Ok I bought some sportline springs but now I'm starting to get a bit worried... Granted my car is nearly twenty years old and the stock springs are certinally sagging, but I'm getting concerned that they'll lower the car too far.

I live in BC where the roads are rough and there are alot of inclines etc. Not to mention that I live in a secluded area which requires me to go across a ferry everytime I want to go anywhere (groceries, gas, cruising, work, etc) and depending on the water level, the transition can be pretty great. My nose already scrubs if I'm not careful and my exhaust has been bottoming out all over town already, and I'm still at stock height!

I have friends who've lowered their ricers and they have to creep very slowly at an angle when appoaching and departing the ferry, they scrub, but make it. Actually some friends refuse to visit me with their lowered cars anymore just for this reason.

Can anyone post pics of clearance? Give me your thoughts and experiences with approaching inclines, etc. Thanks!

 

Sportlines. I honestly thought they'd be lower, but it does srape on the end of my driveway:

 

mine isnt that low, i dont know what all you guys mean when you say it scrapes, the nose of mine has never scraped, the plastic 30 dollar air dam has but it just bends and doesnt break .Ive never had one problem with the height of the car lowered with sportlines.

 

i have dual exhaust underneath dumped, and sportlines and i don't hardly scrape...you can see how far mye exhaust hangs down, and i hardly have problems...

 

but with the front gfx on camaros, the threat of scraping is very high....though I only have the prokit...I have to be cautios around town and up and down driveways

 

My sportlines weren't much lower than my sagging original springs. I ended up cutting half a coil to get it where i wanted it.

I barely scrape on bad driveways and speed bumps, but my exhaust needs to be adjusted to tuck it up more closely to the frame.

 

Sportlines mine never scrapes except the air dam on driveways and the exhaust on tall speed bumps.

 

Exactly.

 

I've got the Sportlines as well and it didn't drop mine as much as I thought it would,

 

when i first lowered mine i scraped it acouple times...but after about 3 months i was fine...its all about angles..if you hit it alot..your not going on a good angle

 

come on , the camaro nose , well the gfx on the 91-92 is closer to the ground than on a firebird. My nose seems to look as low as the 91-92 maros .

 

ya you got a point boyds..firebird noses and sides even arent as low as camaro ones..well iroc and 91-92 ones

 

Your car will more than likely stay the same height is is now. Stock springs can sag that much. I only scrape my cat on speedbumps and my air damn upon entry. You cannot nose dive intop anything you trun into though. Then again you can't really do that with a stock 3rd gen either.

 

thanks for the pics guys... looks like it will lower my car about an inch judging from your pics and looking at my car... I'm still up in the air, I've got the springs right here on the floor next to me. I'll probably put them in... but I may see if I can trade someone for some Pro springs..

 

if I didnt want to go through the trouble of taking my new ones out (and replacing them again) I would gladly trade you

 

PUTEM IN!!!! 3rd gens look good with sportlines

 

You ppl are forgetting that most of you have put bigger wheels on your cars and for every inch you get bigger, you get half that much gained to your ride height. So Boyds, you're probably near the stock height. The people with stock or 16 inch wheels will have more trouble with the lowered ride height.

 

Not if you keep the overall tire diameter the same with a smaller sidewall.

 

I love the look of Sportlines on my car

 

Yes but most go with the same size sidewall than going to a lower profile sidewall.

 

not to change subject or anything, but what color of blue is your car, looks good. im going to paint mine next week. if you had a paint code or somthing that would be awsome.

 

I still find myself praying that it doesn’t hit every time I go over a new incline. I have a borla cat-back and clearance has not been an issue. We do have speed humps in town that are pretty much popping up in every neighborhood. I haven't hit one with the front end, but I can hear the plastic air dam rubbing. Oh, and my tire height is the same as stock. Hope this helps.

“IROC_5796” the color is Orient Blue, it is on the 2000 BMW paint chart, sorry, I don’t have a code.

 

I honestly find it difficult to believe that the majority of people getting larger wheels are going with the same size sidewall. I'm sure some have, but it's far from the majority.

 

A 245/50/16 (stock 16" 3rd gen wheel) tire is the same height as a 275/40/17 tire. However, if he had the 15x7 early RS wheel then he may have more drop than he wishes.

 

Should my 275/40/18 be a bit taller than my 275/40/17?
I haven't measured the heights or put them side by side yet.

 

yes, they will be exactly 1" taller if the aspect ratio (275/40) is the same.

 

Yup. It will be 1" taller as mw mentioned. To determin tire hieght use the following formula.

(width/25.4)*(aspect ratio/100) = sidewall height

Now take that and multiply it by two and then add your wheel diameter.

