Various Ways To Lower Your Car

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Lowering your car is absolutely necessary if you want your ride to look great and cool. You’ll get rid of that horrible gap between your tyres and wheel arches and you’ll get better handling. There are various ways to lower your motor but not all of them are recommended.

Cut the springs

The worst way to drop your car is to chop or cut a few coils from your original springs. It might be a very cheap solution but it’s the only way where your car will handle worse than before. So don’t do it. Constructors spend millions doing research on suspension for their models. If you cut away coils from their springs you’ll be driving a dangerous car. It might look cool but for how long?

Shorter sport springs

A better way is to buy shorter sport springs. The manufacturers of those products spend a lot on research when developing these springs for different makes. Generally it means top quality if they have German TüV approval. If you use -30mm or -40mm shorter springs then you can keep your original shocks. I know people who claim to run -60mm springs with their original shocks but really, these shocks aren’t up to that kind of abuse. It could work for a while but they’ll soon wear out as a result and suspension travel will be limited due to the fact that the pistons in the shockers will either reach their travel limit or the suspension will bottom out hitting the bumpstop.

Uprated shocks

You can go lower than -40mm and your car will still superbly handled. If you want to go lower, make sure you get shortened shocks, these are especially designed for extreme lowering. If you use -60mm on non-shorted upgraded shocks then travel will become limited due to the shockers reaching the limit of their travel. It is possible to shorten the bumpstops (rubber/foam stoppers) to help with this but it won’t give you much extra movement. Once the car is regulary hitting the bumpstops the handling will be destroyed and will cause your car to bounce and we want to avoid that.

Coilovers

They’re adjustable in height giving you total freedom in lowering. The height is adjustable normally by jacking the car up and spinning the spring platform up or down the body of the shock which is threaded. If you have money then it’s better if you buy the proper coilovers.

Firmness adjustable

If possible get yourself firmness (top) -adjustable shockers. You can adjust the firmness under the bonnet with a special knob. You can adjust the firmness from soft to rock hard in a matter of seconds, depending on the road you’re doing. These kits are more expensive than non-adjustable shocks. Most coilovers are top adjustable, many upgraded standard body shocks are not.Hydraulics and pneumatics

The suspension is raised and lowered at the touch of a button by the operator who may be inside or even outside of the car. These systems use hydraulic rams or air compressors which fill air bags to move the suspension. The systems are quite expensive and traditionally use a lot of space but they do offer ultimate control of the looks of the car with the ability to literally drop it onto the deck when parked and raised for driving.