Author |
Message |
Geoff Mace
Newbie WA TT
Posts: 4 Reg: 12-2011
| Hi, I have recently purchased a 94 tt soarer, I am looking at lifting it about 2-3 inches as I will be offroad racing it (autokhana, offroad motorkhaha etc). Will this be as simple as making spacers for the top of the struts and a few spacers for steering and control arms etc? Another question is, is there any other bolt on suspension out of a supra or aristo or similar that will give an inch or 2 lift? |
Matt Sartori
Goo Roo Western Australia Rx7
Posts: 1062 Reg: 08-2008
| buy a cheap set of adj coilovers, wind em up high as you can? |
Andrew Duaso
DieHard Victoria 11.6 1/4
Posts: 684 Reg: 02-2009
| you should have maybe chosen a better car for the intended purpose it'll be easy to raise it, maybe not so easy to give it good alignment |
Dan McColl
Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Posts: 3195 Reg: 07-2005
| No bolt on's for lift. Easy to raise with coilovers. You may need to fab up some custom lower control arms to get some reasonable camber and track back after the lift. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo North Island JZZ31
Posts: 6536 Reg: 10-2005
| Yeah, odd choice of vehicle! |
David Henderson
TryHard Nsw TT
Posts: 276 Reg: 08-2007
| Spacers work fine, there's enough length on the bolts for about a 15mm spacer for 30mm lift. HSDs dont have enough travel to raise the car by too much (rear especially) and the HRs are way too stiff for off road imho. Supra bilsteins with either a gixxer drew coilover conversion or re cut spring perches would be my choice, assuming a relatively tight budget, or fond a longer travel shock and adapt it BTW sounds like an awesome project Baja Soarer |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car
Posts: 3049 Reg: 04-2006
| I once lifted an Rx-7 to pass rego by making spacers for the strut top out of 12mm MDF, LOL. Actually worked quite well, and they sat in there for a couple of weeks until I got around to pulling them out. Would recommend a better choice of material for a long term solution. I reckon Dan is onto something though. As you increase the ride height you are going to have issues with suspension alignment. You will have progressively less neg camber available from the factory arms, and eventually only positive camber available. Longer lower arms would be the solution, but in my searches I never came across a set from another car that would bolt in. I do not know enough about off road suspension requirements to comment intelligently, but I assume there is a lot more pitch and roll from a higher ride height. Maybe there would be enough travel under brakes for the wheel to gain some camber back. Like I said, no idea how they are set up. Incidentally, I have also made MDF C sections and inserted them into the spring coils for a temporary lift for interstate transports.
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Tom Brookes
TryHard NSW Nil
Posts: 110 Reg: 03-2010
| New shocks/springs as they sag over time? |
David Henderson
TryHard Nsw TT
Posts: 277 Reg: 08-2007
| It wouldnt be hard to get the rear right with spacers under the sub frame mounts, make some arms for the front yourself maybe? on our uni FSAE car we use rod, threaded on the inside with sperical bushes |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car
Posts: 3055 Reg: 04-2006
| I'll bet your FSAE car doesn't weigh 1.6 tonnes but. PLenty of people have looked at making lower control arms, but have baulked once they realise the loads they need to carry especially in competition. I know, I wanted to make/modify some LCA and discovered it was going to be harder than I thought. An engineering shop I spoke to basically told me you would need to start from scratch, and it would be easier to make your own custom uprights rather than mess around trying to fit up to the stock uprights etc. If someone does eventually do it, I'll be interested in a pair. Are you on the FSAE car project? That FSAE stuff really interests me as there have been some, um, unconventional ideas come out of it that seem to work. I would love to have access to a FSAE team and or their lecturers/mentors to help me on my track car. I have folllowed a few links from aerodynamics forums and ended up reading into a few past FSAE projects. |
Mike Beck
Goo Roo New Zealand BMW E36 Coupe 1UZFE V8 340i
Posts: 5436 Reg: 11-2005
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Matthew Sharpe wrote on Friday, January 06, 2012 - 07:18 am:Yeah, odd choice of vehicle!
