lowering suspension

J

jonnydurex

New Member
I`m looking to lower my p6 and fit some 16/17" alloys...have seen a few posts on here about lowering springs....just checked ride heights for production models and the early series 1`s are 1 1/2 " lower...is this due to shorter springs? if so would these fit onto my 72 V8?

thanx

jonny
 
Hi Jonny,

I have successfully lowered my 1976 P6 V8 courtesy of some great advie from this site.......one of the readers in NZ had lowered his car and the advice that he gave was great.

I measured my car against other standard P6 Rover in Sydney and the rear is now 1" closer to the ground via lowered springs and the front is 2" lower via trimming the rod between the upper control arm and the spring.

The rear springs were stiffened as the car was bottoming out under load after we first lowered the car.

Do not go any lower than these measurements especially the back......the car looks simply fantastic lowered and adding the bilstein shocks has also made a BIG difference....I am about to upgrade the tyres to a 195/65/14 .....either Yokohama A539, Michelin MXV8 or Pirelli P6000....I think I will probably go with the Yokohama as they are sticky tyres....I am not worried about great milage tyres.........my current Pirelli P400 tyres are not giving me sufficient grip, especially in the wet...I want to keep my original wheel covers as they look great with the thin whitewalls that I had added....which I will again do with the new improved tyre package.........the wheel covers also maintain some resemblence of originality about the car so no wish to add low profile tyre and wheels....plus I do get a lot of nice comments abou the covers and the whitewalls (give it some thought !!!....lower the car first and then decide on changing the wheel size)

Email me if you cannot find the NZ article on this site.

Good luck



GULLY (In Sydney)



I have also added Bilstein shocks to the car and the front factory sway bar has been slightly enlarged which has significantly improved the handling of the car.

I am very pleased with the tougher appearance of the car now that it has been lowered.
 
hi gully...thanx for the advice.....were there any problems with the front end bottoming out? if not I`ll go this way for the front...theres a spring place round the corner from me who can lower my existing rear springs.....not sure if they`ll be any stiffer though...will have to check...as for wheels,I`m a big fan of the "Chip Foose" type of styling (check out overhauling on the discovery channel website if you dont know) so its either jeep 17`s or wheelmania (they have blanks so can machine the correct pcd and offset) there are some 18`s on ebay at the mo but dont think they`ll go under the rear wing :(

half way through changing roof panels at mo and then it`s just the brakes to sort out so this is probably gonna have to wait a few weeks....then its on to the sound system...best bit!!!....gonna get tarred and feathered at the first classic show i get too!!! why is modifying and hot rodding so popular in the states but how many modded classics do you see over here? (apart from vw`s!)

jonny
 
18" ! What tyres are you going to use? Rubber bands!
Why dont you make your wings hinge at the top and fold upwards so you can get the wheel in?
 
thinking about just painting roof sealent on the rims.....main reason for not going 18`s apart from rear wing clearence is the fact I have 4 cars and a wife! (she cant drive either!) she`s very understanding but I dont have an endless budget for my little hobby! 17`s are gonna be a lot cheaper,jeep wheels for about £70 and get the tyres trade.She doesnt like my rover,so it must be good :D
 
Hi there,

You asked if there were any problems with the front end bottoming out?

The answer is NO......and I lowered my car 2" in the front........however I did have problems with the car bottoming out in the rear and that was with 1.5" lower......so I brought the level up 1/2" (to 1" lower than standard) and then had the rear springs stiffened which has worked a treat.

The 3500 P6 model looks a treat when they are lowered !!!!....I consider between 1.5 & 2" in the front and 1" in the back to be about right !!!!!....any lower and you will have major problems with bottoming out !!!!!

If you are planning to fit an audio system do consider AVI car speakers....they are made in Canada and now available in Australia....the clarity is amazing and well worth the investment.

