Every once in a while I see, some guy driving a corvette , who probably has little experience doing that, try speeding over speed bumps, or turning into a drive way with a noticeable dip or stepped concrete rain gutter at the entrance,too the property or man hole covers that stick up well above the road surface level, the usual result is damage to low hanging chin spoilers or the suspension, or deeper oil or transmission pans or low headers etc. you quickly learn that these low clearance performance cars like most corvette, and similar cars , that they have limited ground clearance, and you have little choice but to slow down, and cross over these hazards slowly or do your very best to avoid them, I know several places I choose not to drive my corvettes due to excessively steep drive way entrances or speed bumps, if you drive a corvette youll quickly realize its NOT a 4x4 truck, and can,t drive over stuff that would hardly be noticed by one.
Now purely from a geometry and clearance perspective , many times you effectively gain a bit more road to under the car clearance, if you use an angle of 30-45 degrees of approach vs perpendicular to the dip in the pavement on entering a drive way or trying to cross a speed bump AND REMEMBER too cross it at very low speed,.... obviously not always an option. but failure to anticipate and drive carefully can get rather expensive and time consuming as a result of damage inflicted to the cars lower areas
you,ll ideally want 4" minimum oil pan sump, and transmission fluid oil pan, to pavement clearance with YOU and a BUDDY sitting in the car to avoid problems,
anything over about 4.5 inches of oil pan sump, trans pan and exhaust to ground clearance should be just fine,
if thats measured with you seated in the car, in fact lots of guys squeak by with 4"
obviously more is better but thats not always an option.
I added a deeper trans fluid pan to my corvette it was about 1.5" deeper than the stock pan, and reduced the ground clearance by about 1" I avoided issues with ground clearance by having previously swapped to larger diameter rims and tires which had previously raised my under car clearance by about a similar 1.5", but without that previous wheel and tire upgrade I think I would have been in serious trouble with the lower ground clearance under the vette!
the extra 2 quart capacity and ribbed surface that significantly increases surface area,
plus a trans fluid cooler lower trans fluid temps a great deal,
but its also going to marginally reduce under the corvette road clearance.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...all-and-run-a-deeper-pan-to-compensate.16378/
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ans-cooler-on-a-c4-corvette.10514/#post-44478
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=1158&p=2361&hilit=skid+plate#p2361
IF YOU DON,T THINK OIL PANS AND FRAMES HIT SPEED BUMPS WHERE ARE ALL THE GROOVES IN THE CONCRETE FROM??
IF YOU DON,T THINK GETTING YOUR OIL PAN,TRANS PAN,HEADERS,AND FRAME UP AT LEAST 4" UP OFF from the pavement as you drive is important!
HERES A RATHER TYPICAL RAISED OBSTACLE, (its a fuel tank access port but man hole lids can be very similar)that can cause quite a bit of under car frame, and oil an damage
HERES AN UNLUCKY CORVETTE FRAME THAT HIT IT
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=10730&p=46843#p46843
hitting chuck holes, speed bumps curbs, and raised manhole covers ETC. is a well documented way to severely damage the internal structure of tires as well as the corvette suspension and oil pans.
just a few pictures I found posted that easily demonstrate internal tire damage can cause serious issues with stability, braking and control, and yeah, hitting a few curbs, chuck holes and speed bumps with your corvette,or muscle car,will be unlikely to help tire durability
I'D POINT OUT THAT TIRE BALANCE , does not necessarily have much effect on the cars ride or ride vibration, simply because a tire can balance perfectly, while its still not perfectly concentric, with the axle center line or perfectly round,and even in the tire tread and side wall constructional thickness
internal structure failures can also cause vibrations and thats what your complaint seems to point too.
Ive had tires balanced that were so far out of concenticy that if you put the car on jack stands and spin the tire next to a strait edge , you could easily see the change in distance as it rotated.
obviously theres a wide range in the degree of wear and damage and tire quality , so if you have some hard to locate vibration I suggest checking the tires, or swapping locations on the car to se if the vibration changes or replacing the tires
Now purely from a geometry and clearance perspective , many times you effectively gain a bit more road to under the car clearance, if you use an angle of 30-45 degrees of approach vs perpendicular to the dip in the pavement on entering a drive way or trying to cross a speed bump AND REMEMBER too cross it at very low speed,.... obviously not always an option. but failure to anticipate and drive carefully can get rather expensive and time consuming as a result of damage inflicted to the cars lower areas
you,ll ideally want 4" minimum oil pan sump, and transmission fluid oil pan, to pavement clearance with YOU and a BUDDY sitting in the car to avoid problems,
anything over about 4.5 inches of oil pan sump, trans pan and exhaust to ground clearance should be just fine,
if thats measured with you seated in the car, in fact lots of guys squeak by with 4"
obviously more is better but thats not always an option.
the extra 2 quart capacity and ribbed surface that significantly increases surface area,
plus a trans fluid cooler lower trans fluid temps a great deal,
but its also going to marginally reduce under the corvette road clearance.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...all-and-run-a-deeper-pan-to-compensate.16378/
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ans-cooler-on-a-c4-corvette.10514/#post-44478
IF YOU DON,T THINK OIL PANS AND FRAMES HIT SPEED BUMPS WHERE ARE ALL THE GROOVES IN THE CONCRETE FROM??
IF YOU DON,T THINK GETTING YOUR OIL PAN,TRANS PAN,HEADERS,AND FRAME UP AT LEAST 4" UP OFF from the pavement as you drive is important!
HERES A RATHER TYPICAL RAISED OBSTACLE, (its a fuel tank access port but man hole lids can be very similar)that can cause quite a bit of under car frame, and oil an damage
HERES AN UNLUCKY CORVETTE FRAME THAT HIT IT
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=10730&p=46843#p46843
hitting chuck holes, speed bumps curbs, and raised manhole covers ETC. is a well documented way to severely damage the internal structure of tires as well as the corvette suspension and oil pans.
just a few pictures I found posted that easily demonstrate internal tire damage can cause serious issues with stability, braking and control, and yeah, hitting a few curbs, chuck holes and speed bumps with your corvette,or muscle car,will be unlikely to help tire durability
I'D POINT OUT THAT TIRE BALANCE , does not necessarily have much effect on the cars ride or ride vibration, simply because a tire can balance perfectly, while its still not perfectly concentric, with the axle center line or perfectly round,and even in the tire tread and side wall constructional thickness
internal structure failures can also cause vibrations and thats what your complaint seems to point too.
Ive had tires balanced that were so far out of concenticy that if you put the car on jack stands and spin the tire next to a strait edge , you could easily see the change in distance as it rotated.
obviously theres a wide range in the degree of wear and damage and tire quality , so if you have some hard to locate vibration I suggest checking the tires, or swapping locations on the car to se if the vibration changes or replacing the tires
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