Word. I don't get it. Do you get a cool prize for coming last? |
David Henderson
TryHard Nsw TT
Posts: 278 Reg: 08-2007
| Ben you're right, it weighs about 210 kg. Since the focus is on saving weight they are thin enough to bend when picking the car up. I think they're only 1.6mm tube with threaded inserts either end. Some other teams use Carbon, the super technical teams use the control arm to provide the function of the spring as well, thus saving more weight. Each team seems to have a specialty. The cars end up very varied, last year (2011) Monash Uni won, using an insane aero package (100kg downforce @ 60km/hr)and a KTM 450 engine. Our car uses a CF undertray for downforce and is propelled by an R6 engine. I'm in the UTS team, there's a fait bit of knowledge around, we dont do heaps of aero on our car yet but I'm sure if you called/ visited Monash or Edith Cowan Unis they'd give you some time, the monash guys are particularly switched on. They know heaps about CFD software and have a wind tunnel at they're disposal too Back to topic, making LCAs out of billet would be an interesting project, you'd be surprised how good the Chinese are getting at turning out items from CAD now |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car
Posts: 3063 Reg: 04-2006
| I have always said the chinese make good copies for the international market, but the stuff they developed on their own is not great. Heaps of companies do all the research and development, then go to china for the manufacturing. If you go ahead and make your own, I'd be interested in them provided I have the funds (none right now, LOL) and they would suit my needs. |
David Henderson
TryHard Nsw TT
Posts: 280 Reg: 08-2007
| I agree Ben, the chineese seem to have trouble inventing things for themselves, but are great at reproducing things from CAD drawings well. CNC machinery and cheap metals probably have a lot to do with it. Once I get heaps better at Solidworks I'l look into it, I think we have a 3d scanner at Uni too- anyone got some Ikea arms? |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car
Posts: 3065 Reg: 04-2006
| I have the uppers, but am a long way from you. At a thousand bucks a set, I baulked at buying the lower 'roll centre adjuster' arms. |
Geoff Mace
Newbie WA TT
Posts: 5 Reg: 12-2011
|
Mike Beck wrote on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 08:22 pm:
I don't come to maccas and ask you why you work there.... |
Geoff Mace
Tinkerer WA TT
Posts: 6 Reg: 12-2011
| I think I'm going to go with spacers, I haven't had a good look at the lower and upper arms yet, but might look into relocating/spacing out the ball joints for alignment if it's possible. The aim of the lift is mainly to have the ability for bigger tyres when I need them, we race at several venues and one needs bigger tyres to avoid washouts and rocks etc. The bottom of the car will be completely bash plated so not too concerned about the belly height. |
Dan McColl
Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Posts: 3228 Reg: 07-2005
| Good to see people doing interesting things with soarer's. Look forward to seeing the progress. |
Dan McColl
Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Posts: 3229 Reg: 07-2005
| Slotting the adjustment holes in the crossmember will get you a little bit of camber back, but not a lot. |
Ali Saeed
Goo Roo WA Nothing yet :/
Posts: 3786 Reg: 09-2007
| dont mind Mike Geoff, hes the local troll |
Phil Gibson
Goo Roo WA '91 UZZ30, '91 manual UZZ31 track bunky, '94 blk/blk UZZ31
Posts: 1957 Reg: 07-2005
| If you got an airbag V8 all you need is a suspension controller or 5 minutes with a spanner...
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Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo North Island JZZ31
Posts: 6555 Reg: 10-2005
| I think 20 year old airbags would bust pretty quick if you were tearing around a cow paddock though. |
Mike Beck
Goo Roo New Zealand BMW E36 Coupe 1UZFE V8 340i
Posts: 5442 Reg: 11-2005
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Ali Saeed wrote on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 03:54 am:dont mind Mike Geoff, hes the local troll
Something like that.
Matthew Sharpe wrote on Thursday, January 19, 2012 - 06:14 am:I think 20 year old airbags would bust pretty quick if you were tearing around a cow paddock though.
Heh, obviously he's joking. Although you could fill the air bags with silicone so they were always high, and would not burst. |