RE: Spider oil pan incident

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- Brian Shorey <bshorey@domain.elided> wrote:

(Charlie's tale of cracking the sump deleted)

> Fortunately, I don't have such a story to tell.  My
> lowered Spider has a pan guard, which used to scrape
> all the time, but never any real damage.

Verbum sap., Joe.  I have finally replaced the
too-short tires on my Spider and gone for a VERY
satisfying blast on some of the twisty roads near
home, specifically taking a few places where I used to
have to tiptoe over the humps in the middle of the
road.  I can now take them at a pleasant clip without
fearing the WHANG!SKRXXXK that used to happen.  Oh,
joy!

> I have learned, however, to always go through these
> kinds of dips at an angle, so that one of the front 
> wheels arrives at the other side of the dip
> before the other wheel, and this helps keep the pan
> out of trouble.  Tough to explain, but it works - 
> try it.

I found exactly the same thing, particularly on
certain driveways.  It tilts the car just the right
way so that the extra space taken up by the sump guard
doesn't hit the pavement.  

Now, as Joe Cantrell will surely point out, the sump
guard will hit/drag/scrape on things that the sump
itself won't -- it not only hangs slightly down from
the sump, but it's also slightly wider, so it presents
a larger "impact silhouette" (damn, I should have
worked for the CIA...)  However, I'm quite content to
leave the guard in place and let it take the brunt of
any contact, especially now that I no longer have the
too-short tires on the car.  (Hint: 185/60 tires,
while they give a delightful steering response and
ride, do NOT leave enough ground clearance on an old
Spider with a sump guard.)

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
.
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