crossmember spacers

[Sam-Q]

We all know spacers between the crossmember and the body are bad but why exactly? as far as I can see it a car with a a 25mm spacer and lowered 50mm will have the same geometry as one with a no spacer thats lowered 75mm.

Also wouldn't roll center adjusters fix this up?

I do know why its bad to just lower the steering rack as that would cause bump steer.

[Anthony]

thats exactly right sam. you burn enough precious roll centre simply lowering the car to an acceptable ride height, let alone wasting some with spacer plates. rca's will correct it. but if youve lowered the car 65mm and have 50mm spacers, you cant fit a big enough rca to fix it.

[Sam-Q]

yeah I get you, is there any other way around it? and what real world effect does a shithouse roll center height have an a cars handling? I ask because of people fitting F20C's into ae86s and all that, I wouldn't want to do such a thing but I am curious.

[driftke70]

i spent hours doing what ever i could to avoid it, i wouldnt go more than 10mm if i had to.

[Anthony]

roll centre makes a huge difference to the way a car feels. you can see v8 supercars playing with rear roll centre mid race, albeit on the rear. as for the front, having the roll centre too low will make the car tip to the outside edge of the outside tyre on turn in, making an unpleasant car. plus the dynamic camber will tend positive on compression. theres a reason rcas are such a basic mod. xmember spacers are undoing that basic need. i just think if they can be avoided, its worth going to a fair deal of trouble to do so. whats the point of a potent hachi that wont turn in and has horrible transitions.

[Sam-Q]

I definately hear your point. You know this reminds me, I find it suprising that the biggest RCA's in most cars are 35mm thick and thats it. I know there is a limit of space but many people have 15" wheels and could afford to run a thicker RCA.

[Sprinter86]

i recently lowered my ae71 sam, it has no RCA's and it feels great until u try and corner, it feels weird, bump steer through corners happens a bit also.

im about to make some rca's for mine.

[Sam-Q]

I will try without mine when I can and see what happens

[slydar]

the f20 swapped cars in the states youre talking about are pretty much all drift cars. their cars dont roll, so the RC isnt such an issue. im pretty sure youre not realy that into drift and over sprung cars so..

[Sam-Q]

still seems stupid to me as if its just for drift then why dont they just fit an sr20? because as far as I know they dont have rules for different engine classes but I could be wrong.

I was refering to more along the lines of what seems to be a common trend of american forums for all cars in doing things that are just plain crazy or stupid. I avoid going on club4ag often because of some of the stupid shit they do.

Your right about me though, 4.9kg front springs and I wouldn't want to have spacers in my front end but I like to know why they make things worse.