First time on road course, ride height questions?

[ekhonda87]

I will be attending my 1st HPDE road course event on the 22nd. My suspension is mostly stock with just Koni yellow/comtech springs with adjustable perch. Tire sizes are 215 and 255 (pretty standard for 17/18 wheels).

My question is this, is my ride height ok? I do not want to be destroying my fender liners from body roll, or potentially bottoming out my suspension..

Input appreciated guys!

 

[illwillem]

looks like maybe your OK, its all going to depend on how hard your driving and track surface. IE if you are attacking curbing or of theres a big dip in a braking zone. When I first took the NSX to a local track I tore out the fender liner and took the side signals with it. I was on KW v3 and had the same size tires as you. Front signals cost more than youd think so If youre really worried Id say just pull the fronts out for the day, it'll take 5 min.

 

[docjohn]

you look to be at around type r susp drop like mine.....you should be fine.....but don't blame me if you rub the fender liner esp if you like to hit curbing...:wink:

 

[ekhonda87]

What is curbing?

 

[Hapa88]

I got a few questions for you:
1) What are your wheel specs? Diameter? Width? Offsets?
2) You say the front tires are 215, but are they 215/40/17? The almost look like they could be 215/45/17..
3) What tires are you running? Brand appears to be Continental, but what model? Are they the same front & rear?

Thanks!

 

[ekhonda87]

Front: 17x7.5 +43 with 215/40R17 Falken 452 tires (far from ideal, but oh well)
Rear: 18x9.5 +40 with 255/35R18 Continental Extreme Contact DW

 

[docjohn]

curbing as in the sloped little berms along corner apexes......sometimes called gator curbs ect...you see cars bouncing off of these all the time in pro races

 

[nsxalot]

In 8 years of tracking I have never had a problem and I hit the berms most of the turns. Lance

 

[Hapa88]

Front: 17x7.5 +43 with 215/40R17 Falken 452 tires (far from ideal, but oh well)
Rear: 18x9.5 +40 with 255/35R18 Continental Extreme Contact DW

Since:
1) the front wheels have a relatively conservative offset
2) the front tires are Falken 452 and usually run narrow for their posted size
3) the tread compound of the 452 is Ultra High Performance (one step lower in traction from your rear Continental Extreme DW)
I don't forsee any issues with rubbing if you stock fenderliners have all the clips in place.

One thing to note though, your front tires have less grip than your rears meaning you'll probably experience more understeer at the limits. That's probably good if this is your first time..

 

[scammy]

yep you will get understeer, been there done that while I was waiting for my new tyres to arrive however its not a bad thing to experience when you are first getting out there