GULLY (In Sydney)
 
thanx gully...as for speakers...used to swear by mb quartz when i used to fit the stuff for cash..looking forward to this bit of my plans,can really go to town on the boot install with the spare wheel on the outside..I`m a quality rather than quantity man when it comes to audio..my musics for me not pedestrians!!
 
I assume you guys are based in Auz, do you have such things as "speed bumps" over there ?, we suffer very badly with speed bumps here, and lowering cars always causes trouble.

I would be interested in your comments. :)
 
Speed humps are an increasing reality in the land of OZ........but will never stop good hearted folks from enjoying motor carriages travelling at a height lower than that stipulated in the owners manual.........a combination of using alternative roads, reducing ones speed over the dreaded hump, and travelling sideways across same is usually a practical way of beating the emotionless road builders !!!!

GULLY (In Sydney)
 
Gulley,

How much did you trim off of this rod to get the front down by 2 inches??

Do I understand correctly that the rod you refer to is the one that has the bump stop on and fits in the end of the horizontal spring??

Did you fit uprated springs all round? And to adjust the rear did you just change the height by using different length springs??

Cheers Dudes!
 
Hi Interesting Thread.Would Anybody Know If there is a 15 inch Steel Wheel Which Will Take A 205 Tyre & Clear The D post Thanks.
 
JC's suggestion of hinging the rear wing is spot on - that's how the classic saloon championship racer gets its wheels on and off! Hinges are along the top joint with the boot side wall, so it just hinges out from the bottom - quite a party trick!

When fitting large wheels, the wheel diameter should not be a problem providing you use the correct profile to get the rolling diameter to match the original tyres. You can go up to 205 section in the original rear mudguards - but only if you get the wheel offset right. See the article below for more info - I reckon the ideal offset with a standard rear mudguard in the base unit is 53mm. If you were prepared to do major surgery to the base unit you could probably get up to 225's at say 43mm offset - but you might need to flare the outer wings as well.

Chris
 
so,whats the official offset for rover wheels...when i walk into a chav`s wheel place and ask for 5X127 pcd...whats the et??...bearing in mind i`m gonna fit 205/40/17`s

and before you ask i have looked down the jeep alloy route,but to be honest all the second hand ones are peeling so bad or else they are £200 plus for 17`s and then the tyres on top...would prefer a design more suited to the look i`m after...i bought some alloys years ago from Wheelmania in Birmingham...they said they could machine any pcd and off set from blanks but me being inpatient went for lancer evo 4 wheels cos they could be fitted that day!!:D
 
Hi Jonnydurex

First off to get the same diameter as the originals you'll be wanting 205/55/17's. Theres a good calculator at http://www.roversd1.nl/sd1web/wheelcalc.html to save fretting over a sliderule.

If you were to use 40 profile then you would be effectively lowering the overall gearing (ie the engine runs faster at any given speed - and uses more fuel). I would have said the car was already undergeared, but your choice - just watch the speedo accuracy for MoT's etc.

If you want a really low profile tyre - and it would look cool - why not go to 205/40/19's?

To fit 205 section tyres in the (unmodified) rear mudguards you really do need exactly 53mm offset - et53. This is not the same offset as the standard steel wheels - being so much narrower they didn't have to be exactly central in the arch. See the article below for more detail.

Chris
 
thanx chris....not too bothered about the gearing,between my tourneo,omega and mazda it isnt gonna get used much,especially for anything long haul..more concerned with how it looks really... i know..i`m shallow :D

there are some 18`s that keep popping up on ebay...but i`m presuming theyre gonna be way too wide and i cant really be arse to put the back wings on hinges!

so it`s off the chav shop when i get some time...my life is better than a jerry springer show at the mo..... :(
 
Why not cut away the wheel arch on the rear wing to leave the wheel exposed. I think it would look good and you could use whatever size tyres you want
 
have seen a few cars with the rear wing cut away...totally ruins look of the car!! i know what i want my rover to look like...you`ll be saying put a body kit on next!! :p never seen the point of putting 1/2 a ton of Tuppaware on my cars???
 
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