Vixen 2500 Ground Clearance and Tyres

[yosini]

Hello all,

Just bought a nice new set of 165 R15s - probably a bit of an impulse purchase as I didn't see any options on the profile so just assumed that as they were such an old size of tyre they are all fat donuts....not so it seems. If I put them on it looks like the car will sit around 3cm lower - which given the amount of speed bumps in London and the fact it will scrape currently with anything more than a heavy bag of shopping on the passenger seat would be sump smashingly bad.

I don't think mine sits any lower then other Vixens, so do all Vixen owners have problems with ground clearance, or is it more pronounced on the 2500 lump? Although looking underneath the exhaust and front ARB are equally low. Do folks just not drive theirs in London?

I had a thought about getting a second set of wheels, putting the lower profiles on those and swapping when I'd be doing more decent road driving and stay on the donuts whilst commuting in SpeedBumpCity. Always fancied a set of old skool Revolutions so maybe this gives me a chance to do more impulse shopping. Would the Vixen be Ford fittings for its PCD etc?

Thoughts?

Cheers

Joe

[the other tim]

Vixen pcd is 4.5"/114.3mm Tr4 5 6 etc Mgb, Datsun 240z, Ford wheels won't fit as their 4 stud pcd is 4-1/4". Measure the available backspace on the rear and buy wheels on that basis as that's the limiting factor. From memory it's around 80-85 mm, but do check.

Edited by the other tim on Saturday 16th March 09:27

[Moto]

If you want to stick to a single set of usable tyres best go for either 185/70 15's or 195/65 15's. Plenty of these around and relatively cheap. These will give you similar height to original 165 full profile.

Yes, it will still ground out on bumps, just less often.

Alternative or additional improvement can be made with adjustable dampers - stiffen them up or/and wind the base plate up to raise the car. Both these will obviously affect handling and comfort.

Big thing is to avoid those raised speed bumps that are designed specifically to damage low slung sports cars. The ones that are square'ish and don't go from one side to the other but sit in the middle of the lane so that all the tin top boring cars, don't have to slow down at all as their wheels just span the lump. Where as we try to do that and rip the sump or exhaust off.

Moto

[280i]

I was having lots of problems grounding out with my Vixen 2500 but then I found the car was sitting to low. My car has dampers with adjustable perches. So I then set the car up with the lower wishbones parallel to the ground and I have much less of a problem.