I just went through a bout of lowering Tiny Tim and I can safely say that if
you change the springs, be prepared to change everything else.
TT is rather unique so what I ended up doing won't necessarily work for
everybody.
I started out with a GT6 Rotoflex frame complete with the GT6 brakes and put a
Mk1 Spit body on it.
The rear was dearched by 1.5" and on a flat autocross course there is no
problem with diff clearance. (Getting an exhaust system under it is a
completely different matter).
On the front, I used Stock GT6 springs with one coil cut off. SInce the engine
is a 1300 small journal, it required some additional cutting (another
coil) to get it to settle where I wanted it. It is considerably stiffer than
it was at the stock length and that is a good thing.
But cutting the last coil off changed the whole suspension geometry and
required another alignment. For autocross, I am using 1.5 degrees of negative
camber and 1/16" of toe out. Using the rotoflex rear suspension, the car
performs better with the stock 5/16" front sway bar than it does with a late
Spit 7/8" one.
Additional tweaking was done in the form of adjusting the shock rates of the
SPAX shocks and the tire pressures.
Be prepared to have clearance problems when lowering the car for street use.
Be very careful where you drive. Even those "Dead Armadillos" or
"Silent Policemen" as they are sometimes called can cause something to drag.
And then there is the problem of how to trailer a lowered car. The best
way is find a place to park the trailer where you have the trailer setting
lower than the surface and just drive the car straight on instead of up a
ramp.
Cheers,
Joe
Douglas Frank wrote:
>
> Hmm, while Paul Tegler struggles with spring rates, I've got another one for
> ya.
>
> Say, just for the sake of argument, mind you... that... a friend is
> considering lowering his GT6. Now, *I* know perfectly well that a Spit/GT6
> can't be lowered much at all before it starts dragging its diff, but my
> littlevoice... I mean friend, wants to drop the front ohmaybe 3/4 inch.
>
> One option, and the easy one, is to scrounge some shorter springs. But just
> popping in a shorter set of sproingers will settle the suspension at 3/4 inch
> of "bump". Is that good? Prolly not... for one thing, it locks in some
> negative camber. A better option would be new vertical links with the
> spindles offset upwards by the required amount of drop.
>
> Now, where would my friend find such a set of spindles? ...Santa? ...Joe?
> ...anyone?
>
> or is there an easier way?
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