Nearly killed myself - Dangers of running too low

[Dum-Dum]

Went out for a drive today and have just nearly died cos my car is so low.

Was flying up one of my favorite roads outside Taplow that Ive not been up in a while. Its NSL/De-restricted so you can imagine the speeds I was doing.

I was braking at the end of one of the straights for a corner and noticed that half of my side of the road had sunken away by several inches. I couldn't swerve round it because it was just on the entrance to a blind corner.

Anyway I had to go over it, the car dropped into it with a massive thud (thought Id cracked the sump) but preceded to slide for about 10 meters on the underside of the car at the front so neither front wheel was making any useful contact with the road and I couldn't turn in.

Eventually slid off the road and thought Id lost half my front bumper as I went up the banking but so glad the banking went up and not down as it meant I could turn. Sheer fluke that my car isn't wearing a tree shaped hole now.


Proper brown trouser moment.
Dosent appear to be any actual damage to the car somehow.
Im gonna have to wind the coilovers up when it stops raining. I know she looks stunning at this height but I nearly had a heart attack.

[Matt]

Shit man that's really not good, thankfully mine isn't that low. The roads round here are crap too!

[Midnightclub]

Oh dear! Glad you're okay though mate, could've been a lot worse!

[Atterz]

Im glad your alrite first and foremost.

But finally, suspension is supposed to travel and keep the wheels in contact with the road, low is not cool!!!!!

[darrenjlobb]

low is not cool!!!!!

meh

It is when its safe.

[samass]

dayum. lucky escape man.

[Dum-Dum]

Cheers guys, still feeling a little shaken.

James I know what your saying but I do have a fair bit of travel (not like a 306 running all the way down on coilies) Sadly just not enough travel.

[Atterz]

Just glad your alrite mate.

[Niall]

Typical BMW tbh.













Haha joking. Glad your ok

[declantg]

contact the council, get some dolla outa them

[Midnightclub]

contact the council, get some dolla outa them

They won't do anything about it, same way if your car is lowered and your tyre bursts from a massive pot hole they'll say your car being lowered did it

[Rippthrough]

4x4 ride height ftw

[lolsteve]

How low are you?

[Craig-o]

How low are you?

As low as your grannies nipples

[Dum-Dum]

How low are you?

I scrape on the white lines in the middle of the road sometimes.

[procta]

my car does the same as soon as it hits a pot hole or a drain thats dropped at speed!
with it been that light and low it can make the stearing jump to the left or the right! so i tend to stay clear of that 60 limit stretch of road now.

[Dave]

preceded to slide for about 10 meters on the underside of the car at the front so neither front wheel was making any useful contact with the road ...
... Im gonna have to wind the coilovers up when it stops raining. I know she looks stunning at this height but I nearly had a heart attack.

You didn't have them setup correctly! your overall vehicle weight on plummet overcame the travel required of the springs to equalise the force the drop of your car had.... your springs don't have the force to make traction with the tyres!

[Curt]

Oooooor, someone was driving a little bit too much as his title suggests?

[Poodle]

Shit on dude, sounds like fun. :? Can always just drop it for shows i guess.

[kingy]

dont higher your car, just dont go on that road again. simples.

[C.A.R.]

dont higher your car, just dont go on that road again. simples.

Wait, so you can just have another 'near miss' on a different road?

Makes no sense. Function > Form. I'll admit a lowered car looks good, but nobody is going to look good upside down in a field, no matter how low their car was. Why risk it? Just so you can impress people you don't even know?

When I put the MX5 on coilovers everyone asked me if I was going to 'slam it' so I could be 'scene'. Like f*ck, I spent £600 on suspension that I want to get some benefit from, plus I'm not a retard.

[mark_airey]

dont higher your car, just dont go on that road again. simples.

Wait, so you can just have another 'near miss' on a different road?

Makes no sense. Function > Form. I'll admit a lowered car looks good, but nobody is going to look good upside down in a field, no matter how low their car was. Why risk it? Just so you can impress people you don't even know?

When I put the MX5 on coilovers everyone asked me if I was going to 'slam it' so I could be 'scene'. Like f*ck, I spent £600 on suspension that I want to get some benefit from, plus I'm not a retard.

hmmmmm.........................apart from suspension works fine as long as the wheel can travel properly no matter what hight the car is............

Edit:- Low with £20k of suspension, do you think these handle shit and would end up upside down in a field too??

[Atterz]

<3

Agreed with you Mark, longer springs for more travel, need to get myself some!

[Ed Doe]

Oooooor, someone was driving a little bit too much as his title suggests?

Thank god I'm not the only one thinking it :roll:

Seriously, soft set-ups work well in the wet or on shit roads, as is abundantly clear at the off-road end of the spectrum. Conversely at the other end of the spectrum; f1 cars are shit on anything but a smooth track, as the suspension travels millimeters, and is very very hard.

If you set your car up hard and/or low, you're going to have to expect that it won't handle as well in the wet, or on bumpy potholed roads.

Imo one should drive to the cars abilities/set-up and to the conditions. Which from the sounds of it you weren't.

[C.A.R.]

Mark your post is largely irrelevant. The WRC cars when set up for a tarmac stage like the one you posted have considerably more thought and design and modification than a road-going BMW which has been DIY lowered for aesthetic.

The WRC car will likely bottom out on certain stages, as can be seen if you watch the coverage, the cars are fitted with skid plates to protect the sump/exhaust. The difference is that the contact patch the tyre makes with the road will still be good, the suspension geometry is correctly set up for those situations, the spring rate will be increased to co-inside with the reduced wheel travel (before chassis makes road contact) etc etc etc.

Raising the car up would undoubtably make it handle ten times better. Putting it back on OEM suspension (shock, horror!) would further improve the handling I would think. It's a false economy that lower = better, because there's so much more to it than that.

[Rippthrough]

Those WRC cars have more travel left than you think, the front splitter/bumper/sills are all flexible polyurethane so they can bend out of the way, the floor of the car is actually higher than them on most.