Ground clearance
Discussion
Having finally decided that I need a Cerbera 4.5 in my life I am now thinking about a few practicalities. I have a rather steep drive so I am wondering what the ground clearance is like (it says 13cm in the specs but that's no help). For example, does the average multi-storey give trouble ? And what is the first thing that usually scrapes ? Any hints or horror stories gratefully received.
P.S Anyone know what the boot capacity is in litres, cubic feet etc - this is to settle an argument, not a practical issue !
It says 130mm, and I'm sure it is. the reality is that it will clear more than you think. MS -car parks are fine, the only thing that gets mine are collapsible plates some carparks use.
I had a question about getting into my driveway and the dealer was happy to drive halfway round the M25 with the demo car to check (was a new sale tho)
Hope this helps
I agree, collapsable plates are a problem. I also had a problem with an NCP car park in Brighton, admittedly with two adults and my 6 foot son in the back!. Other car parks have been fine. I have grounded on some speed bumps on private roads but usually by taking them at more than 5 mph. I think it is the plate that protects the gearbox which gets hit. My son tells me I missed hitting my exhausts by 1 cm backing out of a steep driveway. I would love to know how you can predict what is going to be a problem. I have been suprised at how many speed bumps have been o.k. and suprised at how some are not. Also how expensive are gearbox protection plates?
If you actually have a look underneath, the part of the car which should bottom out first are the bolts retaining the catalytic converter protection plate right in the middle... doesn't matter too much if these get ground off a bit. The gearbox is quite a bit higher if I recall correctly.
Having recently moved into a house up a private road with speed humps, I have been experencing grounding on two of the 6 humps that I have to drive over. However, the grounding can be avoided if I drive on one particular side of the 2 problem humps unless I have a passenger in which case it always grounds.
This is a pain but appears that the contact is with two bolts in the middles of the car that hold a plate to protect the exhaust or something. I have been assured that the scraping of these bolts is not anything major to worry about.
I did notice that if I pumped my tyres up to 24 psi front and 26 psi back (instead of 22/24) that the extra tyre pressure gave me enough clearance to not ground the car. I am not sure of the implications of driving with this excess tyre pressure though.
Kris
The esprit sport 350 was the worst I had for ground clearance, Went shopping in Tunbridge wells and couldn't get down the ramps in the victoria multi-storey car park!! Ended up having to reverse down. Main reason for that was the front apron being only 3" from the floor it was a nightmare to own from that perspective. Cerbera I've never had a problem although I noticed my old 4.2 was worse than my recently sold 4.5. They have more of a tendenct to ground out halfway rather than up front. 355s, due to having long snout, have probs with inclines. I remember le Mans 99 on the seacat getting ferry workers on either side of Beaver's 355 then my Lotus, lifiting us over the ramps.
Amazingly my Griffith has better clearance than the Alfa Spider I have just bought my wife. I have two wooden ramps made of double thickness scaffold plank. I used to run my S3c up on these in order to be able to open the bonnet without scraping the nose. I still keep these on the garage floor under the Griffith. When I ran the Alfa over them it fouled them underneath. I guess they are about 3" thick 
Rich...
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