[raamaudio]

I see so many posts with pictures of car so severly compromised I just had to write this up. I love to make a car look really great and have lowered dozens for over 46years now but sometimes the extremes I sell give me the shudders when I know what is going on in the real world of driving such vehicles.


I took the time to write the info below as I hope at least some of the members here read and consider this information as I really care about this subject a great deal. I have studied the best books from real race engineers and and implemented and track tested all of the best principles that do not change, they work on all cars, all the time.

Of course some, I hope many, here know this but some obviously do not know or just do not care but maybe I can help a few understand the differences in looking fast and being fast, being fast being far more fun to me than looking fast.

On my own 332ti project the car will be set for the proper ride height so the suspension geometry is the best I can make it, vice slammed and having the car act like is has two wheels as so commonly occurs, overly lowered simply puts nearly all teh weight on the two outside tires, if those are skinny tires on ultra wide rims, you have very little real grip, simple physics. For those that go for style over substance that is OK with me but I have spanked many such "faster" looking cars on course that were simply to low to work right.

I want as much tire for the least fitment issues I can make fit, rolling front fenders is pretty easy and can gain quite a bit of room. Rears are another story, triple layered metal, I have cut it all out and welded in or molded in flares, at least a full day of hard work and I want to skip that if I can. I might end up cutting it all loose, rolling the stock body work out as far as I can then welding in to fill the gap.

Camber, caster, toe, roll center, roll couple, spring rates, roll bar settings, lowered unsprung weight, etc...I have studied and used these for decades and always setup my cars to maximize them.

Stretching tires to fit, that is one thing that bugs me a great deal, more than super tall wheels just to be tall is number two or three as heavy wheels and tires are a huge performance killer. Super wide wheels with skinny tires does not equal performance, it is style only. The perfect stretch, determined by the actual tire in question, is to have some to help support the sidewall, to much or to little reduces grip or precision, either of which makes you slower and/or more prone to making mistakes or simply breaking parts, road hazard issues......add in a slammed car with severely compromised geometry and you are reducing your performance hugely as well as inducing safety issues in many cases.

I have had fun against hundreds of such setups in my 46 years of modding and driving modified cars. Everything is best when in balance, period, there is nothing else that matters to me except the balance of the whole car and that includes how much power I add to it.

With the 300HP and a 2750 lb car I am building, which is more than enough for me, those that want more that is cool, been there and done that before most here were born, I need some serious grip in the rear and front as well for cornering as this car will see serious track time on dozens of tracks driven flat out. I am going to stick with street tires to keep the speeds in check a bit though as I have not driven most of the tracks I will be on one time only in most cases and the tracks have many close guard rails(Armco is the older and often used name in racing)

I also want to keep the car as stock looking as I can outside, I always like stealthy cars, why I have kept my license all these years and cheap insurance rates though hundreds of thousands of fun miles under my belt

If you want to truly be fast then you must use proper geometry and rim width support for your tires, lower unsprug weight as in wheels, tires, brakes, etc...lower rotational weight is very important as well, these are some of the golden rules of racing and all apply to the street as well.

Those that have severely lowered cars on super skinny tires on super wide wheels, have fun, following well behind and dropping out of site of this old man

Sincerely,
Rick