Right im about to use sweary words now.............................I am going to lift my car again, before sorting out rarb, poly bushes etc.

Question, at what height do most of you find the octy handles at its best???? and when i say what height im going to call upon the kindness of you briskis to tell me the distance in mm from hub centre to wheel arch on the front, so i can set it up and then align the back.

Would really appreciate it guys as i wanna hit it first thing - the lows are really affecting handling and comfort,,,,and access to places, and my sump is at risk lol the list goes on

Never had any experience with coilovers but surely you want it height enough to avoid running out of suspension travel and riding on the bump stops?

I remember years ago (mannyo might help on this) that the vRS height was about right.

aye, i cant find anything but i think alot drop the vrs by only 20-30mm but as i dont have a basic ride height measurement to work from and cant remember my stock height i was hoping for mm's

have someone on case now though.

Do it by eye

My octy was good at this height!

Basically rear adjusters and cups in but sitting on the bottom thread

Front a tad lower for nose down look

thats about 30mm up from where i am at moment, probably a good starting point. Thanks for the photo as a point of ref, but did you find that the best height for handling?

The closest you can get to stock height is going to be the best

When the wishbone sits level horizontally your at the perfect height

But with the help of my kw coilovers even at that lowered height it was still better than stock

im probably looking at going up nearer 50mm then, want her to shine in the bends, after all i live in scotland - handling should be top priority here

Think they handle better with rear end slightly higher than front to help rear end traction

noted ta, looks better anyway cos of the lower arc of the rear arch

Yeah mine was probably 10mm lower at the front. Ive set my leon up in the same way! Imo looks far better than reverse rake

well out comes the wire brush to clean up ma threads

Didn't want to text you too late on so thought I'd bang it up here

Passenger side wheels on the kerb - passenger side 380 mm driver side 365.

That's a quick in the dark measure up, I can stop somewhere flat on the way to work for something more spot on if required mate, just let me know (I'll be heading in about 10)

Best hight is where the wishbones are parallel to the floor.

2 fingers between tyre and arch lol.

Liftimg car will also make the car feel soooooooo much nicer.

You wont regret lifting it.

In the absence of camber correction, the basic rule would be suspension arms sitting ROUGHLY level. Then work from there.

Edit: Hahahahaha, how the heck did I not notice this had been said twice already.

I feel like a flippin' parrot now.

I feel like a flippin' parrot now.

I feel li... yeah, you get the picture...

As billy said I used to also run around two finger gap between wheel and arch on a few previous octys and It handled very well,

few pics:

Lowest Ive been, bouncy more understeer not easy getting over bumps and any holes were a killer.

Slightly raised, Mahoosive improvement, lot less bouncy, handled better and absorbed slightly more

After this I went higher again by another 15mm. Again big change and more like a stiff OEM feel to it and even better handling.

Dont have pics tho. was a bit higher than this next ones as these are with the R32/TT/LCR/S3 front end which allows slightly lower hight on the front due to the extended bit under the bearing to ball joint.

hope these help a bit

Thanks guys very helpful indeed, mine looks to be sitting the same as yours billy now, and as you say it feels so much better.

its a shame, its usually go or show with cars, what looks best never handles best...

I remember reading a US magazine which carried out an extensive test with different coilovers setups on a Honda s2000.

1 company provided a car which had a kw clubsport fitted. It was set the highest out of all the cars trsted and didn't look pretty. Guess which got the best review and laptime...

well ive lifted a fair old lick now, and handling is much improved, so im happy with that even though i liked it low

Edited 12 January, 201313 yr by Lofty79

my old setup, first pic was a little low, and i got wheel rub, partly due to the brembos needing 15mm front spacers

raised a bit for the snow in Switzerland, how i didn't rip off the splitter i don't know!

and for Italian roads, which are terrible!

my preferred height, but not best pic sorry

Edited 12 January, 201313 yr by Oet

i am at swiss height now haha

lol, i like swiss height too, it looks good imo, when i changed it to the black wheels it was the same height, just harder to tell due to the cr*p pic!

Edited 12 January, 201313 yr by Oet

Never had any experience with coilovers but surely you want it height enough to avoid running out of suspension travel and riding on the bump stops?

I remember years ago (mannyo might help on this) that the vRS height was about right.

Absolutely critical this.

If you lower beyond the threshold of the ability of the shock to perform adequate rebound your car handling will suffer and you will get that crashy feeling.

This is why I got rid of my weitec's as they are not so good when lowered to extreme as Billy will state also and also Lofty where your cheaper collies will have even less rebound when lowered so far.. This is where the cost and quality of coilover is felt. As I like extreme this would not do for me and i got KW V2's for rebound setting adjustments also. took me a while to get write though.

The closest you can get to stock height is going to be the best

When the wishbone sits level horizontally your at the perfect height

But with the help of my kw coilovers even at that lowered height it was still better than stock

Agree , this is the best way to know you have a good balance. Again as I like extreme my wishbone were well beyond horizontal so i bought Cast Wishbones and T hubs to deal with this and now have horizontal balance even with mine so low....

Think they handle better with rear end slightly higher than front to help rear end traction

+1 , Yep again there too

Best hight is where the wishbones are parallel to the floor.

+1

I am going lower still on mine lol.. so will be fitting poly top mounts as they are 10mm shorter so will get 10mm from not actually adjusting the collies