Is Toronto suitable for the Lowered Life?
 

Question for the lowered guys and gals in the GTA:

Are our lousy roads, potholes, debris, and speed bump-filled parking lots Kryptonite for lowered Twins?
Thinking about getting a modest drop (1-1.5in max).

1-1.5 drop isn't bad at all. Anything more you would need a dedicated winter car.

asking this question you know its a gamble ;) but most of us know and do drive in the winter including myself do perfectly fine! (with winter tires)

I'm at 0.6" drop and my belly pan and bottom of my front bumper are all scratched up. :iono:

I used to drive a much lowered car than what I drive now and the bottom was pristine. It has nothing to do with winter driving as our roads have been absolute garbage for the last decade, the worst these last few years with sunken asphalt that you can't even readily see during the day.

You have seen how much lower mine is (over 1.5) and I drive around Detroit all the time. If I can drive there then TO should be a breeze. Do I scrape stuff every once in a while? Sure, but that is usually my fault for not calculating my approach vector and/or speed properly.

Exactly! Except I usually just rely on The Farce!

I'm on swift sport springs and spend a decent amount of time driving in Toronto. Zero issues as long as you're paying attention.

I'd be more worried about bending a wheel in the potholes.

Im about 2" lower and havent had any issues as of yet other than a few scrapes here and there. As someone already pointed out though, try to avoid big potholes.

I was thinking about that last night: London roads aren't much better than Toronto roads...

Great point on the potholes though - Dunno why I was more concerned with scraping driveway exits and speed bumps than those ever-present landmines.
Plenty of construction debris and sunken asphalt where I live...

Biggest enemy for a lowered car in the summer AKA construction season in the GTA...raised man-hole covers.

Motherfuckers sneak up on you out of nowhere, often aren't labelled ahead, and if you're following a car you sometimes don't see it until the last second.

My buddy who drives a lowered Civic Si ripped off his oil pan a couple of weeks ago riding over one of these. It was dark and wasn't spray-painted orange like they usually are, and he didn't notice it until it was too late.

My raised man-hole evasive skills have been honed razor sharp thanks to the multiple construction zones that have been in place near where I live thanks to LRT construction and regular road repaving.

lol pictured a man-hole cover hiding in the bushes

Been daily driving on a 1.8" drop, and am fine with it.
Had some pretty bad scrapes though. I think my worst ones were nort-west corner of Bayview and Finch (damn depressed road due to buses) and the Yorkdale underground parking lot.

I suggest a cheap polyurethane front lip to protect the bumper. Not bad on the eyes either. Wouldn't drive it during the winter though; I think I'd plow more snow than the City of Toronto.

If you live in mid Toronto or nEar downtown, no.

I live between York university and travel to sauga/markham/richmond hill, pot hole here and there but I remember where they are and dodges them, I'm prob an two inches away from touching the pavement, there's some gas stations and ramps I can't go through, my skirt and front lip touches some speed bumps. As long as you don't have a lip or extension of skirts of some sort, you should be okay driving super slammed. I'm at about an 2.5-3 inch drop.

Raised manhole covers, raised water shut offs (why are they in the middle of the road in the first place?), road killed large animals and big chunks of tires have all become my own little personal Auto X on my daily 401 or ripped up city street routes.