Ground clearance for driveways etc.

[Bicyclops]

Having had the front suspension collapse and put the nose on the ground and having hit some streets pretty hard coming out of driveways, the bottom of the front corners are getting pretty beat up. Tore the bolt out that attaches the fender to the nose piece on one side. I'm looking at a couple of fixes.

1 Put a plywood skidplate under the corners. Maybe apply some steel wear strips at the front. Downside is that it'd put some flex on the fender when it scrapes. Like that hasn't already happened. I'm not in paint, but maybe someday.

2 Mount a couple of wheelie bar rollers under there. The problem with that is they'd need to be somewhat inboard of the scrape zones to be under any semi-solid structure. A buddy of mine did that on his C5 Vette, and he had some nice frame members to mount to. All I've got is the forward (very light duty) radiator frame. That said, I don't think I need to carry the whole front of the car, just take some of the load off the springs for a moment.

3 Avoid steepish drives or hit them slowly at an angle. Already doing that, but have taken damage anyway.

Another thing that's bothering me is that air coming in the lower inlet below the height of the radiator isn't guided in any way. It flows back to where the main frame hangs at about the same height as the bottom of the nose piece and into where the battery lives. I've got a bunch of road gravel and stuff in there. It doesn't make sense to me and seems very draggy. I'm thinking about fabbing up some sheetmetal and figuring a way to duct that air to the front brakes.

Any ideas?

Ed

20240613_173744.jpg20240613_173806.jpg

[Bicyclops]

This thread has the pictures I wanted.

Ed

[J R Jones]

Ed, F1 cars have skid plates of various materials including fiberglass and titanium. The sparks are startling.
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/10...1-skid-blocks/

In motorcycle road racing we used high density plastic pucks on the frame to minimize damage if the bike went down.
The rider leathers have similar plastic pucks at the elbows, knees and shoulders. Not just for crashes, as the bike leans into a corner the rider does come in contact with the pavement, sometimes saving a slide from becoming a crash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcaH1FLqGh4

We used Nylon or Delrin.

Wood IMO would wear away quickly. Wheels take up vertical clearance and will not tolerate road speed and load.
jim

[Bicyclops]

Thanks J R, I didn't think of plastic. It does sound more durable than ply and lighter than steel. There are drawbacks to the wheelie idea, for sure. They would be too close to the center of the car to work for the corners unless they where mounted lower which would, as you said, reduce ground clearance - say in a dip.

Ed

[Bicyclops]

Lance said:
Personally I’d raise my ride height and possibly look into some air pucks to raise the front. I’ve got a fully covered bottom , most of which is 16 gave aluminum except for the floor pan, which I switched out for some 9 gage steel sheet. I’m hoping the smooth bottom will yield more mpg and possibly raise my top speed (which I’ll never get to).

Howdy Lance,

I'm over 5" on ride height. I don't think I want to keep going higher. If you make a scrape proof car, they'll just make better scrapes. Don't want to wind up with a rock crawler.

I saw an air puck system for $1300. Seems like a lot. Do you know of any more reasonable setups?

How did you go about fully covering the bottom? I'd love to see some pix.

Ed

[lance corsi]

Agreed on the 5” ride height, that’s what I’m running when finished. I bought a street CF splitter and from there to the main chassis used 16 gage 3003 aluminum for panels. I added tabs onto the frame to screw the under panels on. The rear was similar except for trailer hitch attachment points that I had to work around. I also added an access hole for oil changes so I don’t need to remove any panels for oil changing. I’m going to look into some air pucks and maybe try to make my own version.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Have you thought about air cups. On demand height adjustment. I have stanceparts tankless. Erik the creator put the same system on his gtm.

[Bicyclops]

Can you give me a part number? I don't have my coilovers off the car for measuring right now.

Thanks,

Ed

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

I bought the 14mm version from kuya auto (ships direct from stance). If the coil tower is the same across builds, it should work. I had to mount mine on the bottom for clearance.
Sorry, I did not notice you mentioned cups before I posted.
They are $760 + shipping or something close to that.

[Bicyclops]

I bought the 14mm version from kuya auto (ships direct from stance). If the coil tower is the same across builds, it should work. I had to mount mine on the bottom for clearance.
Sorry, I did not notice you mentioned cups before I posted.
They are $760 + shipping or something close to that.

Did you mount the cups upside down with the spring inside?

Ed

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Yeah, the spring sits inside the cup.