Customer wants his PT on the ground

[Mark1]

The DZ is probably as low as you can get. There is just not that much suspension to get rid of. Even with the car resting on trimmed bump stops it will still be pretty far of the ground. The factory struts only have 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches of compresion ( or drop )from ride hight. I have the 3 inch gold lines and have very little travel left, and am quite far off the ground. And with the front fenders as they are you cant even do a body drop to make up more drop. The only thing you can do is get the Air kit and add a body kis as mentioned above.

[sakigt]

17s and 18s ?? [:I]

19s and 20s.... [:X] (Money isnt an issue...must be nice)

[tukn20s]

Anybody know how low the Air ride Technogies kit will put you? I think we might get those and do some fabricating. And runa smaller tire in the front! I think we can do it. Watch out, if we think will work it should put the pt on the ground with no body kit!

[IRPT]

Please, post pictures once you have it completed.

[Stephen R.]

I don't quite know what "Price is no object" means, but maybe you could talk with Chassisworks in nearby Sacramento. They build drag racing cars and can put a solid, squared chassis into anything.

In fact, if you twisted the motor North-South and ran rear drive, they/you could get it done with one of their pre-existing A-ARM and 4-link kits without too much [xx(] PLUS you can tub it out for the first and only PT with 22s!

Basically it would be a 'bagged drag chassis for the extreme you want. While you're at it, just put in a V8 with a Torqueflite and a Dana 60 (easy for Chassisworks) and it will be an absolutely fast, low low low and top-end Cruza!

BTW: I'm not being sarcastic here. If the customer has the cash (they showed you the cash, right?), run this by them and see if they even knew this was a possibility. Relatively speaking of course...

[tukn20s]

I wish it was that easy as building a tubular frame. This guy wants to keep his motor in location and keep the stock unibody design. He has showed me the cash. We got some tricks up our sleeves to get it down. Just got to be brave to start plasmaing alot of stuff out. We will see in December when we get the car to the shop.

[Mark1]

You will end up with 14 or 15 inch rims if that is OK. There is just not enuf room for much more under the front fender. The rear can be done very easily in a few different ways. The simpleist being to convert the rear to a drop axel style of support. That way you dont have to change the suspension type or chanel the suspension into the floor and loose space in the trunk. I have seen a civic coupe rest on the ground with 18 in front and 20 in the back. But they do not have the same style of fender. But they do have the vertical height in the fender to support such a feat.

As far as your question on the Air Ride drop all the Air kits take the car to the bumpstops ( 4.5 - 5.3 inches). But the body of the dropzone seems to be a bit shorter than others that only convert struts to air struts. The only exception might be the struts by Chassie tech that have a coil over style adjustment to allow the most drop they can muster. They call them "Mac Bag" or " Mac Struts".

You could raise the upper mount point of the strut but only by about 3 inches. I dont think the combo is enuf to set the body on the ground.

E mail me if you want to run some ideas. I have been pushing the extreeme lows since the late 80's including fabing one of the first air suspensions on the east coast. It is funny now but I remember when a 2 inch drop on a mini truck would win you a show.

[Goldmember]

I am in the middle adding Air Ride system bags, hopefully I can finish it before the car shows