105 Ride height

[Tim Jobson]

In my search for a 2000 105 GTV I have noticed that there seems to be quite a bit of variation in the ride heights.

Some 105s look as if there is 100mm or so distance between the top of the tyre and the bottom of the wheel arch, they look too height, whereas others seem to have more like 50mm gap.

Can anyone advise me on what is the general standard (factory) distance between the wheel and the arch if standard tyres and rims are used.

I presume if the distance is less than standard setup, the coils have been lowered, does this create bottoming out problems for normal road car use?.    If the gap is bigger, not only does it look wrong, it must affect the cars handling, have incorrect coils been installed to cause this?

Regards TCJ

[Pete Y]

Hey Tim.

Cant give you any exact figures (someone will!), but it'll depend on quite a few things.

Factory stock, most Alfas sit up fairly high, sometimes even looking a bit silly. If you look at an Alfetta GT, any Alfasud and most 105s when new they sit fairly high. Over time of course they tend to droop a bit - and so you see some 105s which look like they're dragging their arse around like a flea-bitten dog. I personally wouldn't lower the back of a 105 too much, because they squat quite a bit with power on.

I think the best thing to do is see what work has been done on the car and take it from there - Suspension work is mostly a good thing but not always. So if it's sitting low - see if it's had any work done (professionally) and what it entails (possibly new Konis, shorter springs, sway bar etc), and if it hasn't you're probably just looking at a somewhat tired original car.

[Colin Byrne]

The cars with bigger gaps are going to be the closest to the original setup, as the cars did sit very high.  There are 3 different types of spring pans with different heights and these can be used to change ride height (some cars even have different spring pans on different sides!).  Personally I think these cars, even as road cars need to be lowered a little and as long as the spring rate is increased bottoming out shouldn't be a massive issue. 

If the gap is bigger, not only does it look wrong, it must affect the cars handling

You would think so but in fact the opposite is true as you lower the front of these cars the front roll centre is moved further under the ground, which has a negative impact on handling for a few reasons.  The GTA's had a ball joint riser that modified the front geometry to raise the roll centre when the cars had been lowered and vin sharp makes a similar item, this enables you to get the benefit of a lower CG without the roll centre issue.  As far as the rear goes the opposite seems to be true, I run my track car as low as I can at the rear, problem with this, particularly with the 2L (Deeper Tank), is that the Fuel Tank starts to get pretty close to the ground.

But as far as mods go getting a new set of springs and setting up the ride height properly is pretty cheap and easy, so I wouldn't base my decision on buying a car on the ride height.
cheers

[Tim Jobson]

Thanks Colin and Pete for your views on the ride height.    It is interesting that the 105s have 3 spring plates to choose from!    I wonder which one was used on the standard production car, the middle height one ? which then allowed the owner to replace it to either lower or raise the ride height.

Regards Tim

[1750GTV]

Tim,
As far as I know my car is original - it runs 195x70s on 14 inch factory Cromodoras. The spring height is not modified and the shocks are standard DeCarbons. Unloaded with half a tank of fuel it rides 40mm above the tyre.
Compared with other cars, it's always looked a bit high. I used to cop a bit of stick about it, particularly from my mates with lowered Coronas and Pintaras, but I know which car I'd rather own and drive.
Chris

[Pete Y]

my mates with lowered Coronas and Pintaras

I'm not sure what's worse - that people bother lowering Coronas and Pintaras, or that you publicly associate yourself with them 

[1750GTV]

Better that than privately associating ....

As for lowering, they could go another 6 feet.

Chris

[Jekyll and Hyde]

As for lowering, they could go another 6 feet.

Cliffs must be small in Queensland.....

[1750GTV]

As for lowering, they could go another 6 feet.

Cliffs must be small in Queensland.....

LOL 

Chris