I have the car in the sig. It's an SS Convertible from '96. I was thinking of stiffening the suspension a little.

Right now I have factory springs and some old Monroe shocks that came with the car when I bought it.

I dread lowering the car as I'm already scraping sometimes with the longtubes. What are my options for better springs with no lowering or minimal lowering?

Then about the shocks, I need something for DD but that will work ok for drag racing and street racing too, and I can't afford fancy ones. I just need something that works.

Thanks a million

 

Hotckis sells to most minimal aftermarket lowering kit I know of. It's 1" from stock z28 height. I believe some of the LS1 SS's and WS6 cars came with stiffer SLP springs that were anywhere from .50" - .75" lower then factory. Check out their website. It's been awhile since ive been on there but I think they still sell them. If worst come to worse, after you put the springs in, you can always increase the road clearance by increasing the height of the rubber isolators. Some guys do it with simple garden hose spliced on one end and rapped around the top of the spring... which might be good for another 1/4" of height off the ground.

Get rid or your Monroe shocks. They wont be able to handle stiffer springs.


If you're really **** talk to a custom spring shop and have them size your height, weight, and stiffness that you want. Just do a google search for someone local. They're around.

 

The Hotchkis would be a good option since they only drop 1", and the drop is pretty accurate, but as already stated you need better shocks. KYB AGX, or Bilsteins would work good for noticebly less than the better Koni SA's.

 

I was hoping I could get away with the cheaper KYB "Gas-a-just" but guess not I won't buy crappy ones so I'll save for AGX. By the way, what does the adjust do exactly? Rebound, stiffness or both at the same time?

Hotchkis, of the most commonly sold springs, does drop the least I see. I remember though I came across something with .8" once but I can't remember where! Guess I could do the garden hose trick on the Hotchkis :P I could wrap it around both ends of the springs and enjoy more stiffness with less droppage

 

Just out of curiosity, is it worth trying to get a custom set of springs? Is it more expensive than the ones on the market? Could you give me a link to a good shop? Don't really care where it is, I'm going to have it ship overseas anyway

 

I've had custom lowering springs made by H&R Springs before back in 1996 for a different car, but it cost me $500 at a heavily discounted price. Figure on months of waiting and probably 1k$, that's if you can get it done, and done right.

IMO go with some Edebrock IAS shock/spring combo or a Ground Control ride height kit, or even a set of Koni SA's on the lower perch w/factory springs.