So for a 275/40/18 you would take

[[(275/25.4)*(.40)]*2]+17=25.66"

You typicall want to take your final value and use 98% of it to determin your overall height. There is about a 2% reduction in height when the vehicle compresses the tire.

 

Really? Cause every tire I looked for when i was going to put 17" zr1 rims on my car had the same tire height as what i have on my IROCs..

 

I just go to tirerack and look at the ride height specs per tire.. it also determines on the brand too when it comes to the exact ride height

 

Ok? I think you were trying to make me look dumb but it went the other way. What you just said made my statement true. If you have a 16 inch wheel with a 3 inch thick sidewall, a 17 inch wheel with the same 3 inch sidewall would give your ride a 1 inch more ride height.


And I do think most go with the same size sidewalls as theyre stock rims because they arent too thick to begin with. Even if they do go smaller, its usually not enough to make up for the 2 inches theyre adding to their wheels.

 

Chill out, I wasnt trying to make u look bad in anyway, was an honest question, because every tire i looked for (for the 17" rims) had a shorter sidewall than their own tire for lets say a 16" IROC rim.
Example:

Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3

245/50 YR16 - 25.7" tall

275/40 YR17 - 25.7" tall

I mean, i get what ur saying, and ur right, but if you look at the pics of most of those cars (with sportlines) that have bigger rims, the sidewalls are a lot shorter than the 245/50 YR16 that IROC rims would wear. I guess the thing to do would be to ask their tire height and then your arguement would hold water - if they have over a (roughly) 26" tire. But, if they have lower profile tires and have a close-to-stock tire height, their rims have nothing to do with how sportlines effect their cars.

 

Low profile tire doesn't really mean anything other than a generic designation for a narrow sidewall. If you want a lower profile tire than stock than you will have to decrease the sidewall height. This will lower the car. Overall height should not vary between the manufactuers. Width does vary but heights need to be pretty consistant. The reason why the sidewalls are shorter on the pics you see are because the wheels are bigger. Therefore you need less sidewall height of the tire to make up the remaining overall diameter of the tire. Assuming you want a 25.6" tire you need 1/2" less per sidewall height on a 17" rim than you do a 16" rim to acheive that value. If you have an 18" rim your sidewall will be even narrower to maintain that same 25.6" value.

 

sorry guys I should have mentioned I have the stock 16" IROC rims and they have over sized tires on them at the moment. I didn't buy them, they were on the car and nearly bald now.. I'd have to double check but they're something like 225/60 R16's which makes them taller then the stock tire size (1.5" taller?) Yet still I'm scrubbing and rubbing all over town.

I have a set of tires waiting to be put on, the stock 245/50 R16's - nice Fulda Extremo's which should lower the car a bit more. Perhaps I'll wait till I get these tires installed before I make a decision on the springs.

mabey I'll sell the springs and leave the car as is.. mobility is an issue for me because a 'fun summer car' is useless if I can't get it out of my neighbourhood and across that damned ferry!!

 

Sorry, i thought it was a sarcastic "really?". my apologies

 

I love mine...and wouldn't go with any other spring. You just have to be aware of your surroundings...and you'll be fine. Watch out for speed bumps...and the only down side of mine are that I can't change my oil...without rolling the front tires on wood, jacking it up...and putting it car rims in order to change the oil

 

I like them.
Just because the wheel gets bigger that doesn't mean the combo gets taller unless you make it that way. I say go for the springs, you'll be happy with them.

 

any more pics of sportlines installed??

 

check out my cardomain site....the first 2 pics are sportlines installed...

 

me and my brothers

 

84customZ28, is that white one dropped more than sportlines? that thing looks real low...

 

nope, just sportlines my friend. His looks lower then mine from the side especially because his tires are a bit thicker...so, there is hardly any wheel gap at all. I have a lower profile tire...so I have a little more wheel gap.

 

oh cool...looks great....thats cool, 2 bro's into thirdgen's...

 

Awesome, my brother has the Prokit on his red 91Z...

 

Can someone do me a huge favour, who has sportlines installed on an IROC? Park on a flat surface and take a measuring tape and measure from the ground up to the center of the front nose/ground effects? Please do the same from the rear to the center or better to the bottom of a tail pipe...

The pictures look great but honestly the cars look damned close to the same height as my car currently sits on stock springs.. but I have to account for the fact that my springs are nearly 20 years old.

Thanks!

 

Those are two beautiful cars! One question, where is the high rise on the Z?

 

Good question, it was like that when my brother bought the car. Although it had been re-painted, and kind of looked like a lowrider when he got it. The car was the right price and was very clean inside and out. The VIN has an 8 in the 8th digit and did have a 350 he rebuilt, so

 

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