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lowering your car on a low budget.


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I'm lookin to lower my center of gravity with out spendin any money and, this is what I came up with.

 

I inverted the top mount of the rear strut. to do this you need to cut a hole in the top of your wheel well. For those of you who continued to read you also need to trim the big bushing on top so it will seats into the smaller cup of the top mount. reassemble strut. You can cut one loop off the spring to add to this lowering effect. if you trim any more, your spring could unseat when your suspention drops out . I think this mod droped my car about 2 to 2 1/2 inches.

 

Cool thing about this lowering mod is... you still have good travel in the strut and, it doesn't feel too stiff like some lowerd vehicles.

 

Note: My car is completely gutted in the rear. so this mod would really lower a car with a stock interior.

 

pics = before, after, top mount, big hole in wheel well

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So you're doing this for rally? Or auto cross? I'm interested because I hope to get ahold of an ea82 body style car and rally it. Good idea, btw. Oh any ideas on lifting a car on no money?
gut your car. this will lift it relative to how much you remove. that is why I had to go to such extremes to lower it.I got some adjustable struts of an 86 GL. you can get about an inch and a quarter lift that way. for ?... how good are your barter skills. 20 or so bucks a strut is a good deal.

 

I did an auto cross last week. and I think lowering my car will increase traction which is where my car needed help.http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=07KK0007010018&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

 

I love to recreationally rally so I wanted to keep as much travel as possible.

 

The suby won't domiante anything but, it is very well rounded.

 

Note: gutting your car will completely change which scca class it runs in. stock or modified. If you want to race a certain class you need to get a rule book. I run unlimited because I don't care about winning I just like to drive fast.

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hmm... to lower mine, all i have to do is turn the struts down... course it helps that they are adjustable.
Picture #1 in origianl post "before" is with the rear adjustable struts all the way down.

 

since my car weighs about 400 lbs less than stock it in effect makes my car ride higher.So that is why I did this mod. Buy gutting my car I have went from approx. 27 lbs per HP to 20 lbs per HP. In power to weight ratio that pretty good.I think

 

I know you can use lowering springs but If the back end is too stiff it doesn't really help the suspentions performace when traction is low. If the back end is a lot stiffer than the front on a gravel road the back end just dances around and doesn't hold a good line.

 

It is actually quite a funtional mod.I lowered my center of gravity and maintain travel in the rear suspention. Another bonus is. Since I now have access to the top of the strut you can adjust the strut on the car.

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In the first picture you parked the car on a slant to make it appear somewhat level. If it were on level ground the rear would be higher.

 

In the second picture the rear is on higher ground and the front is lower, if it were parked on level ground the rear would be lower.

 

Looks like now the rear is lower than the front.

 

Am I seeing things correctly?

 

Jay

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Umm on a budget.....Pull coils, crank down torsion bars....... Voila, lowered Soob:D

Since everyone in this thread thus far has been talking about EA82s, perhaps you could explain the process of cranking down the torsion bars on an EA82?

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In the first picture you parked the car on a slant to make it appear somewhat level. If it were on level ground the rear would be higher.

 

In the second picture the rear is on higher ground and the front is lower, if it were parked on level ground the rear would be lower.

 

Looks like now the rear is lower than the front.

 

Am I seeing things correctly?

 

Jay

Yes you are correct on every observation. My goal is to make it run flat at any height. It really handles nice on the gravel with the back a little lower. That's how they run those Pre Runner Trucks. But I seem to lose traction on pavement in 2 wheels drive with that stance. Current stance 8 1/2 inches of clearence up front, 8" in the back

 

For auto cross I want to run it lower over all and flat maybe a little lower in the front.I have front adjustable struts all the way down in pic 2 and all the way up in pic 1. I know I need to find level ground next time.Also pic 1 70 series tire pic 2 are 60's

 

I removed the rear 31 lb bumper and now it's level and , funtionally lowered

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p.m.'d ya
sorry I'm not sure what that means.

 

 

So I lost some handleing w/o the bumper on the gravel. But the thing really rips through the corners with the lowered stance but I can still hit big dumps and not bottom out my car. It's seems to be a good rally set up.

 

I test every change I make the same day so I have a good idea how it effects the performance on tarmac , gravel , dirt roads , and off road.

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The best mod you can do is use some camber plates. The ones for Impreza/Legacy works fine. Get the WRX ones....The ONLY mod you will have to do to get them to fit, is extend the strut top/camber plate mounting holes out a little...like 2mm on each hole. The bolt pattern on the Impreza/Legacy are just a TEEEEENY bit bigger overall. Works great. i know this. Done it on two Leones.

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I've got a low (real low) RX, I can't even get the lift pads under it with out jacking it up by the tow hooks, and even then it's a sqeeze and it still has full suspension travel but it's only rear wheel drive. I'll have to get some pics before I kill it.

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Even easier, we had a trashed out wagon that Caleb and i pulled the motor and trans out of, and someone had thrown about 900 pounds of concrete into it. that car was slammed into the ground. but learned a valuable lesson, dont push a sube with a dodge truck, really nice 6 inch deep dent about a foot and a half long on the bottom of the bed. i thought for sure the tires would have popped as much as the car was weighed down. there was no travel left in the struts.

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