I never thought about lowerin my camaro before but I saw one on the net and it looked good.. I just dont know how far I want to go. I looked at thunder and saw that global west makes an adjustable kit for the front and rear. With the rear kit, u need to use lowering springs. Does anyone have that kit or can they tell me if it is possible to adjust it so it sits close to stock if I really wanted to and then be able to adjust it lower. I understand its adjustable, but I dont want it to sit 3 inches lower then stock and im out of adjustment and can not go any higher. I could go that way or just get springs but I like the idea of being adjustable. Any help would be great..

Ryan

 

Check at TByrne for a HAL spring/shock/tool kit. Thunder probably has them too.

 

A friend of mine had a 99 SS and he lowered the car and it was awful. The ride was really bad. He dropped it 2 inches and when the car hit the slightest bump or pothole, the car banged really bad. Not to mention speed bumps will scrape everything. I dont know how much of a drop you want to put, but my advise is not 2. Unless you do not drive everyday and can stay away from nasty streets. But I do have to say the car looked meaner.


-Jes

 

thanks for the advice. I checked out the Hal shocks. Is that the best way to go in your opinion. That will give me the option of lowering the car, and also getting it close to stock if need be.. Do you know how much adjustment there is. thanks again for the help

Ryan

 

If your going to lower your car, your going to need more than just springs and shocks. When you lower the car, it messes up the geometry and you will get crappy traction during launches. The rear end will bounce a lot. You will need the relocation brackets to fix the geometry after lowering. You should also get a new panhard rod.

Personally...I would not lower your car. It can be a lot of trouble installing the kit. Sure it looks a little better but you won't be able to go over speed bumps or anything like that. My car isn't lowered but over some of the bumps a plate under the car scrapes. My car does have a body kit but that doesn't rub. However I can't use my wheel ramps anymore. I gotta make some of my own. Just some reasons not ot lower your car.

 

At minimum, you really need springs, shocks, relocation brackets and an adjustable PHB.

 

I agree with Ferocity02 about lowering our cars here.. I will not do it because I do not like the way my car scraped if going into a parking lot where going up that driveway ramp.. and leaving them my car sometimes scrapes.. Just think if it were lowered it would be worse...

And what about Dips in the road ?? I know when I first bought my car, I hit a couple of those damn dips doing 45 + mph and when I scraped across them, I thought that I broke the car or something by the sound... Now I take dips like at 5 mph or less... And if it were lowered, there goes front bumper or worse.. Now if these cars sit up around 5 " more, then I would lower it 2 - 3 " for that fact and be able to still clear dips, speed bumps and etc... Damn if I had the sport appearance package, I would be really worried about it breaking off... You have to understand that when I hit that first dip doing 45 +, I barely had the car 2 days and I was so used to driving a 1/2 ton GMC Truck, that never scraped at all because of better ground clearence....

If I were to get the idea of lowering then I would probably get Different Panhard bar, Relocating brackets for the Lowercontrol arms, Eibach Springs and maybe even some Edelbrock Shocks all the way around (I don't know if edelbrocks are any good but they sound like they are worth the $$$$)...

 

You may wish to check out the autocross froum. It is primarily for 'handling and suspension' questions. Some people, while sure they are correct, have given false information here. Sorry. Not trying to start a flame war. Just give the truth.

If you lower your car, you WILL have to be more careful around speed bumps, steep driveways, dips in the road and debris that may be laying in the road. However, If you only drop it 1" - 1.5" it'll look better and still not be too radical. If the car bottoms out, well that's do to incorrect or worn out shock absorbers. You have to get shocks that are capable of handling the different spring rates. I you drag race, then lower control arm relocation brackets are recommended. If not, you can get away without them depending on how low you drop the car. An adjustable panhard bar also is recommended to recenter the back wheels under the car. But it can be omitted if you don't have super wide tires and you don't drop the car too much.

The reason I mentioned the HAL's is that the height is comlpetely adjustable and the shocks are made for the springs. You said you wanted adjustability. They don't seem very cheap though. $689 at TByrne http://www.tbyrnemotorsports.com/ls1catalog.html But if you think of it as 250 for adjustable height springs and 440 for matching adjustable shocks, it's really a deal.


My point of all of this is not to go radically lower and you can get away with a minimal parts list. The lower you go the more you're gonna need to buy.

 

i passed on the shocks and relos.....but later installed relocations and it was 10 times better....and im gonna do shocks soon

 

Good god people learn how to drive.

I am lowered (not for long for drag setup) 1.5" with LOW hanging long tubes (about 3 finger width high) and RARELY scrape and when I do its my headers. As long as you pay attention to what you are doing you'll be fine. If you have groundfx I would not suggest it though unless you want to be REALLY carefull on speedbumps and sharp decline driveways.

 

i have front gfx.....
and low hanging headers and mac springs....you just have to be really really careful....my driveway is prob the most dangerous height barrier out there.....

 

thanks again guys for all your imput you are really helping me out
I appreciate it.

Ryan