I'm having a hard time uderstanding this concept.

I see some camaros around here that have the front wheels tucked. How is this accomplished without rubbing the top of the wheel well. Is it that the front suspension doesn't cycle as much? Or do they remove the plastic inner well peices.

I'm not going for the tucked look, more so of the picture below. But wouldn't the fronts rub going through intersections and etc, even at this ride height?

Not my car but what I'm reffering to.

 

Great question, I often wondered the same, maybe an air suspension and its lowered for picture taking, then raised for driving.... ??

Imposible to drive if the wheel hit fender.

Love the look though.
This yellow car is awesome, cut low.

 

Exactly. I love his car too. Maybe they are bagged or using weight jacks. But I'm sure some are using regular spring setups with no problems.

 

The most important thing to remember when your driving a low car is....THAT YOU ARE DRIVING A LOW CAR!

With that said, like in regards to street intersections where there is a dip in the road is to WATCH for such things & SLOW DOWN.

I have 17" x 9" wheels with 275/50 tires and the top of my fender lip is 25.5" from the ground using Ground Control Weight Jacks. It put the lip of the front nose just above a sidewalk curb so when I pull up to park there, I don't have to worry about the nose hitting. I doubt there is even 1/8" between the sidewalk & the cars nose, but they don't hit = no damage. And I do have to be aware of the road ahead of me & slow down for any dips in the road and STOP for speed bumps in parking lots then slowly get the front tires over the speed bump, ease forward until the rear tires are at the speed bump, ease them over & then I can actually DRIVE again.

Such is the cost of looking good! lol Judging by the looks of the car in the pics above? It is at about the same height as mine.

 

I think that looks is more of a style over functionality thing. Car either has to be on bags or is rarely to never driven. With that low of a height, one pot hole, or big road imperfection and your tires are screwed.

 

I just said mine is about the same height & static, no bags. And it is not only my Daily Driver but is also my ONLY car. So yeah.....Low can be dependable, if the owner behaves, ie:watches the road for potholes/road imperfections, when driving it.

 

I love your car, but that kind of constantly defensive driving for the sake of a lowered car just isnt worth the stress. It just takes the fun out of driving.

 

I really don't see it as much of a hassle. Other than speed bumps in parking lots (which your going slow in anyways) or careful at the very few intersections in my town? I don't see it as any hassle at all. I guess if the town a person lives in has bad roads & bad intersections? Then yeah. PITA

 

mine tucks the fronts a bit, I drive the **** out of it and it's not really an issue. The bump stops keep wheel to fender contact to a minimum

 

Other than my chin spoiler taking an abuse (use to rattlecan touch it up with duplicolor every few months, the underneath of the car can be modified enough to take any speedbump abuse. with the proper grinding and welding of a "skidplate" type fucntion of most aftermarket Torquarm front xmember mounts. Make sure the exhaust tucks flush with the oilpan and does not hang down, nor the I-pipe and weld on some good tucked SFCs that are abut the same height as the gound effects of the rocker panels and the car will roll over any speedbump without much spraping damge other tha a little paint under the chin spolier and rocker panels.

As for suspensiopn use- that is a different story. Better research your poop about suspension geometry or you will be miseralble. Tires over a 245 witdh up from will rub expeciall if put onto a less than 0mm offset wheel. Note that 1LE brakes set any facotry wheel out in offset .3" more than the oem delco morraine brake do- so be aware of that issue as well.

Strut mounts? the factory strut mount on a V8 car will hit the underneath of a stock oem strut mount in apox 26" or less fender ride height for certain. THis you will need definately some aftermarket strut mounts which are generally all made with extended sturt travel freedom.

A-arm bump stops? is a problem at about 26" or less also as well as A-arm geometry as pertained to camber curve. What is Camber curve? it is the suspenion overall tire footprint that is engineered into the factory ride height of the vehicle so when the car leans into a corner the wheel angle decresses more negatively as the suspension squats in the turn. THe lower you get the car the more this is lost and turns into Camber loss- it will kill your lateral grip unless you compromise with alot of negative static camber- and this bandaid fix will cuase massive inside tire wear going straight. Best solution to this is to use DROP SPINDLES. As of today, this is and or extended ball joints is the only way to make a car loww and decrease the effects of loosing camber gain.

Light weight car and Digressive valved shocks. The only way you will have a decent ride quality and not have the wheel/tire package ram into the fender at high damper speeds, yet not be so harsh at low damper speeds. Botht he car and the wheel package need to be light weight so each do not thrust upon eachother.

With that said, I had an extremely built and extremely lightweight V6 Camaro that had a front fender measurement of 24 3/4" that I could hammer on all day long and never hit the fenders...ever. The car also pulled a documented (as many of you already know) 1.07g's on 245/50-16 220tw dot street tires- and was the bitch ex wife's daily driver grocery getter until she was awarded it in the divorce and got it stolen 4 months later (excuse me while I laugh- its been 5 years of stomach pain every time I think of this travisty...but sorry, I dirgess for a moment...wait for it...hahahaha...sorry again. She sometimes read this seeing what I have been up to and still stalking me) But hey, somebody got some badass parts off that car that were one of a kind- touche and Merry Christmas. Glad anyone else could use them other than that wicked wench. Class dismissed. (Y'all didn't know there was a $5 covercharge to read my comedy?)

 

$5 Paid

 

I'm tucking a little on the front of my Mercedes, how it does it is stretching the tire onto the wheel. For example, I have a 16x8 rim, but instead of a normal 225 or 245 I run a 205 to stretch the tire, so the tire sits on the rim like this: / \

That, a long with negative camber I am able to ride that low and not rub at all. But the car is that low because of lowering springs. You'd need air ride or springs to get that low, or you could go coilovers.

Example:

 

^^^ Is that a W126 on Ronals? I have a W202 Brabus and alot of people do the same when they run too wide a front tire. The w202 does not have alot of camber correction and automatically yeild ALOT of negative camber when lowered. Might look ok, but it will ride terrible- I have seen this many many times and it distrys the beautiful factory ride quality of the car.

This is what I am building right now, I found the rare European Brabus kit a few months ago in some guys San Diego storage unit-

 

True AMG 500SE. On the Gen 1 AMG Pentas. Ride quality is the same as stock.

 

The lower you go the stiffer your springs need to be. Yes, stuff will rub or bottom out if you aren't careful. you need to slow down for intersections, crawl over speed bumps, avoid steep driveways etc. I don't find it a nuisance. It just makes me a safer driver. Lowered isn't just an adjective, its a lifestyle. Here's my car tucking tire.

 

Thanks for the input guys.

I am not worried so much about the chin spoiler or under carriage bottoming out since I am running a larger wheel. I'm just concerned about the tire rubbing the front fender. What is a safe distance from the top of the front tire to the fender, so that I don't have to worry about fender rubbing?

I'm running moog 5662 with KYB GR2 struts.

I know what I am asking is VERY vague and allows many variables, but I just want a generalization before I start cutting.

I tend to over think things.