Lowering XJ

I have a front aridamn that looks alot like that, i belive it was made for the mjs when they road raced them. I'll see if i can get a pic of it when i go out to my shop next time. it caps over the ends of the bumper and looks pretty cool. I have been holding on to it for doing a lowered mj but I keep getting into diffrent projects and my 2wd XJ will be getting a 2500 front end.
 
Mine's down 2" and I am running 255/60/15s on stock rims w/ 5.25" backspace. Mine could go down another inch or so w/o problems and I know I could fit 265s w/ minor rubbing at full lock but not sure of 275s. I should take a pic of the clearance from the rr leaf--it's around an inch.
edit: I should take a short drive down there.
 
it´s a regular limited with the bodykit of the performance, in england called stealth.
i have only some older pics

1523704.jpg


1523705.jpg


1523707.jpg
 
i know, the sidemarkers looks smoked but they aren´t, anyway now i have white ones.
at the weekend i make new photos and i´ll post them.
 
The alum 5-stars I have measure 15x8", but are marked 15x7j. If I ever bought new rims, I'd get 17x8s and put 255/45 or 50s on it.
 
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What about using 275/60R15 or whatever size rims you have? They are nearly exactly the same size as the stock sized tires 225/75 and are 10.5" wide. But maybe too wide and could rub at full turn.
 
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That ain't a bad idea. I personally always thought of the wider tire in the rear, skinny up front was always for race cars or really bad ass street cars. But I would love to see a Jeep like that.
 
Skinny upfront is used to neutralize handling. XJs push like crazy, so I dont think there will be much benefit to running skinnier (relative to the back) tires up front. Straight-line performance is a different story, but I dont think were looking only for straight-line by lowering the vehicle.
 
Wider tires are used for a few different reasons. Typically on street cars from the factory, wider rear tires are used to add additional contact area to promote understeer. It is seen as safer for a car to be tuned to understeer, so on higher HP RWD cars they put bigger meats in the back. My M3 for example came from the factory with 245s in the rear and 225s in the front, and I've replaced those with 235s all around to promote a more neutral handling character.

For drag racing you are often traction limited to the drive wheels (front or rear) so you would put wider tires to increase potential grip, and to decrease rolling resistance you could put skinnier tires to the non drive wheels. This is why you see "bad ass" RWD street cars with huge tires on the rear and tiny ones on the front. This isn't good if you plan on turning corners though ;)

Unless your XJ has a lot more HP than stock, putting bigger tires on the rear is totally just for the looks and will actually make it understeer even more than it already does from the factory (which is a lot).
 
In a chassis book I had years ago regarding race cars, most experts say that its best to put the widest tire you can fit and then use swaybars to adjust the handling to suit your needs. so in other words put a big sway bar in the back and you can balance the handling back out after putting a wider tire out back.
 
What's the lowest anyone has dropped an XJ? The factory did it on the Comanche for racing but I'm not sure if they used stock front suspension or a completely re engineered setup.
 
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