Pros and cons of lowering SC

Emu Bird

Registered User
I am considering lowering my sc and putting on new shocks I wanted to know the deal on this suspension upgrade as it relates to alignment, ie negative camber tire wear and related issues. checked the boards but nothing answered my question. What effect does lowering the car 1.25 " vs 1.50" have on the ride and alignment issues? Thanks for any clarification. :D
 
2" drop is about all the lower you can go and still correct the vehicle with a simple alignment. Personally, I think 1.5" looks the best. With any lowering springs, you will want to get a fresh alignment right away. I have to be a little more careful with the 1.5" drop on my car, but not bad. I can still go over speed bumps and stuff, I just have to slow way way down. Good Luck.

CobraSCSide.jpg


Thomas
 
With any lowering springs, you will want to get a fresh alignment right away.
I would have to disagree with that. Unless you have alot of money to waste and want to get it alligned twice, wait a few hundred miles to allign it. It will settle a bit. That way it will have settle before you get it alligned.


On the Pro's and Con's..........

Pro - you get the women

Pro - The car looks phat

Pro - You fill up the wheelwell (well....more)

Pro - You will quickly learn some creative parking lot entrance and exit techniques

Pro - It will handle better


-Steve
 
And most likely you will suffer from front tire inside edge wear probably due to bump steer. Depending on the springs you choose as well as shocks you can have ride issues as well. Tokico Lowering Springs are a 1.25" drop but are linear and stiff compared to stock. Most of the others are 1.5" progressive springs but the Eibach's and Tokico Shocks combo have been known to be bouncy or floaty.

Also depending on where you live and their inspection laws you may have a hard time finding someone to do the inspection.
 
not that my sc is lowered (if it was i couldnt get into my apartment complex, i can already scrape the black piece if im going over 2mph down the exit)


but heres a CON

you WILL bottom out if your not careful, especially if you have an aftermarket exhaust

a black 92 5 speed in michigan comes to mind......
 
are new shocks needed? or just the alignment... if so... what kind of shocks do you recommend.... Im considering lowering my 96... love the car... but would look so much sweeter lowered... not to mention the handleing boost Ill get... or so Im told.... thanks
 
Steep driveways and big speedbumps are the only problem you should run into, make sure that res is tucked up real tight. I have Eibach's and Tokico shocks and I love them. Ya the car floats a little but when you have a passenger that isn't performance minded the float is a little better. It also handles goooooooddddd. Best example I can give is coming out of a freeway interchange, that is marked 55mph, at 110 mph with the only loss I had was from the tires. The car floated, equal front and rear, two lanes as I came out of the turn but it stuck well. I had a Porshe Boxer behind me through this turn, he was on my a$$ through the turn but I left him as soon as I got straight. God I love doing that.
 
Yep, they keep the ARC. A lot of people have said bad things about this set up because it doesn't have a performance feel all the time. You just have to not shy away from from hitting a turn hard, the harder you hit the turn the firmer the springs get and then you get the performance increase. I used to do a lot of freeway driving so a soft ride was pretty cool.
 
96Bird

You may not get the same performance increase mentioned by Aaron given your sway bar sizes are different than the SC he has.

Also the improvement in some cases is related to less body roll most equate with an increase in the performance envelop of the suspension. In reality, many times the combination of larger and wider tires with less height and lowering springs actually raises the roll center of the car and results in less cornering performance. Most people never realize this fact cause they don't do actual skid pad testing and rely solely on their seat of the pants feel.
 
Hey Duffy, long time no see. I didn't notice he was driving an LX but I still think he will like the set up. If you don't want the soft feel then maybe look at a linear style spring instead of progressive. I just like to have the feel of a luxury car unless I need to get on it. I also want to point out that I made that turn on a daily basis for about a year and slowly worked my way up to that speed. It is also an open freeway pretty much all the time. For anyone interested that is up in the Bay area. It is the transition from 92(San Mateo Bridge) to the 680 North towards SF. Awesome turn into a flat out straight open 4 lane highway at 5:00 in the morning. Go give it a shot, just watch out for the bump coming out of the turn.
 
That's a good turn on 92, that's just a couple miles from me.
Lowering is a good thing, for looks and handling if done right. With Eibach springs, Bilstein shocks, bigger Addco rear sway bar, and some poly bushings, my SC feels better in corners than my WRX, at least up to the point where the SC starts to break loose. Then it's a different story, because the WRX will practically roll over before the tires break loose...
 
Thomas A....

Sweet bird. I just love the SC in White, esp with tint....Got any more pics for our viewing pleasure? Much appreciated,
-Tom
(Blackbird,wish she was white!)
 
Rob...

Did that combo take some of the light throttle push out of the car? I realize that Ford engineered it that way to be safe but it sure would be nice if it was less severe.

Anthony
 
I definitly want the softer ride so I will go with progressive... and the LX doesnt even have the ARC feature.... Ill definitly consider the sway bar now too... didnt think of that...

how can lowering the car raise its roll center?? to me that sounds bass ackwards.... I dont know the definition of a roll center... but sounds to me it works like a center of gravity.... it will lower when the whole car is lowered. I can see where wider tires might cause more roll because they grip more and you can pull more lateral G's... so to speak.... so the car will roll more before it breaks... but overall that would be an improvement in perforance IMO.... maybe Im wrong... but thats my logic right now :)
 
I would look at the Koni's since you don't have the ARC, they are manually adjustable so you can make it feel however you want. I'm not sure how the roll center works but Duffy is a guru and I'm sure he'll jump on again and explain it better.
 
The reason for raising the roll center if lowering the car is that the roll center is defined by the imaginary intersection of a straight line extensions off both the upper and lower control arms. When you lower the car you screw with the geometry and change the relative angles of the control arms with respect to the ground and also with respect to each other possibly thus when you draw the straight line extension the roll center may be raised.

You also screw with the camber curve as well as the toe curve of the suspension (front and rear). If affected enough that is why you end up with bump steer.....the change in toe as the suspension goes through its travel.

Bottom line is you start deviating from the design characteristics of the suspension you can get into trouble....FAST. My 92 is lowered (1.25" with springs and about .9" with the tires) and has 245/45/17 tires on 17 X 9 wheels. I believe I have both bump steer and KNOW the inside edges of my front tires wear.
 
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Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had any problem with tire wear or bump steer. My last set of tires (Gatorbacks, not known for long life) lasted 60,000 miles. My usual suspension guy never has any problem getting the alignment perfectly within spec. One time I had to take it elsewhere, and that guy couldn't align it, and claimed it was "impossible". Ha.

Anthony - were you talking about understeer (push)? I'd say my car tends to have a bit of oversteer, not understeer. It's not too loose, but it will slide when I want it to. The stiffer rear sway bar and slightly too soft Bilstein front shocks are probably contributing to that.
 
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