How Low Can You Go?

[ultimatepowder]

Just hoping someone can shed some light on ride heights?

Whats legal? Whats Defect-able?

Can a car be left at stock height yet have very low skirts?

Does it vary between makes/models? My brother wants to have some fun with the Astra in my avatar...would this ride height be different to an R32/R33/R34?

Im also posting this in the suspension section

Any help would be great thanks guys (and girls)

[Spook's_Skyline]

dont you have to be able to fit a coke can (roughly) beneath the lowest point of the car and the ground?

[Jay95R33]

It's 100mm.

Basically the only part of your car that can be lower than 100mm is your rims and tyres (cause they have to touch the ground ).

There is also a ruling on taking a messurement on how high your headlights are, which I don't know the full details on.

Best checking in your State/Territory.

J

[Elithrar]

The height of your headlights above the ground is dependent on state. From what I can remember, us guys in WA have the most 'restrictive' distance for the headlights. But it's nothing to worry about, really. Buy the time you get that low, you'd be suffering from other problems.

[DJ984]

yep, 100mm at lowest point, i think headlights was like 300mm or sumfin?..... go to www.rta.nsw.gov.au and have a look... it's all there in PDF files....

[Nizmo]

Yeah i live in WA and my car is pretty low ... wouldnt be able to fit a coke can under it but its not so low it looks totally ridiculous .....well apart from the time the shockies went the tops of the tyres disappeared under the guard but anyway ..... i havent had much trouble from the law authorities for it.

But if your thinking of lowering your car ....be prepared for some $$$ to be spent constantly reattaching your front bar to the car ..... mine scrapes on a lot of driveways and it keeps making the bar loose .... not to mention hitting zorst on speed bumps .... in fact they are making cars lower n lower and speed bumps higher n higher.

But anyway if you ring your local transport authority they should be able to give you some ansewers ..... unless you live in WA when the ansewers you get depend on the person on the other end of the phone..... they seem to be made up as they go along.

[redline2003]

100mm of the lowest hanging point of ur car(meaning skirts, xzorst,etc), depending on ur state i 'heard' people got done for how low the diff is compared to the axel(or something like that), can anyone elaborate on it, dont think the cops will pik on the diff thing though

[ultimatepowder]

thx heaps guy, ill check all tha website, and read up on it...then ill post sum pix when he finally does it...i no its not a 'line, but it will eventually share a driveway with one :headspin:

[RBVS]

for wa ;

headlight height not to be lower than 500mm from the ground to the lower edge of the illuminated area of the light, park and indicators to be 350mm minimum height;

Ground clearance of vehicale must be not less than 100mm with the vehicle loaded or all seat positions occupied.

which is crap because if you have a vehicle with IRS one person in the back would defalt the car with factory suspension.

[Ash]

lol my fog lights are only about 1/2 an inch from the bottom of my very low front bar

[Warpspeed]

Yeah, the car must be able to be rolled over the top of a 100mm high block anywhere over the full width of the car. I have seen them use an L shaped piece of metal to test this. Nothing must touch, if the metal L falls over, you fail. so you need at least 101+ mm clearance everywhere.

I know this is right in Vic, and probably so everywhere else these days.

[Warpspeed]

Yeah, the car has to completely clear a 100mm high block when it is rolled over it without the driver.

I have seen them use a 100mm high L shaped piece of metal. If it falls over, when the car is rolled over it, you fail. Its a good test because there can be no argument about 99mm versus 101mm, it either falls over or it does not.

[Ash]

yeah, a coke can is 100mm tall, a good thing to do is if a cop is trying to defect you and he is driving a commodore, see if a coke can will fit under the skirts, because my mate who worked for holden says they have shit suspension and it saggs very quickly to a defectable height.

so u can defect the cops

[PHaT MR30]

Hehe, nice

I think its a cigarette packet down here in tassie

We wound the coilovers down low as when i fitted them in my silvia damn it was low zorst was less than an inch off the ground! gave it a 2F2F look from behind when sparks flew out the back, couldn't get in and out of my driveway though so i had to raise it

[Ash]

lol i am legal height and i still cant get up my driveway

[RaseR]

Hey, thought I'd add a recent experience I had to this thread - I got defected for being too low last Friday, the whole car cleared the 100mm limit except for the middle muffler which was 10mm too low, so the police can be awfully strict/pedantic when they want to be, a good warning for ppl who are thinking of lowering. Meanwhile I'm having the std springs refitted (read: tractor stylez) as my exhaust is 3.5" and there is no possibility of increasing the clearance without re-engineering the whole zorst, arrggh! Ahhh well, some good will come out of it....always wanted to get height adj. coilovers!! Now I've got an excuse to get them even quicker!!

Dave.

[STYLINE]

yes very nice,photos not bad either.

Happy 21st