How Can I Lower My Car???
04-15-2004, 06:49 PM
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How Can I Lower My Car??? what do i need to do?? in order to lower my car PROPERLY~!~!~!~!!~ i know i need new shocks/springs...but what else do i really need to make it handle better and reduce body roll??? plz help....im a noob... 
04-15-2004, 07:03 PM
#3
Lowering springs to lower the car, and shocks to handle the higher spring rates of the aftermarket springs. The shocks themselves will have ZERO impact on the ride height (unless you use Koni's and set them on the lower spring perch, but this only works for the fronts, not the rears)
For reduced body roll, you need stiffer swaybars. 32 or 35mm are the most popular front swaybars. Rears range from keeping the stock 19mm bar to going with a 21-22mm rear bar. You can get as large as 25mm rear bar, but most people feel this is too much rear bar, will make the car tend to oversteer more, which requires very confident driving skills to handle safely.
After shocks/springs, you'll want to have your alignment checked. Typically you'll wind up with more negative camber, but that's a good thing for handling. For a street car, -.5 to -1.0 camber is good, for a more aggressive performance car that sees a lot of performance driving (autox, road racing, or just track days), -1.5 or a bit higher will be useful. At this point though you're going to start seeing noticable uneven tire wear IF the car sees a lot of normal street driving +4.5-+5.5 caster is typical for a performance car, and for toe you'll want around 1/16th-1/32nd toe in. Zero toe is even better for handling, but makes the car noticabley more twitchy and sensitive to uneven road surfaces. Negative toe really shouldn't be used on any car that's going to see any street use.
For reduced body roll, you need stiffer swaybars. 32 or 35mm are the most popular front swaybars. Rears range from keeping the stock 19mm bar to going with a 21-22mm rear bar. You can get as large as 25mm rear bar, but most people feel this is too much rear bar, will make the car tend to oversteer more, which requires very confident driving skills to handle safely.
After shocks/springs, you'll want to have your alignment checked. Typically you'll wind up with more negative camber, but that's a good thing for handling. For a street car, -.5 to -1.0 camber is good, for a more aggressive performance car that sees a lot of performance driving (autox, road racing, or just track days), -1.5 or a bit higher will be useful. At this point though you're going to start seeing noticable uneven tire wear IF the car sees a lot of normal street driving +4.5-+5.5 caster is typical for a performance car, and for toe you'll want around 1/16th-1/32nd toe in. Zero toe is even better for handling, but makes the car noticabley more twitchy and sensitive to uneven road surfaces. Negative toe really shouldn't be used on any car that's going to see any street use.
04-15-2004, 09:16 PM
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dont forget relocation brackets.....they will adjust the mounting points for your LCAs and help fix the suspension geometry since you throw it out of whack when you lower the car. if you dont relocate the LCAs when youlower the car, it will typically start wheelhopping pretty badly when you try to launch it.
04-15-2004, 11:38 PM
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Originally Posted by TX_SS
thank you everyone..esp deepblueZ....what about panrod..or something..what do i need em for??