Re: attn bretton - dropping a x3 excel
On things many people do not think about is that the more you lower your car, the more harsh the ride becomes, and after a certain point the car actually handles worse than one which is lowered less.
Lowering an Excel (or most cars) by around 30-40 mm will still allow it to handle much better than standard, and will still be comfortable for every day driving. You can still use just about any aftermarket shock absorbers (though if you are running the factory shocks, they never like loweing at all. On the best of times they will last 30-50,000 without lowering, and 5-20,000km when lowered).
Any more than 50mm and it will start to become very jittery, and depending on the tyres you are running, it will feel very harsh and you will feel every small pot hole, bump, join in the bitumen and evey cigarrette paper as you run over it.
Sure, lowering a car by 3-4 inches looks great at the Auto Salons, but is not practical for the road. If you want your car lowered by that much, there are places that be able to make a set of springs for you, but good luck! Besides givign a Sh@t ride, you'll be looking at defect notices first time the cops spot you.
If you want your car to handle well, look at getting it lowered by 30-40mm and fit a good set of gas shocks (Pedders Comfort Gas, Monroe GT Gas, etc are good value and work well, tho ifmoney is no object, look at Koni's and the like). This will make your car look good, handle much better than standard and still be able to give you some suspension compliance to soak up some of those bumps and road joins.
For further improvements in handling, consider fitting a thicker rear sway bar, which will make your car sit flatter when taking corners and lane changes, as well as improving front end grip so it will understeer less when pushing hard through corners.
A front strut brace will also help a lot, making the whole front of your car more rigid, thus keeping your suspension geometery correct during cornering. Rear strut braces are also available, though they will reduce the amount of usable boot space, and if you have a large sub enclosure in teh boot, may not fit.
If you are still after more cornering grip, or wanting to stop the tyres scrubbing inside the guards, then a set of camber pins is advisable, and dial in around 1.2 degrees of negative camber or so. If you set it with too much negative camber, then you will scrub out the insides of your tyres much quicker.
Bodykits also come in handy for 'lowering', as they make the car look lower, as the front lip and side skirts will generally sit closer to the road than the factory bumpers and sills.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Bretton
www.PerfomanceStylingCentre.com.au
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