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MG MGA - Lowering the MGA

I installed new springs all the way around when restoring the A 20 years ago. This placed the body about 3 inches higher, resulting in a 3-in. gap between the rear tire than fender, and similar on the front end. The springs never settled down, like I was told they would do.

I see lots of A's riding low, especially racers. What method do they use for lowering the body?

thanks,
Tyler
Tyler Irwin

Tyler
I have to admit that I love the look of the MGA when it has been fitted with lowered suspension.
My car was a race car when I got it with the suspension stiffened up and lowered by approx 2".

The front springs were replaced with shortened and much stiffer ones and the front wishbones had been replaced with MGB ones which gave slight negative camber.

The rear springs were left as standard but fitted with lowering blocks which basically just lift the axle
upwards, lowering the rear of the car.
Also the rear shocks had been replaced with telescopic ones.

All this sounds great but to be honest, it made it pretty unpleasant to drive.

The negative camber wishbones should not be fitted to an MGA with lowered suspension as it makes the car prone to extreme bump-steer. This is when a sharp steering input or a bump in the road causes the car to steer sharply to one side. This can be very dramatic at high speeds when on any corner which has less than perfect road surfaces, you literally didnt know which side of the road you would end up on if you hit a bump.

It also gave the car very twitchy steering and it was particularly difficult to drive it in a straight line on narrow motorway lanes.

The first thing I did was to swap the wishbones back to standard and this brought about a dramatic improvement, the car has now lost its twitchiness and is fun to drive again.

But!

The lowered and stiffened suspension gives it a really hard ride, so much so that on any worn road surfaces, the car rattles and bumps over any potholes etc in a way that makes me worry about damaging the car. (It is great on really smooth road surfaces)

I was following my friend Stuart Mumby through the Alps a couple of years ago and he was driving up a steep mountain road a fair speed. I was following and keeping close behind him until we came to a badly eroded road section. Stuarts car carried on at an un-diminished speed but my car was being rattled about so much that I had to slow down to avoid breaking the car and I just couldnt keep up with him.

So I do intend raising the suspension a little in the near future and definitely softening the front springs too, just to make the car work better on poor roads surfaces.

So my advice would be.

Dont lower the car too much more than standard.

Negative camber wishbones work best on standard height suspension on the MGA but is not great on lowered cars.

Standard lever-arm shock absorbers work fine on the MGA.

If you keep with standard suspension which to be honest is really quite good already, then just fit a stiff front anti-roll bar(sway bar in US speak!). This is probably the best modification you can do to the suspension and this alone makes the car handle really well.

Cheers

Colyn


c firth

A picture of my lowered car at the top of Hardnott Pass in September, it is lowered to the point that there is less than an inch gap between the tyre and the top of the wheel arch.

I have to use a scissor type jack as the standard jack will not fit anywhere.

Colyn
(pic from Roger Martin)


c firth

This thread was discussed on 04/02/2016

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