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How Low Is Your Fd?

Old Nov 29, 2003 | 11:43 PM
  #26  
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the lowest part of my fd use to be about 1/2 an inch off hte ground (stupid down pipe haha). in anycase the frame was about 4 inchs off the ground just about and the front was about 4 inchs off the ground (i jacked up car about 3 inches for recon). my tires use to have about 2 cm of a gap between teh tire and the front fenders while the rear was tucking in i think (17's suck )
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 06:51 AM
  #27  
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From: near Wichita, Kansas
Originally posted by Larz
Can't drop mine. Way too many steep drives and potholes.
No kidding! Hell, I guess that there must be some sort of standard for drives and other entrances that is far more forgiving in some states than what I see here in Kansas. I am totally stock with the small 'base' spoiler and I scrape it all the time turning into stores' parking lots! I watched a lowered Honda of some sort (actually it looked pretty good, full body kit, etc.) that had to slow down to a craaaaaaaawl to pull into a parking lot of a friend of mine's apartment complex. He had traffic backed up behind him half a block....lol!
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 10:08 AM
  #28  
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as you lower your fd you effect a camber change due to the built in negative camber gain engineered into the suspension via unequal A-arms. if you lower it too much you will screw up the camber. i have considered making adj length upper a-arms to straighten the geometry out but have concluded that 25 inches measured at the front and rear at the top of the wheel wells is just right and i can set my camber front and rear at 1.2 negative which works great on the street. any more drop and you will end up running too much static negative camber.
BTW, if you do change your ride height make sure to re-set your camber.
howard coleman
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 10:08 AM
  #29  
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From: Atlanta, GA
stock, was thinking about lowering, but not with GA's DOT... our roads here suck. and they wait until peak traffic times such as rush hour to try and pave a road... we have some real winners planning road development.
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 10:24 AM
  #30  
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Mine had RB springs but I changed them out to H&R sport - ended up about 1/4" lower but the springs are stiffer so I no longer rub the fender liners on hard cornering on bumps. Speed bumps are another matter. I don't go over them, around and if I can't go around them I back out of the lot. The other cars can wait!
The problem is not the lowering, it's that the chin spoiler and side skirts take another inch or so. 3 1/2" from ground to engine subframe at the front. 3 3/4" from ground to chin spoiler. The side skirts never touch, but are just as low. I've had to repair the chin spoiler twice now in 6 years. Takes lots of concentration to drive (watching for "dangerous" rocks and potholes as well as driveway transitions). Pic in "Interior, exterior, audio - CYM looks beautiful".
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 10:30 AM
  #31  
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one inch fender gap, any lower and neither of my fds will work on the track. drive up on 2 2x4's and a normal jack will work under the front.
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 10:42 AM
  #32  
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From: San Francisco, CA
.5" of gap on 18"s
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 11:30 AM
  #33  
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The rims on my car are volk racing GTN's (18x9, 18x10)

And yes, I drove my car on the beach. Its a car. Sand comes off...
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Old Nov 30, 2003 | 05:57 PM
  #34  
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My car is dropped about 2 inches. I scrape the front lip often and rarely the exhaust. It's lower now then in that pic and my wheels are actually tucked now and they're only 17's.

I just drive up on some small 2x4's when I need to jack it up.

Last edited by GsrSol; Nov 30, 2003 at 06:00 PM.
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 03:21 PM
  #35  
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From: Brooklyn NY
Can you use a ramp to drive up upon?
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 06:04 PM
  #36  
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^I've tried but no luck.
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 09:20 PM
  #37  
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From: bloomington
my car is tucking but I don't scrap anywhere because my suspension is great and good driving skills
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 11:14 PM
  #38  
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whats the difference between progressive rates springs and the others???
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 11:17 PM
  #39  
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From: Kansas City, MO
Originally posted by tookwik
whats the difference between progressive rates springs and the others???
Progressive springs start out soft and get firmer the more they compress (i.e. "progressive rate springs"). Linear springs have the same rate all the way through.
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Old Dec 1, 2003 | 11:30 PM
  #40  
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From: Northern California
Advice on getting normal jack under lowered FD

I run 25" to the top of the fenders, which equates to a 1" drop using Ground Control's AD shocks and springs 550 front/450 rear for street use.

