I'm not using but it's fairly close now.

What's would be the tightest "safe" clearance without putting a perch or coil through my tires?

Don't think I can do much else in the front except roll the fronts a little which looks like a hairy operation compared to doing the rears......... in the rear a better offset wheel would take care of the problem.

It looks like 17x9 +30ish would still leave room on the inside in the rear and clear fine everywhere with my 255's

[Longfellow]

How did the fender rolling go?

[McCoy]

What's would be the tightest "safe" clearance without putting a perch or coil through my tires?

2-3mm... maybe less if you have nothing sharp that could contact/tear teh tire. I'm running about 2-3mm clearance up front currently and have seen no rub marks on the perch after a years worth of track days with RA-1's. On the past car, I ran hoosiers and ran about a 1mm clearance to the rear struts and had rubbing at times, but the only way you could notice it was the black marks left on the strut housing.

It looks like 17x9 +30ish would still leave room on the inside in the rear and clear fine everywhere with my 255's

This is effectively what I'm running up front to clear my 275 RA1's.

[charles]

How did the fender rolling go?

Rolling just the rear lip up went pretty good on the driver's side....... I didn't get the initial angle perfect when I started the passenger side but it still came out ok in the end...... no cracking paint at all.

I'm debating adding a very small pull all around if I can without cracking paint.

Took the car out this weekend and it's definitely ~ 1.5 secs quicker on a 70 second course with this new Koni combo. I've noticed you hear a lot of what sounds like coil bind or spin from the fronts when turning at low speed into a parking lot etc........ I guess this is "normal" ?

[charles]

2-3mm... maybe less if you have nothing sharp that could contact/tear teh tire. I'm running about 2-3mm clearance up front currently and have seen no rub marks on the perch after a years worth of track days with RA-1's.

Glad to hear it......... I was too concerned with getting that close before I researched it more. I'm also still running "street tires" so I won't have near the grip you do either. I bet I have ~ 1/4" clearance right now....... I think Richard's housings I got with this kit must be Version 2.0 as I seem to have a lot of housing to spindle(S14 spindles on my S13) clearance adjustment. Even with that much clearance up front I was still able to dial in ~ -3.4 camber up front with my plates nearly maxxed out.