Lowering Car Too Much affects performance?

[JohnAyySays]

Hello Everyone.
Sorry if this is a repost but I couldn't find much on the subject when searching. I've been thinking about lowering my car on coilovers (specifically ST Coilovers) and was wondering if it would ruin the design/performance of the car. I know the FRS has a great suspension setup already so I don't wanna ruin it by putting on coilovers and lowering it even more. Hopefully you guys can give me some insight on this. Thanks!

[Diode Dynamics]

You won't ruin your handling by adding springs or coilovers, but if you go too low the car will scrape on everything and the ride will be much harsher

Make sure you get an alignment if you make any suspension modifications

Nick C.

[JohnAyySays]

Originally Posted by Diode Dynamics

You won't ruin your handling by adding springs or coilovers, but if you go too low the car will scrape on everything and the ride will be much harsher

Make sure you get an alignment if you make any suspension modifications

Nick C.

Thanks for the input! Idk buy I read somewhere that lowering the car can ruin the handling but I don't remember where :P


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[N1rve]

Originally Posted by JohnAyySays

Thanks for the input! Idk buy I read somewhere that lowering the car can ruin the handling but I don't remember where :P


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Check this out by MotoP

For those who are contemplating on suspension upgrades to make that horrible ride height reduced to handsome looks of many tuner upgraded ones. Take a serious consideration and heed to my advice.
The Scion FRS/ Subaru BRZ (and Toyota 86) has a fairly stiff suspension already from the factory to cater well to the owners who visit the race track. The car is a very refined, -low gravity, center-mass balance car that requires a pretty hefty load of weight shifting to make it whip and turn (a trait of a true sports car, but at the same time, takes a pretty advanced skill set).

Now having said this, installing shorter stroke, stiffer set of suspension will easily overload the stock tires, and the result will be a car that is really difficult to rotate well, and more prone to initial under-steer, making it less entertaining to drive, and a bit more risky.

My advice is therefore, to purchase a proper set of higher grip tire if upgrading the suspension all at the same time, and to choose a spring rate that is mild and soft, so that the agility of the car is not lost due to unwilling suspension, that might be too stiff. Set your shocks very soft if it's adjustable and increase it only if you can drive it without much "push" or initial under-steer. The FRS and BRZ needs all the suspension travel and shifting of the weight to flick vectors under braking (dive), and depriving it will reduce the fun factor and increase the efforts for the driver to drive it faster.

Stiff, low, suspension and stock tire is about the worst combination you can have in the FRS. Soft compliant suspension and mild drop and healthy set of fairly grippy tires is the only way to NOT ruin a great car, if this is a mild build. 235 width Yokohama S-Drive, Falken FK453, etc come to mind on a good balance to use for mild street suspension upgrade from most reputable firms.

Full race suspension will almost guarantee you will have a really slow, unwilling car, if you are not a really seasoned driver, and riding on nothing but appropriate RACE compound track slicks.

It's a really well balanced car, an excellent platform, and because of that, it's just that much easier to completely ruin it if you don't do this RIGHT.

Have FUN!!

Moto-P,

[Racecomp Engineering]

Generally too low can make the ride and handling worse. How low is too low? That will depend on a few things.

ST coilovers are fine and you won't have anything to worry about with a 1 inch or so drop. Get some good tires and make sure you have a good alignment done. Going past 1.5 inches is when you start having to make real compromises.

There are some crappy springs and coilovers out there...not all are "improvements" in my opinion.

- Andy

[Kostamojen]

Lets not forget about inverting the suspension geometry when the car gets "too low"...

[Mikepage]

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10643