It does look a little stink-bug. I think this pic is before I lowered the back a touch.

My car is pretty low, and with the low profile 50 sidewall tires :(
It does handle very well, though driving it on the street can be grim. Have to keep an eye out for those 1000Lb bull elks in the mountains during the rut.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230660106.jpg

Lower?
 

The original thread title is "why I won't be lowering my car".

Yes lowering a ton of metal an inch or so will reduce lateral roll and in some people's minds make the car look meaner, cooler, bad. Pick your adjective.
It probably won't make a big difference either way if you blast a 10" possum but it makes an enormous difference in the wear and tear on my $350 dollar chin spoiler in daily driving. I already have some straightening and painting to do on the rear valence from an old driveway incursion. I have to slow to a crawl and angle my Carrera over driveways, potholes and speed bumps as it is.
If I did DE and other track events I'd have to dedicate a car. It's a similar analogy (to me) when guys insist that the stereo, and god forbid an amp and two speakers, are nothing but dead weight and should be unceremoniously ripped from the car in the name of "engine music" and performance. I like tunes when I drive and I'd rather not pucker up at every railway crossing.
It's the truly great thing about our cars. We have all these wonderful ways to personalize an amazingly versatile platform from race car to bloated boulevard cruiser. To each his own. I love 'em all and have few worries when I'm driving my baby.:cool:

oh, c'mon... someone be brave and do this to their street car

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230670463.jpg

LOL, We had a little issue with road kill on our Chicago Porsche group road trip to staved rock this fall. I hit a dead coon and a little got on the case and rear valance pan. kinda nasty to get off after it bakes on there.

Now what would it cost to do that to a 911....the ultimate winter car. :D:cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230670463.jpg

Yes, it was. In hindsight, I'm thinking a more accurate title would have been, "One reason I am glad my car is not any lower at this time."

Since we are getting so very doggone serious here, I want to be clear that if I were considering lowering my car (which I am not), I would not count "clearing roadkill" in the equation, beyond what I would factor in for generally avoiding road hazards - which would be...well, not at all, actually. Because if I were thinking about lowering for improved handling, clearing road hazards would be the furthest thing from my mind.

Until it was time to drive home from the track! :)

I apologize to any who suffered distress at the inartful title of this post!

And about the serious stuff - THANK YOU for all the perspectives on lowering - and pictures! Those are fun. Keep em coming! It really helps me to see different heights. My car is parked for the night, but I'll measure the clearance over my tires next time I'm out in the garage and see what that tells us. Now I'm curious! And this is precisely how I'm going to learn about all this technical stuff. As we all know, this is the best of what this board is about. Yay for Technical stuff!

When I saw the post of the jacked-up Rally 911, I thought of Vic Elford and his many jacked-up 911 rides, such as:

http://www.vicelford.com/gallery/911...20-%202-sm.jpg

HUGE VERSION HERE.

I'll also be back later to post a "WTF IS THIS SOUND" thread. Assuming I captured the sound on the video I tried to take this evening. I am a little concerned about a creaky, rhythmic (changes with revolution speed) metallic sound coming from what sounds like my rear driver's side wheel. Film at 11.

not lowering because.......
 

we take the carrera on our extended road trips, and when I load the car with a tent, inflatable bed, sleeping bags, small cooler, drinking water, etc it just squats just a bit. but we love the drive.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230688290.jpg in San Diego 08

LOL, We had a little issue with road kill on our Chicago Porsche group road trip to staved rock this fall. I hit a dead coon and a little got on the case and rear valance pan. kinda nasty to get off after it bakes on there.

Have you seen that book of recipes for roadkill ? tells you how to use aluminum foil, season and wrap carefully, and place on the exhaust till done :D

Obviously not a Porsche, but this illustrates that some people will just go too far.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230699359.jpg

A 25mm decrease in CG height (from maybe 500mm with driver & passenger to 475mm) would be around 5% in my book - directionally correct, but not really substantial. Because of the front suspension geometry, the front roll center drops much more than 25mm, the rear drops somewhat less than 25mm, and most of the 5% improvement in body roll won't be realized.

There is a 5% reduction in weight transfer also. Again, directionally correct, but not really substantial.

But, if your eye likes it lower and your roads don't require much ground clearance or 3" of jounce travel, there is no harm in it. Clearly 95% of all 911 owners have lowered their car by 1" to 1.5" ...

Speaking of body roll, here's how I roll:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/...514baa42_o.jpg

Eh, my car looks somewhat like Shakin Joe's after all the weight reduction work. I have removed 131,5 kg from my car so far and is is now 26 at the front an 25,5 inches from the ground to the "top of fenders".
It does have somewhat of a rallye-car stance:eek:

The car handles great, though.;) The roads is really bad where I live, and I have a bad back-injury, so I am unsure about lowering the car...?
It will probably give a somewhat "tighter" ride, but maybe not too much so.

In my wiew the car feels really "alive" and it is fun to set it up in corners and feel the car shifting its weight front and rear. It moves "a lot" on its springs but not excessive, me thinks. Though someone else might describe it as "soft".

I drove a pal's "slammed" 911 3,2, it sat really low on its springs. It handled great, but I missed the lively "alive" feel of my car. And when hitting bigger bumps the lowered car made some really nasty sounds. Really bad ones, it felt like the frond wheel came "unstuck" a couple of times! So for a street car, I will not go too far that route...

Photo
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230727703.jpg

This is a picture from the track.
The springs are compressed so you do not see the actural ride hight as such, but you can see the "stance" at speed. There is quite a lot of sway and roll... The car has the sport option sway bars.

Drove a Bugatti Veyron awhile ago, and in that thing, you need to plot your route to make sure there are no speed bumps. They won't take out just an air dam but a totally covered (with carbon fiber) bellypan.

Wrong colour but 2.5" higherhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1249761729.jpg

ride height on the street along these lines...
a touch lower for my needs...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1249765935.jpg

Just right to my eye.

Beyond what I could run on the street. Not natural looking to my eye. As this poster says, do what you want. To each his own.

Car looks great Dean! Having fun with it?