I am lowering my camaro and I'd like to go as low as possible. I am going for 23.75"-24" of clearance from the ground to the fender lip. At the moment I have pretty tall tires that the previous owner put on. 225/70/15 (27.4" diameter). So, theoretically, if i were to achieve 23.75" ground to fender clearance, I'd be tucking 3.65" of tire. Is that possible in an f-body or would I have to buy different tires to achieve my desired height?


Help from fellow slammed camaro drivers would be appreciated!

 

Factory tire height is normally around 26". Switching to a stock tire height will drop it down roughly 1-1/2".

Dropping it with drop spindles and coils will gain a little more but too low causes other issues.

 

I think I was vague with my question...I guess what I really want to know is if there is enough room under the fenders to achieve a 24" ground-to-fender lip height with 225/70/15 tires. Are my tires too tall to allow suspension travel at that ride height?

 

Short answer: no, you can't get that low on those tires.

Long answer: those tires have you .7" higher than stock (the overall diameter is 1.4" taller, divide by two to get the distance from the ground to the hub which is what affects ride height). The only static dropped thirdgen I know of to be as low as you're wanting to take your car is on stock tires and still needed custom fabrication to allow him to get that low and have the car drivable. The tire size has nothing to do with suspension travel, but it does affect fender height. You won't get that low of a fender height on those tires without major fabrication.

If you want to do a static drop, you're looking at cut springs or weight jacks and you'll have to do some sort of revision for more strut travel, as none of the aftermarket strut mounts are tall enough and you'll bottom out your struts with them. DBLTKE has probably one of the lowest static thirdgens out there, you can follow what he did (at your own risk since this is a custom made solution):
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...-91-z28-4.html
Running this low is very bad for suspension geometry. There aren't any drop spindles to give that much of a drop, and I do not recommend the 2" drop ones available right now anyway as they have had an instance of a weld failure and are unsafe. So basically, your only option is to run extended ball joints and cut springs or weight jacks like DBLTKE did. If you plan on doing any performance or spirited driving, I suggest using very stiff rates to offset the negative handling effects caused by the suspension geometry associated with running a McPherson strut car that low, by basically restricting the suspension from moving much. As Colin Chapman said, "any suspension will work if you don't let it."

In back you'll need an adjustable panhard bar and lower control arm relocation brackets to prevent wheel hop if you're running the back as low as the front.

If you've never owned anything slammed before you'll definitely have to relearn how to drive or risk damaging the underside of the car, the oil pan, the tranny pan, the crossmember, etc, etc...

...Or you can do air ride, which will allow you to drive around with stock geometry and ground clearance and then lay the car out whenever you want it to look sick.

Either way, you will have to remove your bump stops and fender liners and possibly pull and or roll your fenders depending on what tire/ wheel size you decide to run.

 

Ok thanks, that's the exact answer I was looking for. So far I have secured: one-off 3" lowering springs (not cut), kyb adjustable shocks, GC weight jacks, and an adjustable panhard bar w/poly bushings.
I am strapped for cash now though so I am thinking about moving the front tires to the rear and putting new stock height tires in the front.

So, with this setup, I should be fine if I install all of the listed components, remove my fender liners and bump-stops, adjust the panhard bar to center the rear and fabricate spacers to raise my strut mounts?

I have had previous cars that were slammed but I've never lowered a third gen this much before.

 

That is too tall of a front tire. There isn't much room in the upper wheel well up front. There a pinch weld seam that will cut into you tire unless you cut it or flatten it. You won't be able to get under 24.25" or so (with a stock height tire) with just springs or weight jacks alone. You can literally remove the front springs and bump stops entirely and with the A-arms resting on the crossmember and you'll be sitting at nearly exactly 24" in the front the only way I was able to get lower was because of the 1" taller ball joints. That gave me more clearance between the A-arm and the crossmember but that in turn created another issue, I could now bottom out the struts. 1" raised strut mounts weren't enough to keep that from happening so I fabbed some 1" spacers to raise the mounts even more. Ideally this would all be much easier if I had drop spindles because they would help solve all those issues.

In the rear you will rub into the issue of the axle tube bottoming out on the bump stop mount. Cutting out that mount and C-notching the inner fender will solve that the. You have to worry about the axle tube hitting your exhaust pipe that runs over it and the center section contacting the fuel tank.

I'd also recommend running fairly high spring rates. How high? I don't know yet. But the 800/200 that I run are way too soft. I was considering switching to 1100-1200 front and 250 rear.

These cars aren't as easy to get really low like a VW or something similar where you can just slap a set of coilovers on it and be done.

 

DBLTKE, thank you so much. Everything you said was spot on. I got new stock height tires, and cut the pinch weld in the front. I'm sitting at exactly 24.25". In the rear, I had to modify my exhaust and notch the inner fender. No issues in the front or rear now. Thank you again.

 

Just to let you know, I have 2 inch drop spindles and a 7.5 x 28 Sportsman tire on the front and have no problem with clearance, my front fender is sitting at just above 25" with the BBC in it