Car used in measurements 360GL 1988, driven 256 000km
Stock 3dr GL rear from wheel arch to center of hub cap is
355mm that is with fuel tank empty + 20-30kg extra weight at boot, naturally all normal spare tire and jack there. Rear tire pressure 2,1bar tires 185/60/14 brand is Viking protech 500 (performance tires).
GL with Klien made GLT front springs, from wheel ar to center of hub cap is
360mm. Front tire pressure 1,9bar tires 185/60/14 brand is Viking protech 500 (performance tires)
Note, top of strut has this triangle shaped support and those are not too good shape on mine, rubber has gave out and crackling, that causes measure to drop about 2-3mm from normal.
According to factory spec from GLT and GL it should be that front ground clearance 180mm rear 200mm.
Quick calculation from measurements that Ali kindly provided for me, Ali's front is 35mm lower than my front, rear 55mm, tires make of course some difference here if tire diameter is not same.
Damper travel in 300 front is 158mm and by default I think it is over 90mm used when car is at rest and level surface, that would leave approx 70mm bump damping, when you lower 35mm that would leave 35mm bump damping, rest is rebound ie. freely available for roll, which you may limit with stiffer dampers and roll bars, also with cutting dampers short.
One thing I'm forgetting here is that there is something like 50mm long bump stops on front dampers, which are bit like extra springs, very stiff, they are made from thick rubber. I need to measure what is real position of damper when car is at level to get my calculations bit more useful and precise.
Stock suspension is so soft, that car is leaning against bump stops on corners or if those are removed, then car is using 100% of bump travel, that makes handling to change dramatically, for example if front is 100% that would mean spring stiffness of infinite causing loads of understeer, if this happens at rear only it will mean oversteer.
This is just quick analysis with very poor facts to let you have small idea what is happening in suspension, remember to read from other part of forum my post about lowering suspension, there is little information about roll center and what it does, very important to know and understand if you are lowering car for handling purpose.
You can make whole suspension with numbers and put that to practice, this way you can't go wrong
Drifting is of course bit different from grip, when drifting you don't like balance to be changed or lot of weight transfer, you like to limit suspension movements so that you can kick tail out easily and keep it there so that it won't grip by itself, rear ARB is good and stiff rear dampers, softer to front.
This is just my vision, idea from drifting suspension and I can be very wrong too, however I feel that at least I have got some good ideas how things work in drifting suspensions.
My mate with the video camera just said he watched the footage and it looked pretty good so hopefully should be encoded and editted into a video soon!
