This may be a stupid question/comment, but the more I read in the board here the more I feel the need to ask.
It seems like every time I read a string where someone has posted a picture of their car, the majority of the comments are that the car looks great but needs to be lowered. I guess maybe I'm an old fart who is from a time where a 2 inch gap above the tire wasn't considered to be the stance of an SUV.
What I would like to know is what the majority of the people here consider an acceptable ride height for 3500 pound car? Yes, I do agree that sports cars look more appealing when they are closer to the ground and there are handling gains as well. But why go to the expense of spending thousand of dollars (OK maybe only hundreds) to drop your car down so far that you have to spend a bunch of more money repairing the damage done from trying to drive over a speed bump or up a driveway?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against lowering cars, I'm planning to lower my car an inch or so, but a lot of the cars I have seen pictures of in the message board seem to have a pretty decent height, but they still bring out all the "drop that 4x4 stance" comments.

 

your my hero man. :hail:

I've been wanting to say this for the last week or so it seems like you can't get through a thread with a picture of a maro in it, and not see 'lower it' at least once.

my front ride height is a little high right now, but its stock, and it has saved my front spoiler, transmission mount, exhaust countless times.

 

It depends on what you want. To make the car look good, it needs a 2" drop over stock. If you want to run your car higher than that, fine, but it isn't going to look as good as a car that is lowered. It is personal opinion, and most peope believe that 2" is the best "look" for the third gens.

Food for thought: You don't see any Corvette's with a 2" wheel gap do you?

 

And how many corvettes do you see with front end damage......
how many times have you seen a vette try to get over a decent sized speed bump?
and if i'm not mistake all of the new vettes have variable suspension, they can tighten up when at lower speeds to handle bumps, where as my shocks compress all the way.


sorry, I had to bite the food for thought

 

that and all their **** is tucked up under the chassis, minus the front air dam, which is see damaged alot.... they realy dont have too muchdamage there.... that and their front wheels are closer to the pivot point.... kinda hard to explain, but our nose will hit the ground quicker than a vet would.... anywhays way too many reason to list, but i wanna drop my drag car, but not to the extent of fender lip to wheel....

edit: one more thing, if i remeber well all the c5+ have adjustable suspension, you dont got to buy drop springs and stuff like that... if memory serves me correct

 

Personally the stance of a car plays a big part in the overall look of the car...

The majority of people will tell you a car that has 2 inches of space between the fender lip and the top of the wheel doesn't have a good stance...

 

ohhh, and flyin's post reminded me.

the whole speedbump/driveway/ect arguement is for daily driver's and not show cars. show cars better be touching the ground

 

I agree 100% that show cars can and should be getting away with a 1/4" of ground clearance. It just looks cool, and all they need to do is make it on and off the flatbed transporting them to each show. But if you want to drive it more than to and from the beach once a week, getting to close to the ground is the best way to spend money on ground f/x's, exhaust, etc. that could be spent on go fast parts.
Hey stiers, is you bird lowered? If so, how much and do you have any pics. I want to drop mine a bit, but with out seeing a few and knowing how much they have been lowered I'm not sure how it will look. I also would like to know how much of a drop starts causing major clearance problems. Like I said before, if lowering the car causes a lot of limitations on where I can drive it, I'd rather leave it stock.

 

Those of you that have lowered your cars are lucky. I wanted to drop mine a little, but I had a cutout put in before the cat and now my passenger side won't go over a speed bump without scraping.

 

My GTA isn't lowered at all yet and neither is my project Firebird. The Camaro has a set of dropzone 2" lowering springs on it. I haven't had any problems with roads making it undrivable, potholes yes, but I stear clear of those just for the sake of my wheels and tires. The only time I scrape is going out of driveways that have a good angle, and I can actually get out of almost any driveway without scraping if I do it at the correct angle. Straight out and you will scrape and bottom out everything. Drive out at like a 60 degree angle and get each wheel off the driveway one at a time and you will be fine. I have NO dings dents or scrapes on my K member, Transmission pan, oil pan or transmission cross member. I do have scrapes on the back of my cat back right before it goes over the axle hump because my exhaust isn't tucked up enough.

