3demon Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Hi everyone! First post to this forum, but I've been browsing for quite some time. I did a lot of searching, but I havent been able to nail down an exact answer of the parts I'd need, and examples of cars with those setups. If I've totally missed something and this is extensively covered elsewhere, please re-direct me. I'm looking towards an aggressive drop for the 280Z, and I am curious what options are available. I would consider fender rolling/flares if necessary. In terms of wheel size, Im open at the moment As for my performance goals - the car right now is a healthy ~160hp NA. I was considering doing a turbo swap and tuning to between 200-225hp. I am not planning to track this car, just have it as a street cruiser. Here are a few examples of the drop I'd love to achieve: i think these are watanable 16x9-19offset =these could be 18s. This is by far my favourite. I really like this one, (15x8 -14 in the reard and 15x7.5 -7), wish i could see a side shot! and this one is BayareaZT's sig - what is he running? I look forward to hearing your opinions! Thank you for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJLamberson Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Look into ground control coilovers, for what they are its a decent price based on what Ive seen but I do not have any personal experience with them, yet anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnosez Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 My 240 sits on Ground Control coil-overs with 8-inch springs and EMI inner camber plates. Wheels are BBS style 16X8 w/ 245X45s. The rear lips were cut every 1/2-inch (inside) and tapped up then the face was rolled outward to match the slope of the existing fender shape. A flare without looking like a flare. Besides being able to lower the car to the height that please your eye, it also allows you to balance the weight to meet your street or track needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 The big trick to an aggressive drop is to keep your tire diameter as low as possible. A 14" wheel with a 205/55-14 has an overall diameter close to 22.5" which would allow a 5" ride height at the rockers assuming shortened struts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3demon Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Gnosez, i like the look of those wheels - any side pics? JohnC which strut combo would you recommend? I'll search about about shortening. Also, ground control a good option? I'll look into them too. It would seem that most of the lowered Zs I've seen have the body line that crosses the bottom of the door lining up with the hub centers of the front and back wheels (approximately). Depending on the different wheel/tire sizes, the car end up either higher or lower overall. I think that is probably a good drop though. However, whats the deal with this one? The back seems to sit even LOWER than that, Im very curious how he managed to get a drop like this (for the front I noticed that he's got a flat - i'll try to ignore that ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 You do know that getting your S30 that low will mean it will handle like crap, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 You do know that getting your S30 that low will mean it will handle like crap, right? Not if you do it right. May not have been the fastest Z in the world, but it didn't handle like crap either. The comparison of the body line to the hubs made me check. Looks like I was right about where the car in the garage is, maybe even lower: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/2000-autox-indisde-and-outside-I-think-my_8051.htm To do it right you'll be sectioning struts, running camber plates, compensating for the low roll center, bumpsteer and a bunch of other things. I also ran mine about 3" higher than this on the street and just lowered it for autoxing. It would literally have high centered on most speedbumps the way it was set up in the video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 In thinking about this for a minute, it might be harder to get there on a 280 because from the factory they were higher than the 240s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Typically a 5" ride height at the rockers is about as low as you can go if your tires are 23.5" or shorter (that's assuming no relocation of the suspension mounting points). As tire OD increases, so does the ride height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnosez Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 I've attached a second picture of my 240 which shows the wheels a bit more and the rear modified fender lip. My ride height (at the horizontal lip of the rocker) is just under 6-inches in the front and 6.25 at the rear. These measurements were taken after the car was corner balanced and driven. My tires are 23.25-inches in diameter. It is now sans suspension as I refresh the camber plate roller bearings, install the AZ rear LCAs, and install a reman steering rack. I will likely raise the Z just under 0.5-inches once I get it all back together this weekend and see how that effects the car's handling once it stops snowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Why do you hate your framerails? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie05 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Why do you hate your framerails? My car used to scrape more than half of the speedbumps I encountered, using 225-50-15 tires and eibach (prokit) springs. Now I use 215-60-15 and I haven't scraped since... If you're going to drive your car on the street, consider what obstacles you will have to go over before making your frame rails kiss the concrete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 On my car I've reworked the floorpan to be flat with the rocker panel. The frame rails are above this point and intrude into the footwell. Does anyone have pictures of raising the rear control arm mounting points and differential? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CArFAn Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Thought id show how low my friends is. The drop was achieved by extreme boredom. He took the springs out because he "wondered" how it would look. There is no motor/trans in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gritz Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Thought id show how low my friends is. The drop was achieved by extreme boredom. He took the springs out because he "wondered" how it would look. There is no motor/trans in the car. Looks cool to me...Although i know a car this low wouldn't handle or ride well without a over haul of the cars supension...which means $$$$$$$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 On my car I've reworked the floorpan to be flat with the rocker panel. The frame rails are above this point and intrude into the footwell. Does anyone have pictures of raising the rear control arm mounting points and differential? Not really. Terry has pictures of raising the diff with the plate that he made, and extending the strut to lower the spindle pin though: http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9&userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&AlbumId={A74939D0-8C30-4904-9655-FE71445052A7}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9&GroupId={4265E8B7-5F1C-435B-AF0D-52BFF208A1F1}&nt=a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 Here is my 280z currently at 5.75" front / 6.5" rear height at the rockers. The tires are 245/40-17's. I plan on lower it a lot more actually. I'll post updated pictures this next week as I lower it some more. I need to cut the fenders before I can lower it more. I need to raise the diff, and engine/trans to get it much lower. Also, I want to raise the inner pickup points front and rear. The floor pan is cut out on my car currently. I will be sectioning the rockers, and raising the floor. There is a lot of sheetmetal changes to get the car much lower then 5.0" at the rockers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gritz Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I would be happy with a 2in drop..but that extra .5 means that i would have to run camber plates and all that jazz..i'll have to be happy with 1.5in drop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Aggressive Drop Issues That have come up so far: I wanted to highlight the issues I've run into thus far with lowering the 280z to its current static ride height. The idea is to work around all of these issues so that I can retain 2" of bump travel from the ride height seen in the previous post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 This is at a rocker height of 2.75" front, 3.5" rear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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