I am considering springs and shocks as my next major upgrade on my car and seen that RKSport has a Ground Control coil-over setup with Eibach ERS race springs on front and what looks like new stock springs on rear. Would like Koni's but not in price range right now. Would this kit lower my car any, if so how much could it be lowered? Anyone with any experience with Ground Control kit? Also want to get Bilstien's with this upgrade. Is there a better spring setup to go with for handling?

 

Coil overs like the Ground Control kit are adjustable, I think forget what the total travel is (maybe it says on their site), but you would definately be able to lower the car an excessive amount, or raise it as well.

You will need good shocks to go with it, depending on your app. Basically, if you lower the car more than an inch, your going to get into some stiff spring territory, if you dont, then fully expect to hit things, at a high front-end velocity. Also, over an inch, expect to scrape, stop for all speed bumps, and any raise in the road or pothole, be very wary of. With high rate springs comes the need for high rate absorbtion.

My car is close to 2" lowered with 600# fronts and Koni DAs, the rears are 140-160#, so a little more than stock rate. For the most part it is frankly too low, but I do not bottom out on the street, as for the exaust I do scrape on big bumps, and I scrape the front air damn (the air director for the radiator) on driveways, but it even did that stock to an extent.

So, coil overs would be great for multiple spring selection, fast spring changeouts, and ability to raise or lower the car pretty much at will, but if you dont run the right shocks it will be only partially satisfying. I can say this comparing the Camaro to the Z, which is lowered also but the struts are not fully up to the job of soaking up the springs, and it does not make for the best handling, without bumps its mostly fine but on a track, with a bump, I can bottom out that side of the car and that isn't good, nor is it the safest. So it costs more to do it right, but if your only going to do the fronts for now, you can do the rear later when $ allows.

You've probably seen Honda Civics bounce on the freeway, 2 and 3 times, thats when they have too much spring for the shock/strut.

www.ground-control.com you can get springs in 25# rate differences up or down, I got adjustable shocks in large part because I wasn't sure at what spring rate I'd be happy at.

 

So do you think if I got the SLP factory replacement shocks for now (until Koni's are within my budget) that they could handle the Ground Control kit w/Eibach Sportline's or would I have to wait til Bilsteins are available? I plan on doing the install myself so I am not worried about having to pay for installation twice. I want to lower the car and have better handling, but don't have the extra $4-500 for the Bilsteins now.

 

The coil overs use race springs, not standard springs, you select the spring rate you want, Sportlines are 2" lowering springs rated at I think 360#? Way too soft for how low they are, by far, I wouldn't want anything lighter than the 600# I have in how low the car is.

If you ran a rate like that, you would definately have the ricer bounce going on, since that is double the rate of the stock spring. I imagine most people would suggest something in the 400-500# rate, with the shocks to match...

I had my springs several months before I could decide on shocks, and of course have the cash to spend on them, so the springs simply collected dust.

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind

 

Too many cars are thoughtlessly lowered. Lets just say for example you have 6" or total travel. 3 up and 3 down. Then lower the car 2". You now have 1" up travel and 5" down travel. Mudge this may be the bottoming you feal.

The answer is shortened shocks if you think you have to lower quite a bit. I lowered 2" because I wanted/needed as much neg camber as I could get. Class rules do not allow upper arms or any such thing.

Or only lower 1"-1.5" as an absolute max.

As far as shocks you NEED shocks that are matched for the springs you choose. Obviously Konis can be adjusted to match. Revalaved Bilstein are also an excellent option. Cheaper to.

The kit RK sells I beleive is the Global west kit. I could be wrong. Ground Control does make some high quality parts. I think there service sucks so I buy my GC parts from Sam at Stranoparts.com. Plus he can give you a better price than GC even.

The adjusters are 4" tall. You lose about 1/2" of adjustment because of the seat. So you could go 2" higer or lower than stock. Basically.

FWIW. I chose 500lb springs and a 35 mm bar with revalves. All per Sam. Could not be happier. And considering the car could be nationally comp. it rides pretty nice on the street.


BTW you can have the revalves shortened 1-1.5" like I did.

 

Going too low is definately not good either, and thats one great big plus to having the adjustability of a coil over, other than the ever changing alignment, but you can make or buy tools to do your own alignment.