BassMan Posted March 17, 2005 Posted March 17, 2005 Hello all, Taking my lovely SEiW to France next month, but worried about ground clearance. It's a 1600 CVH with only 60mm between the sump (lowest point) and road - not much ! I'm considering the Eurotunnel Shuttle for all round speed and quickness. Has anyone taken their car over and had any problems with speed bumps or loading ramps? May consider the ferry or Seacat if I really have to. Cheers Quote
CedricTheBrave Posted March 17, 2005 Posted March 17, 2005 I took my SeiW over a few years back to Folembray and had no problems at all on the tunnel. However I did have a bit more clearance than 60mm You will realise how crap our roads are when you come back compared to the nice smooth French ones. Quote
S8ight Posted March 17, 2005 Posted March 17, 2005 took my quattro on eurotunnel, got about the same clearance if not slightly less, went on and off fine Quote
Mark Stanton Posted March 17, 2005 Posted March 17, 2005 I took my Westfield Sei wide with 1600CVH (and standard sump) to Le Mans in 95, 96 and 97 via the channel ferries without any problems Quote
Stuart Posted March 17, 2005 Posted March 17, 2005 I've had a look the last few times I have been through the tunnel in the tin top and, apart form a couple of speed bumps as you leave the parking area outside the shops, it looks OK to me. Anyone know what the ferries to Bilbao/Santander are like for ground clearance - fancying some tooling around northern Spain later in the year. Quote
will maskell Posted March 19, 2005 Posted March 19, 2005 as above have said,clearence on ferry wont be a problem...although the cvh sump(presume you have standard item)is very thin and i shagged two while using this engine in my early days of westy ownership and once was in germany and the new one cost £250 quid from german ford dealer!!!! it lasted two weeks back in blighty before i holed it again!! Quote
adam1330 Posted March 19, 2005 Posted March 19, 2005 Been on the Eurostar as well, no problems, just make sure you get on the lower deck of the train if poss. Quote
Graham Posted March 19, 2005 Posted March 19, 2005 Taken my S8 on the tunnel a few times, probably about the same clearance. No real problems apart from the foot and mouth year when they dug a huge pit and if you weren't prepared to go through it they came out and washed your wheels for you... no, I'm not kidding! Three things to look out for... 1) The ramp between the platform and the train, take it slow. 2) The nasty bit they leave sticking up between each carraige, I guess it's what they lock the door into, eitherway, it's bang in the middle and surprisingly high... 3) Coming back... Passport control in France, if you pick the wrong one there is a huge hump! Graham. Quote
PhilH Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 Ive been to Le Mans twice in a 1600 cvh without any problems.Just be carefull tho i holed mine on the coast to coast last year,dont know what i hit but i creased it on the drain plug.Could always screw front end up a bit to give a bit more clearance! Phil Quote
BassMan Posted March 29, 2005 Author Posted March 29, 2005 Thanks for the advice, I'll go carefully ! Is there an easy upgrade to the standard CVH paper thin sump then at reasonable cost? Maybe something a little shallower to give more clearance? Not sure I want to go the whole way and have a dry sump system fitted just yet. Cheers Quote
neilwillis Posted March 29, 2005 Posted March 29, 2005 I'm sure you could get a sump guard fabricated for it. Quote
MartT Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Not taken the Westie on the ferry yet, but we won't go into that again However we saw an Austin Healey 3000 shed its exhaust whilst using the ramp to an upper deck. Basically went too fast and bottomed out on the apex! Quote
Mark Stanton Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Is there an easy upgrade to the standard CVH paper thin sump then at reasonable cost? Maybe something a little shallower to give more clearance? Speak to the chaps at ProComp - they did a bostin job on mine Quote
7SE Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 I'm sure you could get a sump guard fabricated for it. Which would reduce the clearance even more IME the ferries can be worse than the train, depends on whether the tide is in or not - no really! There can be some quite acute ramp angles on ferries, resulting in apexes at the top which can catch your sump. Traversing them on a diagonal can help, by that I mean cross the apex diagonally so that one wheel drops over first and the other one second. This seems to prevent the sump dropping down onto the apex when the front wheels cross it together. HTH Quote
BassMan Posted March 30, 2005 Author Posted March 30, 2005 I phoned up Eurotunnel who said there were no mininum height restrictions, but that they used to have big problems with cars grounding out until about 10 years ago when they changed the ramps. The girl I spoke to said her ordinary Renault 5's gearbox was badly damaged when going to an upper deck some years ago - hardly a low slung sports car! She also mentioned there were two sets of nasty thin speed ramps to negotiate after the toll booths and customs. You can ask to be put on the lower deck though which would help. I then phoned Hoverspeed who were extremely helpful. They said they have regularly taken over some Le Mans cars and some Gumball rally cars on the Seacat. The crew have special loading ramps for anything particularly low that needs help. As long as I mention that when booking they'll make sure the appropriate person is told on board - sounds a distinct possibility. I keep thinking I've got 60mm to play with, but of course that's without me, the missus, and all the luggage Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.