10mm. 3/8". Half the diameter of a dime. That is in the weeds, and is less than what a bag of dog food in the trunk does. As stated, most of us want the car lowered by 4 times that amount.
I get that the 3P attracts enthusiasts that are willing to put up with many compromises, like a harsh suspension (bmw m3), no back seat (cayman), loud engine noises, minimal storage space, expensive maintenance schedules, tires usable only in summer, etc. If I had a 3P only for fun weekend drives I'd wouldn't worry about how practical the 3P is. However I'm hoping the 3P can be a practical daily driver for most needs for a family of 3.
Given that I've had 2 issues in my first 1000 miles I'm hoping that even the paltry 10mm rise helps. Given that few cars (by volume) are this low, I suspect the 3P is lower than 99% of cars. I'm guessing even the 10mm rise puts the LR or AWD lower than 95% of autos. Sure a bag of dog food might make more difference, but I do sometimes actually travel with things in the trunk. Maybe my problem was more that it was 3 people, a 50 pound dog, and enough gear for a day of hiking (we did summit lake and back). If I'd been solo in the car those same two spots might have been problem free.
Cars gain negative camber with compression. But still, the alignment will be set from the factory. Raising the height will do the opposite, add positive camber. Horrible for handling. If only some, an alignment may do the trick, but if you make it an SUV, you'll have several degrees of positive camber and hate the handling.
I'd worry about camber if I was using non-tesla parts to arbitrarily raise or lower the ride height. Is it really an issue if I'm using Tesla parts?
If I swap my 3P springs/shocks with AWD springs/shocks, that will invalidate some factory alignment that can't be redone by a decent garage? I'm hoping to preserve as much of the way it drives stock as possible.
I am honestly really having a hard time figuring out how one can possibly have problems with the car scraping. It flat out sits too high for a performance car. Don't compare it to Camrys and SUV's. Compare it to M3's and Caymans. It is much higher than them.
Even still, I just cant believe one of these cars is scraping. FWIW, take bumps at an angle, one wheel a time, and you won't have a problem.
I suspect my problem is that I'm not treating my 3P as a performance car. It looks nearly identical to the base m3. Sure I have different size rims (but same width tires), a tiny subtle spoiler, and red brakes. But I'm actually have the gall to go to Costco, take a family of 3 with a dog out hiking, and take everyone out to a restaurant.
So instead of driving around a parking lot looking for parking maybe I should offload the family (to gain a few mm of height) and have the redirect traffic while I slowly crawl over speed bumps one wheel at a time? Sure I'm exaggerating, but I do feel that a modest increase in height to stock will make the 3P a much more practical car at a minimum decrease in performance.
Do people only go shopping during off hours so they can take speed bumps diagonally? When things are busy it's not like there's much space to hit speed bumps at an angle.
If you follow Teslanomics on youtube, I guess I side more with Jenny (who made fun of Ben with his problems with his lowered 3) than Ben. Her number one request when the 3 became her daily car instead of his, was that it get raised back to stock and now she's pretty passionate about the 3.
I do wonder how much the BMW M3 and Caymen owners miss out on because of lack of clearance. A friend with 911 with a faster 0-60 (by spec anyways) than my 3P doesn't go up in the Sierra's with it. It's a real shame some really nice roads in the Sierras. Although I did get a double flat hugging the inside of a corner around Tahoe, but that wasn't an issue lack of ground clearance that was an issue with low profile tires/tiny sidewalls.
