GT40 p2285 Hydraulic Lift System, Low Stance, Obstacle Avoidance
Robert, Very, Very Nice!
I love the stance, how do you get by with the nose that low?
that is indeed very nice, and indeed very low at the front with all those street jumps or other low obstacles.
Greetings to fellow GT40 enthusiasts Jim and Rene. Thank you for your positive observations and comments.
Both before and during the 7 months I waited for my roller to arrive in the states, I searched for and found as many photos and videos of GT40s as I was able to. The ones with the lower stance, especially the red #33 MKI GT40, always got my attention. Early on, I'm not certain how much I understood about the various appearances of a variety of cars. It took longer than it should have to eventually come to know that there were three body widths and even more variances of those between carmakers. Soon, I came to love the extra wide-body and the lower stance.
I read much about the proper GT40 ride height of front and rear, and the downside using lower or higher heights: scraping and non optimal suspension function, increased tire wear, and wandering steering. Still, I really desired to have a lower stance. Someone pointed me toward a variety of products mostly marketed to offer lifting of the front end of a car to avoid scraping on speed bumps and driveways. Once I learned that these special hydraulic units were very small, not noisy and operated relatively quickly, I became seriously interested. I then pondered whether equipment was available to lift both the front and the rear. I was excited to learn that a unit was available to lift all four points at the same time.
As it turned out, the lift system was one of the GOOD surprises during this whole ordeal that spanned 15 months. The price of the unit was shocking at first, and the install labor was higher than I expected, but to be fair, I had no idea what the unit looked like, how it was made, nor what the scope of work was.
Just one of my many bad habits is to always push the envelope. So, I thought, rather than use such a unit for the typical application: lifting a car only to avoid obstacles, I thought about my desired goal of having a wicked lower stance too. So, I requested my installer to set the normal ride heights lower, and to make all the suspension alignments according to the lower than normal height. Thereby, I was able to cruise the highways at a strikingly lower stance, while being able to lift all four body points a full two or more inches with a simple push of the dash button, which does allow for driveway, speed bump, and other obstacle avoidance, and to have it all happen in 15 seconds or slightly longer.
The lift system consists of a small 12v DC motor that drives a small hydraulic pump, and sends the hydraulic fluid through four separate small steel braided lines (one to each coilover.) The base unit that houses all of the above and hydraulic fluid reservoir too, is smaller than a cigar box. You cannot hear this system run even when you attempt to. The small stainless steel flush push button is a tad smaller than the engine start button, and includes a blinking LED light when in operation, and that light stays lit when the system is in up position, and the light goes out when the system is lowered.
After using this system during various driving conditions, I have become better at learning when to use the lift system, how quickly to react and activate, and how to observe cars ahead of me as they go over the RR tracks, as one example, to know when to initiate a lift or not. During this learning process, I did scrape some, but nothing severe.
There are small cons to such a setup, but for me, they are not remarkable. For one, at the lower ride height position, alignment can be made, but it is not optimum. Thus, there could be slightly faster tire wear, and other small handling nuances – not remarkable either. At the higher height, the car tracks a little funny, but not remarkably, nor dangerously. Besides, you are not supposed to drive long distances at the higher lift.
I concluded this worthy project achieved my goal of being a low-rider, and providing for obstacle avoidance. I have nothing but praise for this product and no buyer's remorse whatsoever.
I hope this information will be helpful to anyone interested in this topic.
Thanks again Jim and Rene!
All good things, Robert
