Ride height & rake explained — sim racing setup

Q: Does lower ride height always make a sim racing car faster?

Usually lower means more floor aero and a lower center of gravity, so more grip. But there is a floor: drop too far and the car bottoms — the splitter or plank hits the track, the platform pitches, and grip becomes unpredictable, especially over kerbs and crests. The fastest ride height is the lowest one that does not bottom where it hurts.

What ride height and rake actually are

Ride height is how high the car's floor sits above the track, measured front and rear. Rake is the difference between the two — when the rear sits higher than the front, the car runs nose-down, and that nose-down attitude is what engineers call rake. You set both in the garage as plain millimetres, but their real job happens underneath the car, in the airflow you never see.

Front ride height — how close the splitter and the front of the floor run to the track. Lower generally feeds the floor more cleanly and lowers the nose.
Rear ride height — sets the angle of the diffuser, the upswept section at the back of the floor that does much of the aerodynamic work.
Rake — the rear-minus-front height, the car's pitch attitude at rest. More rake = more nose-down.

The headline: lower generally means more downforce from the floor and a lower centre of gravity — but it raises the risk of bottoming. Rake adds a second dial on top: it changes where that aero load sits front-to-rear. So you are never just setting a height — you are aiming the aero platform.

Lower for grip — until the floor hits the ground

Modern race cars make most of their grip from the floor — the underbody and diffuser accelerate air beneath the car and suck it down onto the track. The closer the floor runs to the ground, the harder that effect works. That is why teams chase the lowest ride height they can run: more floor aero, plus a lower centre of gravity, which sharpens response and reduces weight transfer.

There is a hard limit, though. Drop too low and the car bottoms — the splitter, the plank or the floor itself touches the track. Bottoming is when the platform momentarily sits on the ground instead of the springs: grip becomes unpredictable, the aero stalls and recovers, and the car snaps in a way no damper or bar can tame. It bites hardest over kerbs, dips and crests, and under heavy braking when the nose dives.

The fastest ride height is the lowest one that does not bottom where it hurts. The engineers read your telemetry for the platform pitching and grounding through the lap, so you lower the car with data instead of discovering the floor with a moment of oversteer at the worst possible corner.

Platform pitch sensitivity — how much the car's attitude moves under load — is why two cars at the same static height can feel completely different. It is the springs and the height working together.

Rake moves your aero balance

Here is the part most setup guides skip, and the single most important idea on this page. Rake does not just change how the car looks — it changes where the aerodynamic load acts. Run more rake (rear up, nose down) and you generally steepen the floor and diffuser, building load toward the rear and pulling the centre of pressure — the point where total aero load effectively acts — forward relative to the car. The result is more front bite and rotation in fast corners.

That is the bridge. Ride height and rake are mechanical numbers you type into the setup screen, but they decide how the aero works. So:

A mechanical change here MOVES your aero balance. Ride height and rake are the bridge between the mechanical and aero strata of the car. Change them and your centre of pressure moves — which is exactly why you set the aero platform before touching anti-roll bars or springs. Tune the bars first and a later rake change quietly undoes them.

This is also why the two halves of balance must be kept apart. The centre of gravity (where the car's mass sits, weight per axle) is mechanical and roughly constant. The centre of pressure is aerodynamic and migrates with speed — small in slow corners, dominant in fast ones. Ride height and rake are your primary handle on that aero half.

We go deeper on these two on the dedicated pages — see balance & centre of gravity and aero balance & centre of pressure for how the engineers read each one from telemetry.

Read the symptom, then reach for the platform

Ride height and rake leave a fingerprint you can learn to spot. Because they are aero levers, their effect grows with speed — which is exactly how you tell a platform problem from a mechanical one:

Balance that changes with speed — the car is neutral in slow corners but pushes or gets loose only in fast ones. That speed dependence is the signature of the aero platform, not the bars. Reach for rake and ride height.
Bottoming — a sudden, sharp instability over a kerb, a crest or under hard braking, often with a scrape you can hear. The floor is grounding; raise the car at that end or stiffen the platform's travel.
Platform pitch sensitivity — the car feels nervous as it pitches under braking and acceleration, the balance darting around mid-phase. The aero is moving because the attitude is moving.

The principle a good engineer never forgets: slow-corner balance is mechanical, fast-corner balance is aero. If the problem only appears as the speed rises, you do not soften an anti-roll bar — you set the aero platform first. SimRace.app does this for you: the engineers read your telemetry corner by corner, separate the speed-dependent aero behaviour from the mechanical, and tell you when the answer is ride height or rake rather than letting you chase it by feel.

One change at a time, judged over a few laps. Move ride height or rake and everything downstream shifts — that is why it comes early in the build order, before the mechanical fine-tuning, and never as an afterthought once the bars are set.

FAQ

What is rake in a sim racing setup?

Rake is the rear of the car sitting higher than the front, so the car runs nose-down. More rake steepens the floor and diffuser, which generally builds aerodynamic load toward the rear and shifts the centre of pressure. It is an aero-platform lever — changing it moves your aero balance, not just your stance.

Does lower ride height always make a car faster?

Usually lower means more floor aero and a lower centre of gravity, so more grip. But there is a floor: drop too far and the car bottoms — the splitter or plank hits the track, the platform pitches, and grip becomes unpredictable, especially over kerbs and crests. The fastest ride height is the lowest one that does not bottom where it hurts.

Why does my car feel different only in fast corners after a ride height change?

Because ride height and rake are aero levers, and aero load grows with speed. A change you make in the garage barely shows in slow corners but dominates fast ones. If your balance shifts with speed, the cause is the aero platform — ride height and rake — not the anti-roll bars or springs.

Should I set ride height and rake before or after the anti-roll bars?

Before. Ride height and rake set the aero platform, and changing them afterwards shifts the whole balance and undoes mechanical work. Get the tyres in their window, set the aero platform if the imbalance grows with speed, then balance mechanically with bars, springs and the differential.

How does ride height and rake connect the mechanical and aero parts of a setup?

Ride height and rake are mechanical numbers you type into the setup screen, but they decide how the floor works — which is aero. They are the bridge between the two strata: a mechanical change here moves your centre of pressure and therefore your aero balance. That is why the engineers treat them as the first aero lever, not a mechanical one.

The setup glossary

Ride height and rake are one lever in a connected car. Keep reading the rest of the glossary — each page defines one piece and shows where it sits in the build order.

Try the engineers free Read the setup guide →