 

what ?? first you say that it depends on what you want then you say to make it look good it needs a 2" drop over stock its all a matter of opinion on everyones car if someone wants to run stock height i think it looks very good as long as there not gonna say that every slammed car is crap or something im a firm believer in what you like is what you want and it is what your gonna be the happiest with so do what you think your gonna like to your car ...now with that said sorry to stiers wasnt trying to single ya out just using your post as an example not meaning to flame or anything man ...

 

I dunno....I think a 2" drop helps a bird more....I think the stance of my Iroc is fine. You people with your cars dropped 2" must have really nice roads. The roads in NJ suck....potholes everywhere after winter from snow plows and just generally bad road quality.

 

im tellin.... i live in central illinois and the roads here might as well just be all gravel and i still see guys riding around with a 2 inch drop on their cars but they also have most of the paint rubbed off the front gfx ...lol...but like you said you think a 2 " drop looks good its all an opinion on what everyone likes and i have to agree i like the way that those cars looked dropped and stock but i hate the raked look myself but thats my opinion...LMAO

 

I live in Louisiana, Louisiana's raods are the worst, Louisiana was built on a swamp, I win . When I bought my 86 iroc it had the Intrax 2" drop springs and all I can tell you is that it was so nerve racking driving my car. I'd drive around waiting for the next horrible sound of scraping and it'd make me cringe everytime. They were beat to hell and back while lowered and have the surface of a golfball now. I swapped those springs out for stockers about a year ago and all I can say is that the car is 20x more fun to drive now. My undercarriage has made contact with the ground maybe twice in the last year or so and they were very minor. And oh my poor, poor longtube headers. To tell you the truth I don't find the lowered stance THAT appealing. Sure if you have a 15 inch rim in there with a small tire maybe, otherwise lowering does nothing for me..........

 

alright ill give ya that one you got me there ..but i agree with ya that the lowered stance is a owners taste kind of thing i believe also but hey to each there own ya know

 

i think a 1 1/2" is good for a daily driver. our cars are naturally lower then most, especially those with gfx like the 91-92's. i never had a problem with my car after i lowered it but i did have to pay attention to how i drove it just when it was stock.

to me if i can't set it on the ground it's too high.

 

why would it be better after you lowered it ?? because it was tighter i guess?

 

it isn't always better when you lower a car, your suspension is only as good as the parts you use. wether you raise or lower something it's very important on what choices you make.

 

oh yeah id definatly agree with you quality is #1 when it comes to any part on my cars i dont believe in a cheap fix

 

First off Id like to say Kandied91z that is one sweet ride:hail: . Ive seen you post several times and have seen partial pictures buts that the first time Ive seen the whole thing....very sweet.

I think our cars look great lowered and would love to have a 2 inch or better drop. Lowering our cars only improves thier handling characteristics and the stiffer progressive spring rates give them that tight fell that I love, but practicality enters into it when you plan on driving it on a semi regular basis.

I love the lowered look but I plan on only lowering mine an 1" to 1 1/2" and making up the difference by going with a larger wheel like a 17 which helps IMO with the illusion that its lower than it is. I think thats the maximum safe drop for whats already a pretty low car.

I live in northern illinois and the roads are trashed for the most part and Im running long tube headers and plan on finishing it with true dual exhaust, so I have to be careful.

 

dont you just love the roads in our happy state...LOL...they SUCK!!!

 

Potholes here in Hawaii are pretty bad too! I think CrazyHawaiian can agree with me on that one. But we still lower our cars here. Just plain fun Just be glad you folks don't have Reconstruction laws like we do.

 

South Florida....no problems with my lowering and my low exhaust

Then i moved to Florida State, and it's a nightmare, thankfully the 19's raised my car a little so now it doesn't scrape so much....

 

I lowered my car and it turned into the stock stance

<img src="http://www.zbalan.com/sonarun/TransAm/Tokico%20Springs/After%2001.jpg">

 

I like this stance,


This is how it sat stock,

 

Zepher, what springs are u running? i LOVE that stance, and by the way, thank *** you changed those rims, the black GTA ones look much better

 

Hey Sonar, nice car man!!!!! Is that a fourth gen spoiler you have on there? How do you like the ram air hood? What did you use to lower your car?

