430 Suspension and wheel questions

I had mine lowered on the factory coil overs. It was lower before but had to raise it to clear my driveway. Also changed to 20” wheels all the way around.

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430 is a coilover suspension. You can do whatever you want with the rideheight and wheels that fit with or without spacers. A common Ferrari problem is long nose vs the front axle centerline compared to say a BMW. This makes the departure angle much greater in the BMW and shallow in the Ferrari so you scrape everything when lowered. New Ferraris have front lifts integral with the suspension or many others like CribJ's 550 has retrofited lifts on the coils. CO suspension is the simplest to adjust RH. Just remember the car was design a factory RH. RH is critical to how a car handles especially at extremes. Some immediately think does not matter to me I'm not track driving but this is important for street emergency maneuvers too, especially for less talented street drivers. When you change RH good and bad things can happen. So unless you know what you are doing and understand the compromises you should stick to factory. It can also be harder to find parts or be forced to fabricate things like a bumpsteer correction kit often needed for lowered cars. Do you know "how to" or do you trust a person to bumpsteer your car and procure or fabricate a bumpsteer correction? You have to measure it to see if you even need correction.

Finally, you can customize Ferrari suspensions. As an example I find the 550M too GT for me. I did the suspension math and came up with my own spring rates and used Moton double adjustable shocks and lathe cut delrin bushings to replace all the rubber. That's a lot of work and you need to know a few things. There could be an already thought out 430 coilover kit based around a name brand shock like MCS, Penske, or JRZ.

Wheels a wheel. A wheel/tire combo can have the effect of RH change without effecting the designed suspension movement but it can effect the departure angle of the nose. I don't like big wheels and rubberband thin tires. Cosmetics is in the eye of the beholder. Wheel offsets and widths can definitely effect performance. Sometimes you can fudge offset with spacers. Look here https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/f430-aftermarket-wheels-20-20-or-20-21-setup.591819/

 

Mine is lowered with an unknown brand 3 level race suspension. 1,5 cm spacers and 20" wheels. Front tires 235/30/20 Back 325/25/20
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I have a F430 coupe but if comparing the spider versions I think the 458 spider looks much nicer than F430 spider.

My car is at stock height and I often crash the bump stops when on back country roads. I personally wouldn't want to lower...

 

I would just lower on the factory coilovers. Should be low enough for anybody, and definitely by far the cheapest alternative.

Once you go to Coilovers, you're really only left with KW, or going custom with MCS/Nitron and stuff like that. Anyhting else would definitely be a downgrade over OEM.

 

Hey, I’m running the KW HLS2 coilovers which is essentially their V3 coilovers with hydraulic lift. Trust me, it’s worth the money.

Quality and track performance is on par with Moton/MCS. My lift button is located in my centre console, with a touch of a button it raises in less than 5 seconds. I’ll need to measure how much it raises at least 2-2,5”.

A few months ago I raised the ride height and one of my collars was seized. My mechanic removed the shock, KW customer support helped get the appropriate hydraulic fluid and tips for freeing up the collar. Both my mechanic and I were both impressed with their customer service.

https://www.kwsuspensions.com/kw-suspensions-kw-hls2-ferrari-f430-complete-kit-incl-kw-v3-coilovers-33642223.html
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Wheel spacers alter the suspension geometry, altering the roll center by increasing the length of the lever arms (the A-arms). It's not a good idea. It adversely effects handling that engineers worked hard to build into the car. Google "roll center versus CG" for the actual math with diagrams. It also puts more load on wheel bearings.

And lowering a car that is already very low seems more for show than functionality. Unless you're going to the Bonneville Salt Flats for a land speed record, and want to minimize air build-up under the car, lowering only increases the likelihood that you'll scrap something expensive. It might get you a complimentary membership in an East LA Low Rider Club.

But hey, it's your ride.

Ray

 

I love my 430, I didn’t like the monster truck look, so I lowered it on challenge coil overs, 19” challenge wheels are perfect. Might get some 20” when I make up my mind on something that looks better than what I have.
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Monster truck look?

Major hyperbolic rhetoric ...

Ray

 

Maybe. You have to figure out how much travel you loose by lowering stock setup. If you get into bumpstops on shocks you can have very unpredicatable even dangerous handling when you need it most. That MCS JRZ Penske setup will be most likely on shorter shock body with more travel at lower ride height. It really is a chess game to get things sorted. one change effects another and so on.

 

You can also swap out the OEM spring to stiffer Novitec springs. This way you can still use the factory settings.

 

...you obviously have not pushed your car to the limits. It's not just for show. also, racing team use spacers for all types of race setups.

 

Porsche offered spacers as factory options. Biggest effect is slightly more grip on the end with the spacers.

 

Newtonian mechanics tell the tale. Engineering is a series of tradeoffs. The designer created a product with certain criteria in mind and the various parts on the car are designed to fit within those parameters. Start altering things willy-nilly and unforeseen consequences result. While I don't push my 430 to the limit of adhesion, I do have a degree in mechanical engineering and my education tells me that, absent other alterations, simply making the wheels stick out further, other than gaining you membership in a low rider club, is not a good idea.

When a racing team adds spacers, you can bet a lot of analysis went into the design of other parts of the car that will be affected. The average owner, who refers to anti-roll bars as "sway bars" (which were used on station wagons in the '50s and '60s) is just guessing when he or she alters the suspension geometry.

I'm curious, do you race your car? If so, in what sanctioned series?

Ray

 

I didn't say anything about racing professionally and I'm not going to justify an answer to your silly question..... but you go on and calculate away with your pencil and paper and drive the speed limit.

 

So where do you push your car to the limits?

Ray

 

Walmart parking lot...I love to serve in and out of the parked RVs.

 

A good example of shade-tree engineering is the owner(s) who replaced the OEM front wheel/tire combo with larger wheels and tires. The result? The system interpreted the difference in wheel speed between front and rear (fronts exactly 10 rpm slower than the OEM front tires) and decided something was wrong somewhere so it started locking the E-Diff, causing the F1 pump to run excessively. This is what happens when you do not understand physics and complex systems and their interactions.

BTW, Stef's SEB eliminates this problem.

Ray

 

Ah, autocross ...

 

lol...seriously?

 

The Honda CRXs rule ...

Rich guys just replace the cones with RVs ... more challenging that way ...

Ray

 

And the Porsche engineers made certain to modify everything on the car that would be affected by the increased lever arm length ...

 

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