How do people find driving the vRS on a daily basis with that long nose and low front skirt? Is your entire driving style and life style affected because of it?

I took one for a test drive yesterday from a dealers and noticed it catching on a couple of speed bumps! Bit concerned that could be the 'norm' or that I could need to drive at a snails pace over each and every bump :-(

Matthew

I assume it wasn't lowered, and didn't have the Leon Cupra R lip defuzer ?

Starts getting more fun when you do these things - opens up the opportunity to crack the low-hanging VAG sump wide open too

Its all good fun

How do people find driving the vRS on a daily basis with that long nose and low front skirt? Is your entire driving style and life style affected because of it?

"No" is the short answer. I'm surprised you're touching speedbumps, as it's not a low car in standard form, and I can drive over the top of those square speed bumps (where they're raised in the middle but you can just about get a tyre either side). Some speedbumps seem to be really aggressively constructed now in some places though, so maybe it's just that?

As already mentioned, maybe the car was lowered and/or had a splitter added?

I just drive mine normally, and don't have any issues. Yes, it's got a bit of a nose, but lots of cars have (I've previously had an Alfa 145 which was similar), and it's easy enough to get used to, as long as you remember it's there.

Thanks for responses!

It didn't seem to be lowered and seemed standard throughout. All I scraped was a couple of tarmacced (and what appeared to be botched-job) speed bumps near the dealers. The bumps dropped off sharply at the side on one and sharply as you drop down to exit the bump. I was surprised to be honest; the better constructed more-normal-looking bumps were fine at the same speed I took those at!

The car I've just sold was a Mk1 MX5 and - maybe because of it's age or because I'd had it for so long - it flew over speed bumps without problem! Maybe I didn't compensate enough for the change in car character!

Problem is, I like the vRS as a car and the interior. I don't fancy dropping to an Elegance! If worst came to worst and it became a real problem I suppose I could change the front bumper for a standard one... At least I'd have the bells and whistles without necesarily the risk to the bumper?

The police used to smash sump after sump on the estate VRS as it's on 16's rather than 17's like the hatch, the ex-job ones generally have metal sump guards fitted coz of this.

The hatchback isn't too much of a problem just as long as your sensible on speed bumps. Take them well under 20mph. Mine is lowered another 20mm on coilovers and I have no problems on ramps, speedbumps, whatever, but I get the impression if it was much lower I would be scraping.

Catch mine now n then but I've got a Leon splitter normally catch it on the way down of a big hump

Mine is lowered and has a LCR splitter and I don't catch anything..............

NOT.....

I avoid speed bumps like the plague, high level multi story car parks, dodgy uneven ground and anything that looks supicious surface.

Is it worth it , yes to me...as that how i like the look of the car.

Chicken: Wouldn't the overall diameter of the 16's be the same as 17's keeping the same ride-height?

Bowders/ RAF: I've just googled the LCR splitter - it looks like it drops the skirt by another 30mil? How much did you lower it by?

I had a look at the old lit. and seems standard clearance on vRS is 119mm so you guys must have barely any?!

Just measured mine and I've got around 14cm of clearance. My ride height is standard

I admit I tend to crawl over speedbumps (I don't fancy replacing snapped coilsprings again anytime soon) but haven't ever had any contact with a speedbump since I got my hatch. If I drove like everyone else in our estate over the speedbumps (20mph+) then I'd probably scrape it or sump it, so that's just common sense. A lad up the road with a Cooper S managed to sump it the other week...

When I first got it, I did scrape the underside of the front valance a couple of times when parking up, and hanging the nose of the car over the kerb in front of parking spaces. Haven't done that in months though either, you quickly learn not to do it.

Standard suspension for me btw. Ground clearance just doesn't seem to be an issue. Take your time when needed and don't let it worry you mate.

AFAIK the tyre spec is the same on the 16s as the 17s so the tyres aren't wider to compensate for the wheel being a smaller diameter.

Surely that'd mess the speedo up ? ( a little bit anyway ... )

Surely that'd mess the speedo up ? ( a little bit anyway ... )

yeah different rolling radius's affect the actual speed you are driving to what the speedo says you are doing, the % is quite small though

yeah different rolling radius's affect the actual speed you are driving to what the speedo says you are doing, the % is quite small though

Presumably, in this case ( given that 17" standard ), the effect would be that the speedo would show a faster (than true) speed.

This being that the wheels are rotating faster to cover same distance over ground.

Given that the speedo in the Octy is set normal 5mph faster than true, your speedo could be out by 8mph with 16" wheels (very roughly anyway)

Does this account for why old people drive their Octavia's so slowly ? ...

Doesn't matter to the old bill as their speedos are calibrated

AFAIK the tyre spec is the same on the 16s as the 17s so the tyres aren't wider to compensate for the wheel being a smaller diameter.

In that brochure you sent me over the other day it says:

Alloy rim SPIDER 6.5J x 17''/205/50 R17 (vRS Hatch). Alloy rim SPIDER 6.5J x 16''/205/55 R16 (vRS Estate).

I would think the width would stay the same to give the same contact surface area at normal pressures - but the smaller wheels would allow the pressure to be dropped to give more area touching (which would in turn drop the height)? Alternatively maybe the 16's in-effect create a greater cushioning effect since there's more volume of air in the tyre?

I can't really think of another reason...

EDIT: Sorry, when I say width I'm referring to the 6.5J being the same. The 16's have a different size tyre, but I understand correct and if it is 5mm deeper each side (from rim to tread) that makes it only 10mm compensated compared to the 25mm lost by changing the inch. If my understanding is correct...?

Edited 28 August, 201015 yr by mattnedgus

Just getting onto the main road would scrape my spoiler, so

I sold it and got a MKII

205/50R17 vs 205/55R16

That would be enough to correct the size difference in alloys. Basically same overall diameter

Just measured mine and I've got around 14cm of clearance. My ride height is standard

are you driving a hatch or estate?

I'm wondering if the 119 quoted is actually minimum for the estate version - ahh, it might be about right. If the 25mm lost in wheel size (going from hatch 17's to estate 16's) is compensated by only 10mm there's a 15mm drop in ride heigh in the estate....

EDIT: scratch that; thanks to snow_muncher and http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html the difference can only be a 1/5th of an inch.

Edited 28 August, 201015 yr by mattnedgus

205/50R17 vs 205/55R16

That would be enough to correct the size difference in alloys. Basically same overall diameter

Ah cheers for that! :-)

Just getting onto the main road would scrape my spoiler, so

I sold it and got a MKII

It's alright if it's in your budget ;-) My budget would be better suited by buying the vRS and fitting a standard bumper in place of the vRS version...! Which might be the case if it became too much of a problem