Yeah, I should have waited to post a more accurate picture. I corrected all of the corners to those measurements I stated.The (passenger side) rear had to be lowered 3mm and the front (passenger side)had to go up 6mm. And at my alignment today the measurement was only a 1/8" rake, (1/2" stock) so the rear was lower than I originally thought. My alignment guy did confirm that all my corners were equal height, side-to-side. I'm pretty happy with where it sits now, I'll post a more accurate 'after' picture soon.

 

Ride height by far has the largest effect on car behavior when it comes to suspension changes in my opinion. I can't see any reason why you wouldn't want to run at Ohlins (or similar) ride height settings unless you need the ride height for clearance reasons. Being able to go lower for performance reasons is really THE reason to have coilovers. Stiffer spring rate to accommodate the lower ride height, and dampers to accommodate the stiffer springs. Not to mention all the other effects lower ride height has on the car from an aero standpoint and so on.

Not that having stiffer springs/dampers won't have an effect at stock ride height, but ride height is way more important in my opinion.

 

Ride height by far has the largest effect on car behavior when it comes to suspension changes in my opinion. I can't see any reason why you wouldn't want to run at Ohlins (or similar) ride height settings unless you need the ride height for clearance reasons. Being able to go lower for performance reasons is really THE reason to have coilovers. Stiffer spring rate to accommodate the lower ride height, and dampers to accommodate the stiffer springs. Not to mention all the other effects lower ride height has on the car from an aero standpoint and so on.

Not that having stiffer springs/dampers won't have an effect at stock ride height, but ride height is way more important in my opinion.
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I went with Ohlins for the damping, and accepted the spring rates because I knew the car wouldn't ride poorly because of them. Once you have a set of really good shocks on there, I think tires are the next biggest effect, rather than ride height.

The car is "low enough" stock, for anything but a dedicated track car. Real roads up here in the PNW are not necessarily in good shape, especially the roads that are fun to drive this car on. I was talking to Patrick at Urge around the time I made the switch back to stock height, and he said something to the effect that a lot of track guys had found the car more stable in very fast corners at stock height, especially if there were any bumps in the corner.

 

My car is a track car and being lower is desirable for all the reasons already noted.

All the fast guys I know win national championships and they run them low enough that I cannot get my jack under the side. I was not looking to dump the car, but they do not go remotely low in the back. I can't get my rears even on my car at the lowest ride height, but if they had more adjustment or a shorter spring (which I am going to do now), that wouldn't be a problem.

I hope these things perform, because I'm missing my KWv3's with 12k/10k springs right now.

 

Definitely go for a drive after making height adjustments. Just putting the car back on the ground measures out high. Go for a nice drive, measures spot on.

 

Already have. It hasn't changed. Bought shorter springs and will lower the collar to achieve ride height.

 

So will getting a spring 30mm shorter, then setting it to Ohlin's 2mm preload, "solve" the preload / height / shock travel issues? It seems like it would make sense without keeping the Ohlin supplied spring excessively compressed at all times, but after reading 55 different takes on the issue I don't know what to think anymore. I'm looking to buy a set of budget coilovers that will get me through 2 years of racing, but this limited travel issue is bothering me .

 

Getting a shorter spring doesn't change ride height by itself since you run the collar back up to preload the spring. Ride height will be EXACTLY the same.

 

so, the only benefit would be basically gaining the ability to cheat the system and lower the height of the car in the rear, by the combination of the shorter spring and the amount of pre-load, right?

 

I will likely end up lowering the collar on my car. The left rear just doesn't get low (not even to 13" hub to fender). The guy who is doing my corner balance next week recommended not adding more preload. He won NASA TT3 Nationals the last two years and AutoX Nationals BSP class this past year and SM in 2010. He sets up his own cars as well as nearly everyone else's.