Spacers and a slight lowering -- harmful to performance?

[luciddaydream]

Howdy
If I put spacers on the car, and lowered it a bit, would it be harmful to the car and/or performance at all?
Thanks a lot.

 

[kitkat]

I doubt you'll personally notice much except more scraping.

 

[K_Squared]

I put fairly large (20mm rear and 15mm front) concentric spacers on my BMW 340i and lowered it 1.5" on H&R Sport Springs. Granted it's a totally different car but I did not notice any adverse effects. I think it feels a bit more planted actually and looks WAY more sporty and aggressive but not overkill slammed. I have never tracked the car though so I'd defer to others' opinions on track performance with these mods.

I'm very likely going to at least try the GRP lowering kit and potentially the 6mm spacers depending on how it looks. Usually I do this in a step-wise approach until it's dialed in the way I like it.

 

[scc.131.fe]

I'll run a slight lowering setup when someone after-markets the $100 nose-lift kit that weighs negative pounds.

It's enough on my mind to watch for idiot drivers and deer. For me, this is just a nearly-daily road car and I'll take all of the road clearance I can get!

 

[kitkat]

I put fairly large (20mm rear and 15mm front) concentric spacers on my BMW 340i and lowered it 1.5" on H&R Sport Springs. Granted it's a totally different car but I did not notice any adverse effects. I think it feels a bit more planted actually and looks WAY more sporty and aggressive but not overkill slammed. I have never tracked the car though so I'd defer to others' opinions on track performance with these mods.

I'm very likely going to at least try the GRP lowering kit and potentially the 6mm spacers depending on how it looks. Usually I do this in a step-wise approach until it's dialed in the way I like it.

Does the 340i even have 1.5” of damper travel before hitting the bump stops? I know my m4 has 1” of travel before hitting them at oem ride height.

 

[MickOpalak]

As you know, Lotus is considered the experts in suspension and chassis tuning. They tune dozens of parameters (track, ride height, damping, spring rates, tire sizes, alignment, etc.) for optimum handling. Altering some of these variables will negatively affect their target handling. Will it hurt the cars performance? I think that's subjective but if you think you know better than Lotus' engineers with decades of experience...

 

[kitkat]

As you know, Lotus is considered the experts in suspension and chassis tuning. They tune dozens of parameters (track, ride height, damping, spring rates, tire sizes, alignment, etc.) for optimum handling. Altering some of these variables will negatively affect their target handling. Will it hurt the cars performance? I think that's subjective but if you think you know better than Lotus' engineers with decades of experience...

Yeah i’m not willing to give up much damper travel on such a soft springed and compliant sports car.

 

[Honcho]

Howdy
If I put spacers on the car, and lowered it a bit, would it be harmful to the car and/or performance at all?
Thanks a lot.

Probably not. If the springs are designed for the car they'll likely be more progressive so able to take the same bump force. The shocks will however rebound faster because of the increased spring rate which could make the car more unsettled over larger bumps. Increasing the front track of the car can increase the scrub radius and adversely affect the handling, but not by much. You'll have less ground clearance too, but I've never had any scraping problems with aftermarket springs on any cars I've owned. The dynamic geometry of the car will also be designed for a certain ride height (changes in camber etc. through suspension travel), but again I don't think this will affect things too much. Get it aligned after a ride height change.

 

[Speedy Emira]

As you know, Lotus is considered the experts in suspension and chassis tuning. They tune dozens of parameters (track, ride height, damping, spring rates, tire sizes, alignment, etc.) for optimum handling. Altering some of these variables will negatively affect their target handling. Will it hurt the cars performance? I think that's subjective but if you think you know better than Lotus' engineers with decades of experience...

If you noticed the height of the original test cars and media cars were about 15mm lower than the final production cars. So originally is was developed with a lower ride height and the double wish bone suspension all round and ended up as it is now to fit a wider market.
Due to reading that I decided to replace the coil overs and drop it 15mm all round. I haven’t found any difference in overall drive ability apart from being a bit sharper. Is isn’t harsh and doesn’t bottom out so I’m sure Nitron took the ride height changes as a supplier of coil overs to Lotus.
I have to say I wasn’t fussed about making it handle better but just felt the arch gap was the only thing needing improvement.