For those of you with lowered FDs, try this: I have two pieces of 3/8th inch particle board squares that I drive up on. This raises the car just enough to get my normal floor jack under the subframe. It works great!

You can also get a good aluminum race jack from Kragen right now on special for ~ $150 (normally they've run around $300). I normally only go to Kragen for cases of oil and replacement pads for my orbital buffer, but the jack deal they had going was pretty good. It's a very flat profile jack that may get under the car without using my little helper boards. Take a tape measure and check it out.

Lowering the car one inch give it the best look....

Beast
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 12:49 AM
  #41  
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From: Florida
19" distance between front
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 03:14 AM
  #42  
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From: Hawaii
Originally posted by GarageBoy
Can you use a ramp to drive up upon?
i can, check out the pics in this thread i posted on https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=tranny

pics of the ramps I made and use, they can get a stock fd which is 4 inches off the ground up on ramps with out scraping.

custom ramps out of rhinoramps which can be bought from walmart for about 30 bucks (a killer deal i think) I also am using the yellow metal ramp extensions that can be bought from Kmart for about 20 bucks (a little pricy but these are totally necessary or you might scrape the front end of your car without them!)
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 07:04 AM
  #43  
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Originally posted by SNracing
stock, was thinking about lowering, but not with GA's DOT... our roads here suck. and they wait until peak traffic times such as rush hour to try and pave a road... we have some real winners planning road development.
2nd that!

I have a steep driveway...I use to scrape my 99 lip everytime I left the house, until I firgured out the geometry

stock tour suspension on the PEP. HUGE rubber to fender gap...not much I can do as of now
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 08:10 AM
  #44  
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From: Paradise?
I lowered it down approximately 2inches with TEIN suspension kits.

my front bumper has never get any serious injury so far (just a slightly scrach from stupid high speed limit curb sometimes)
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 08:20 AM
  #45  
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Last edited by the_glass_man; Dec 2, 2003 at 08:24 AM.
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 01:47 PM
  #46  
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My FD is pretty low. It ain't great for going up curbs.

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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 03:24 PM
  #47  
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Originally posted by howard coleman
as you lower your fd you effect a camber change due to the built in negative camber gain engineered into the suspension via unequal A-arms. if you lower it too much you will screw up the camber. i have considered making adj length upper a-arms to straighten the geometry out but have concluded that 25 inches measured at the front and rear at the top of the wheel wells is just right and i can set my camber front and rear at 1.2 negative which works great on the street. any more drop and you will end up running too much static negative camber.
BTW, if you do change your ride height make sure to re-set your camber.
howard coleman
I measured 25.5 inches to the top of my fenders, which were rolled. I increased the ride height to 26 inches because of the bump steer when you go too low.
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 05:36 PM
  #48  
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just enough space to put a floor jack under it with a little bit of pulling up
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 05:47 PM
  #49  
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I dont know exactly how low, but i do have a funny story..... me and my friend are driving home one day, i was in my RX7 and he was in his Saleen S271, so we are pulling into the street where i live, going side by side, so he looks at me and, just guns it, well, me, nowing their is speed bumps on this street tried to stop him, but he couldn't hear me over the roar of the Saleen's supercharged V8 and all of a sudden i hear a gig crash. so we park and we get out of our cars, and what is lieing about ten feet from his car in front of the speed bump, a shattered Saleen front bumper, he was screaming but all i could do was laugh. He eventually got it fixed though.
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Old Dec 2, 2003 | 05:53 PM
  #50  
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I dont know exactly how low, but i do have a funny story..... me and my friend are driving home one day, i was in my RX7 and he was in his Saleen S271, so we are pulling into the street where i live, going side by side, so he looks at me and, just guns it, well, me, nowing their is speed bumps on this street tried to stop him, but he couldn't hear me over the roar of the Saleen's supercharged V8 and all of a sudden i hear a gig crash. so we park and we get out of our cars, and what is lieing about ten feet from his car in front of the speed bump, a shattered Saleen front bumper, he was screaming but all i could do was laugh. He eventually got it fixed though.
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