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quote:Originally posted by JSWILL70
[8)]I know this topic has been "rode hard and put up wet" but I am going to ask it in a different way! I want to either lower my car OR put 18'S on it. I drive this car every day and I want to know which will give me the better ride. The great thing about our cars is how good they ride. I am willing to give a little...but not much.Thanks for any info .
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First of all, what exactly are you looking to do. Better handling or just looks? If your looking to fill the wheel well your not going to accomplish anything with the 18" wheels as they are going to be almost the same overall diameter as the 17's or you will have abs problems, etc.
My experience when I lowered my GT with Eibachs is that the ride was very much the same(which disappointed me considerably), but you have to cut the bump stops as directed. If not, you will bottom out too soon and it will feel as if the suspension is too stiff because it is basically riding on the stops.
As far as the progressive springs I feel that this is very much misleading as if you look at the spring installed and loaded, the top coils(tight wound set, which goes on the top) is in coil bind. This set of coils is really just a sort of spacer so the spring is not so short it falls out when the suspension is unloaded. I can only say this for the eibach and goldline sets because I have these sets. Gold line emailed me and said their spring rate is 165 lbs and I belive the eibachs are similar, Pretty weak so I would not think they are much more,if any, stiffer than the stock springs.
Anything that deviates from the stock suspension is going to change the ride. Personally, I think the stock suspension stinks. I like a tight well handling car not one that drags the door handles when you corner, like the stock suspension.
It is hard to determine what to recommend when your not sure what you want to actually do (at least I am not sure). However, no matter what you do I highly recommend you add at least the stock rear sway bar. This really will not affect the ride at all, except reduce the tendency to roll. Better yet, larger front and rear bars, but this will affect the ride somewhat, maybe a little more than somewhat.
Note; A larger bar set is not going to lift the front tire when cornering, I have been running my cruiser pretty hard in the corners and have not eperienced this condition. Road America racing maybe, street peformance doubtful. Just my 2 cents worth.
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