Suspension Dams on Production Cars

[PaleMelanesian]

Some high-end offroad vehicles - Land Rover comes to mind - have on-the-fly adjustable ride height.

[PaleMelanesian]

Nice article here: http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2456/article.html
Especially this part:

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

i drive around town in 5th

i've been wondering... woudn't a partial infaltable nose be workable? .

Perhaps, but a tail would be a much easier place to start. There's a lower chance of the air ripping it off there, and usually more places to strap it on. We all know that a tail helps.

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Nice article here: http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2456/article.html
Especially this part:

Attachment 694

Nice! That helps me plan!

[dremd]

S class, x5, Cayenne, and some Tourags have adjustable ride height as well.

[lunarhighway]

here's what i build over the weekend... the final result is not to extreme as it only a bit lower than the front dams, owning to the size of the material available... than again, i could always enlarge them later.

i cut up two 50CD-r spindle lids and unroled them, than i used a perforator to make a series of clean holes in them for the screws (a couple more than needed just in case)

next a gave the back a coat of black paint. since theyre transparent this gives the front a nice gloss finish and the paint can't get sandblasted off at the front (wich happened on my previous car) finally i used some small self tapping wood screws to secure them to the wheel well liner.

here's some pictures:
before:


the source material:


painted:


installed:




the last picture shows they might not do all that much, as the car already has some small dams at the front of the bumper... still some air that might hit the suspention and be deflected above it now will be forced below and around it. also the perspective of the picture makes them look smaller then they actually are

i'll see what they are like to drive with in the next few days.

[thebrad]

So is it more aerodynamic to block any air going to the tires from the front end like Andrew J's Civic VX?

[Arminius]

Nice pics, lunarhighway! I'm going to be giving car lot security guards something to worry about in an hour. Hope there's no law against looking......

[trikkonceptz]

Thank the tuner world for advancing the air ride technology. Now a days you can get an air ride suspension for any vehicle. I have on eon my Scion and with proper adjustment I can go from pancaking the body kit flush with the floor to 3" above stock height, which is how I get it on and off the trialer. These kits come with electronics that allow you to monitor individual strut pressures as well as allowing to set and lock pressures digitally, even with presets.

Plus you get the added bonus or air ride, which is alot smoother than your standard shock and coil suspensions ..

[cfg83]

lunarhighway -

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

here's what i build over the weekend... the final result is not to extreme as it only a bit lower than the front dams, owning to the size of the material available... than again, i could always enlarge them later.

i cut up two 50CD-r spindle lids and unroled them, than i used a perforator to make a series of clean holes in them for the screws (a couple more than needed just in case)

next a gave the back a coat of black paint. since theyre transparent this gives the front a nice gloss finish and the paint can't get sandblasted off at the front (wich happened on my previous car) finally i used some small self tapping wood screws to secure them to the wheel well liner.

here's some pictures:
...

the source material:


...

I love to see this kind of re-use of "lying around stuff".

CarloSW2

[ecoxantia]

Indeed Citroen kept their hydro-pneumatic suspension largely unchanged from the 50's up until year 2000. Their larger cars still use a version of it.

I believe the C5 and maybe others do indeed lower ride height at speed for economy. These are not high-end cars in terms of cost, either. The ride height and attitude is maintained regardless of load - another economy advantage.

However on most models Citroen do not give the facility for height changes at highway speeds - I guess this would mean the driveshafts would be operating at permanently offset positions.

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

come to think of it, the old citroens like the DS did have this special suspention that would cause the cars to "sit down" when it was parked and than raise to a cerain level depending on the weight they where carying... these cars had fixed rear wheel fairings

but could lift a wheel of the ground so that it would drop out of the wheelwell and could be removed.... clever stuff for it's time and even now, i even think you could select various ride heights. sooo the technology for variable ride height is definately out there.

in fact later 80's and early 90's citroens had really gread drag quoefficients as well so with a little tweaking and aeromodding that could be an interesing starting point for a project.