big problem varishocks

[Marcus SC&C]

Klaus and I have been working this over and the primary issue is that the car is simply set much too low. He raised the ride height some and the arms had a lot more clearance. At this point the pivot axis of the lower ball joints was still above the inner pivot axis where the arms bolt to the frame. That`s too low. You want the inner pivot far enough above that you allow for some brake dive before the geometry goes south. See pic. The orange line is level. The red line shows where a line between the pivot axis is now (at the "raised ride height") and the blue shows where it really should be for best geometry and performance. Basically the Spohn arms use the cross bar in lieu of a bumpstop to prevent over compressing the suspension and causing shock or steering linkage damage.



At that height the car is still about 1.5" or so lower than stock and everything has plenty of clearance and travel. If you want the car lower for cosmetic reasons simply use tall lower ball joints (in this application) or spindles with some additional drop like AFXs and you can have lots of travel,great geometry and the stance you want. Coil overs aren`t the end all be all of lowering a car and making it handle,they`re just another useful tool in the box. Like any tool they have to be used properly for best performance. A new option BTW are the SPC Performance tubular lower arms which offer 1" of additional drop and more clearance as well as enhanced geometry and bumpstops. We`ll have them up on the site as soon as our web guy gets off his butt. Mark SC&C