Dave.

 

Thanks.
I have Eibach Sportlines on the car. I've seen other cars with Sportlines and they seem to be dropped much lower than mine.
I had a set of Jamex Springs on my Trans Am and it looked pretty good as well,




Here is a video of the car in motion,
http://www.transamws6.com/video/ZepherWS6.mpg

 

Both the spoiler and hood are from RamAirHood.com (Notice the car in the banner ad at the top of tht page). The hood and spoiler are of good quality.

I lowered my car with Tokico lowering springs.

I noticed you are from Alberta.. thats cool, I was born there.

Man Zeph, I remember that video from AGES ago!

 

I hope to have a new vid soon. Just need to finsh the damn car.

 

What I mean is that it needs a 2" drop to look its best, however, some people feel the need to put function over form and let them ride higher. Those people feel that they would rather have a car that doesn't look as good but will clear potholes. Not saying they don't look good. Just saying they would look better dropped.

 

again, thats your opinion.

 

My function is over form. My car handles like it's on rails!! Only problem is, I can't get over the speed bumps that we have here in texas.

 

I had issues with speedbumps here in texas BEFORE I lowered my car

 

 

check out the pics in my sig, the ones with the mecham wing are the current pics with the drop. i used eibach sportlines and im glad i did. The rear just need to come down a little more, i dont know whether to go with ground control ride height adjusters or cut about half a coil off. Id really like to go with some air ride system so it could be low at shows and then a good heigh for driving. Not hydraulics but air ride. hopefully kandied will be the first with them and then the company will make them .

 

Yeah, your front seems to sit a little lower than the rear.

My rear seems to sit a little lower than my front on my car . What was wierd was that before the drop, the rear sat entirely too high.

 

Hotchkis 1" lowering springs. I love 'em

 

I haven't taken any recent photos yet, but here is the front of mine...

She sites about 1/2 inch lower when the springs settled a bit more.

 

pictures are best when the sun is at your back.

 

thats how low mine sits now...its about a 3.5' drop with the small tires....and my front lip sits about 4.5' from the ground

http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...59_99_full.jpg

and here is how low my sides will be when i put them on

http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...9_112_full.jpg

 

i'd like to see more pictures, what suspension are you running. if that's a spring combo that's pretty extreme for street use. can't see you saving your paint but i like it.





*edit* alright i found the pictures...looks nice, can't believe that's with springs. what strut/shock combo are you using that can handle that without having a terrible ride? nitro drop shocks maybe? anyhow looks good.

interior? did you paint those pannels in the rear? looks to be a darker grey then normal, much darker, looks good and if it is painted i'd like to know what you used? any closeups on the interior pannels?

get a few things together and the engine bay cleaner and it would really stand out...it's looking good.

 

my opinion is a difference in generations of people the older baby boomers were in a time when the jacked up *** end and normal stock gap inthe front was cool or even just stock ride height was cool looking. i frankly think my stock ride height is perfect. yet i beleive that since in this day and age everything is going to the street racing or just plain racing scene. and in the racing scene lower is better for handling and everything is out to be more like racing. **** rockets and even our cars are affected by this frame of mind. altho we can't get away with it due to this is the majoring theme in this day and age for the automobile.

 

im using eibach springs...but they had to be modified (cut) lol to make them go that low...but the rides fine...it was clunking in the back but it was bump stops bottoming out....and for the interior its a spray paint...and my panels in the rear are all light grey just was a bad pic i guess....i used white tremclad high gloss white and new for blue engine enamel for the interior colours

 

so the pannels weren't painted then?

 

slammed_z

You are a crazy, crazy man, I don't know how you drive around on the street with a car that low......

 

no the panels werent...maybe the previous owner did........

haha thanks FLYNLOW92rs you get use to it...ill take a pic of how low the undercarriage is ...its crazy low lol.......btw your car looks soo nice with those 19's ...im going for the 18' zenneti vegas

 

I know the feeling because a hamster couldn't fit under my exahust when i had the 16's......it was horrible, but now it's much better

I saw your other post and just gonna let you know here, get the Zenetti Vega wheels......MUCH better...