When we put the new wheels on we were questioning if my car was at the best ride height for handling. What I've always "heard" is that you want to the front control arms to be parallel with the ground when the car is at rest on the ground.Is this true?
As a generalization, yes, but it depends on a few thousand other factors. As a basic premise, having the lower control arm parallel with the ground will help make a more predictable camber curve. If the lower arm is parallel, it will start arcing inward anytime it goes up or down. If its static setting is angled upward toward the wheel after you lower it, it will start arcing inward during compression, but go outward and THEN inward as you rebound. In many applications it can be fine, but not optimal.... but everybody does it :) Most of the time a lowered autocross car is so stiffly sprung that the lower arms only move 1" in a race anyway, so not much camber change will ever happen.
It also depends on what type of suspension; strut, SLA, etc. From the factory, GM shipped three models of B-body in the 90s; the regular caprice, the 9C1 cop car caprice, and the Impala SS. They all differed in one way; springs. The Caprice was the tallest, the 9C1 was about 3/4" lower than that, and the Impala SS was about 1.5" lower yet. My SS has been further lowered another 2", so to say that the LCA position is overly important would be incorrect.
