That's with the airride raised up too :crazy: The second gen ball joints seem to have a greater range of travel when compared to the first gens. You'll lay the oil pan on the ground before the ball joint starts binding...and even then it's the control arm hitting the subframe rather than the ball joint truly binding
I would love to jack up an R53 and an R56 side by side and take useful pictures of each to compare the differences. Most automotive reviews gloss over the fundamental differences between cars - I'd never heard of "roll understeer" until I started reading those suspension walkarounds on Edmunds. Same with the breakdown of torque steer that Dr. O covered in another recent thread. Very interesting how the suspension geometry dictates much of the character of the car.
another thing glossed over is 'scrub radius'...like when you push the wheels out with lower offsets. I've noticed a tangible loss in handling when doing so on my STI. The front would slide quite easily vs. stock offset (peak speeds on the same turn captured on my GPS).
Interesting - I have GPS measured my car over my regular fav twisties and on ramps and I have more grip (read more speed) with my 38 offset wheels. Maybe pushing the wheels beyond a certain point causes the negative effect, wonder how far it is.
I know this is an old thread, but I just got the ability to post on here again, my account would immediately log me out in the past...now it works! Thanks Nate! But, I am interested to hear more about this and how can we counter act the scrub radius when using wider wheels with lower offsets? How does one take benefits of wider wheels without scrub? Wouldn't you have to change where the shocks and wheel wells are? Thanks.
Changing the wheel offset changes the scrub radius. If you draw a line through the top of the strut through the ball joint and extend that line to the ground that is the point that the steering pivots around (steering axis). If the offset of the wheel does not line up the center of the wheel with the steering axis you have scrub. The affect is the wheel turns through an ark, as opposed to pivoting around a point. Someone in this thread said they did not like the effect on handling from increasing the scrub radius. I agree. I think it affects the feedback through the steering wheel. It does not however affect grip in a negative way. Because the track is wider, grip is actually improved. Most people confuse grip with handling. Handling is a subjective measurement. What do you sense that conveys control? We use all our senses and one of the things we respond to are the forces coming through the steering wheel. Some people might like that feel others might not. Changing this to correct the scrub radius is not really practical. You would need a completely different suspension. GM has a Buick / Opel with a strut suspension that moves the strut inboard and has a different steering axis. Maybe the next generation MINI will have a similar design.