im thinking of lowering my car about an inch for the look and better cornering..my freind told me all he got to lower his car was the springs? is that all you need to lower your car really?

 

Springs lower the car but to make it handle properly you should change your shocks and get a set that works with the new springs properly. Also lowering the car throws off the back geometry (lower control arms). A set of lower control arm relocation brackets corrects for this change. Talk with Sam Strano at stranoparts.com; he can advise you how to setup your car properly for your desired style of driving.

 

so if all i did was want my car to be lowered and have the same cornering abilities and launching abilities i do now i would just put in new springs?

 

no not neccessarily

lower springs can make warn out shocks much more noticable. for the fronts you have to pull the shock out anyway...that's alot of work to not go ahead and put new shocks on. if nothing else at least put some inexpensive monroes on or something.

stiffer and lower springs doesn't automatically equal better cornering. if the shocks can't keep the tires planted on the road surface over small bumps and irregularities...you'll get worse cornering.

if you dragrace type launches much, you'll probably notice considerable increase in wheel hop from the rear axle. this is due to the geometry of the rear suspension being off, and less able to control axle twist which is one of the causes of wheel hop.
the brackets will help with that.

but they are not absolutely needed.

shocks pretty much are.

 

Technically, you could just swap springs, but as noted, it's not the best way. Besides, to swap the front springs, the shocks have to come out anyway, so why not upgrade since you're going to go to that much trouble? If cornering is your goal, you'll also appreciate the shock swap. Good shocks are more important than springs from that perspective. If your crappy shocks aren't managing your new springs, then you're not getting all out of your new springs that you could.

Also as noted, lower (stiffer) springs aren't going to help your launches. What works best for cornering is not what works best for launching.

 

thanks alot