I do this every time on both the race and street cars. Have for >6 years.

Why do you think no?

 

it happened to me i have a dent now in the rocker panel

 

again, been doing it forever. The only way to wreck a rocker panel is if you didn't make sure the jack was centered on the "lip" and it slipped off.

 

Which has happened to me, actually. Doh! That rocker panel ended up being replaced in the aftermath of my T10 incident several years ago. It has made me more careful about where I jack the car from, though.

If it weren't possible to jack up the whole side of the car by the reinforced jack point I would say it was worth considering. But since it is, I don't see the point in jacking from the middle.

 

I have been jacking the S and the MR2 where it picks up front and rear evenly. I use a piece of 2X4 about 6" long. It has a 3/4" wide by 3/4" deep slot cut in it to keep from bending the lip on the rocker panel. The S picks up pretty good lifting at a point just to the rear of the side mirrors. The slot is deep enough that you are actually lifting on the floor pan and the bottom of the rocker. You are not actually lifting the non reinforced part of the rocker lip.

 

On the "which jack" subject, Harbor Frieght Tools has a spectacular jack for the track. 3k lbs, 3" clearance, alumimun and about 3/4 scale of the typical "aluminum racing jack" I've seen. It's very light, compact and seems to lift quickly with low effort, and it's only $85

Being many a HF product are cheap and unreliable, I won't chance any under car work without stands, but it's been great (so far) for travel to the track to swap tires and brakes.

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdi...ubCategoryName=

 

I have used the middle for years. Reason is I feel that it puts less stress/twisting torque on the car than when the whole side is lifted from the front or rear jack point. I'd much rather have cosmetic damage. Just driving over a bump with one wheel (so not nearly as much as jacking from one corner since all wheels are still on the ground) definitely twists the car as I can hear my roll bar creak (without a rollbar it would probably twist even more, and repeatedly when jacking the car). Maybe this is negligible stress on the car, but I baby my cars .

 

About which jack to get: Harbor Freight sells a little one and a big one. The bigger one is long enough to jack under the front center point if you drive onto about 1-1.5" thick boards first.

 

i agree, plus from the center you don't have to lift the car as high in order to get both wheels off the ground.

 

Well, now you have the definitive word--maybe it's ok, maybe it's not.

I think the approved jack poins are stronger, less likely to bend. I've seen too many bent parts of the frame rail on cars jacked in a "non-approved" place, so I jack my S2000 only from the approved places. It's easy to get both tires off the ground that way, and it's not off the ground long enough to cause damage, IMO. Never had any problem, or sign of a problem, and I've jacked it up dozens and dozens of times. If I'm doing something besides just changing tires (e.g., swapping brake pads), I'll put a jack stand under the rear jack point, to eliminate any problem with twisting the body.

That said, I jack my Miata from the middle, cuz it's just a race car, well crinkled already.