New member - looking for 0.5" drop springs, do they exist?

[ashmostro]

Good info on the rear camber, thank you. If I do lower the car I would install these as I will be tracking this car. Same for the front indexing pins on the struts.

For now, I'm waiting for some spacers to arrive, and will assess whether that is enough for me. I'd rather not lower the car if I don't have to, as I think the roll center right now is perfect.

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[elh0102]

All my track experience in suspension tuning is in rear drive cars, so I can't speak from experience with this car. That said, I think @optronix's advice above is spot on. Best I recall, for the street I used around -2.0 front and -1.0 rear, but again, very different cars.

 

[optronix]

Good info on the rear camber, thank you. If I do lower the car I would install these as I will be tracking this car. Same for the front indexing pins on the struts.

For now, I'm waiting for some spacers to arrive, and will assess whether that is enough for me. I'd rather not lower the car if I don't have to, as I think the roll center right now is perfect.

Yeah I mean to be honest, unless you're going to get real serious, the car is pretty damn great for mild track use as it rolls off the assembly line! Depending how aggressive you drive and how long you'll be on track, you're probably going to want to swap out brake fluid and probably pads, but honestly the suspension doesn't need anything to be fun and competent in a track setting.

For me personally, I really wanted to get the aesthetic elements of a lowered car. The spacers or lower offset wheels help, but IMHO my car looks fantastic now and I think it's worth the extra steps. Plus I think now with the added camber the car is more dialed in for autocross at least vs stock, and almost certainly for track use as well according to other folks who have had an opportunity to get out on track (I have not).

Also if I were to do it all over again I'd just pony up for a set of solid coilovers with adjustable camber plates. My setup now works, but including the ball joints plus install headache it's definitely worth the added expense to just start off with more adjustability.

BLUF- if you're ok with the aesthetics of the car, my guidance would be to leave it stock until you absolutely need to raise the limits. They're high enough as OEM to satisfy the vast majority of enthusiasts.

 

[elh0102]

Yeah I mean to be honest, unless you're going to get real serious, the car is pretty damn great for mild track use as it rolls off the assembly line! Depending how aggressive you drive and how long you'll be on track, you're probably going to want to swap out brake fluid and probably pads, but honestly the suspension doesn't need anything to be fun and competent in a track setting.

For me personally, I really wanted to get the aesthetic elements of a lowered car. The spacers or lower offset wheels help, but IMHO my car looks fantastic now and I think it's worth the extra steps. Plus I think now with the added camber the car is more dialed in for autocross at least vs stock, and almost certainly for track use as well according to other folks who have had an opportunity to get out on track (I have not).

Also if I were to do it all over again I'd just pony up for a set of solid coilovers with adjustable camber plates. My setup now works, but including the ball joints plus install headache it's definitely worth the added expense to just start off with more adjustability.

BLUF- if you're ok with the aesthetics of the car, my guidance would be to leave it stock until you absolutely need to raise the limits. They're high enough as OEM to satisfy the vast majority of enthusiasts.

Good advice. The first semi-serious track car I had was an BMW E46 M3. I ended up installing a fully adjustable coilover suspension with camber plates. It was expensive, but it worked very well. But honestly, comparing them both bone stock, the ITS is more comfortable at its limit, and might not benefit as much from an expensive suspension replacement. If you were talking about adding a lot of HP, then things change, and I would be at a loss with front drive. But as the car is delivered, it is very well balanced and can be driven comfortably very near the limit. If you are interested in looks, then it's an open (check) book. But for suspension performance, I think you could spend a lot of money without a great deal of improvement.

 

[ashmostro]

I agree with this. In stock form, the damping and motion ratio on this car feels better than many coilovers setups on other platforms. Very well tuned.

 

[optronix]

Good advice. The first semi-serious track car I had was an BMW E46 M3. I ended up installing a fully adjustable coilover suspension with camber plates. It was expensive, but it worked very well. But honestly, comparing them both bone stock, the ITS is more comfortable at its limit, and might not benefit as much from an expensive suspension replacement. If you were talking about adding a lot of HP, then things change, and I would be at a loss with front drive. But as the car is delivered, it is very well balanced and can be driven comfortably very near the limit. If you are interested in looks, then it's an open (check) book. But for suspension performance, I think you could spend a lot of money without a great deal of improvement.

Personally I don't think this is a good platform for high horsepower endeavors. Even if the engine may be capable, the platform doesn't suit it.

Kudos to anyone who gets the reference.

If you love high horsepower, rear- or all-wheel drive is irrefutably superior, and this generation's M cars are sitting right there. Supra, Camaro, Mustang, CTS4/5V- also very good options. The list goes on.

 

[ashmostro]

Update: I just installed 15mm Bonoss spacers all around and was pretty impressed with the product quality. Was a good purchase. Upon lowering back to the ground and taking her for a drive, I feel that a very mild lowering is in order, so I ordered the H&R Sport springs 28714-2 kit.

I actually contacted H&R to ask them about spring rates as the data that we've all seen here of the various spring options and their rates suggested that the front rates are lower than the rear rates on the H&R's, which is the opposite of OEM. This would be a deal killer for me, as the front to rear motion ratios are excellent from the factory and I don't want to mess up the feel. So, i asked H&R about it and while they won't quote exact rates (they consider them proprietary, which is fine), they did say the fronts are indeed stiffer than the rears, and that the overall progressive rates they aimed for was "slightly higher than OEM". That is good enough for me, so i ordered them as these have the lowest drop of everything I've seen, and ride nearly like stock, which is what I wanted.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this thread!

 

[Elusive23]

Update: I just installed 15mm Bonoss spacers all around and was pretty impressed with the product quality. Was a good purchase. Upon lowering back to the ground and taking her for a drive, I feel that a very mild lowering is in order, so I ordered the H&R Sport springs 28714-2 kit.

I actually contacted H&R to ask them about spring rates as the data that we've all seen here of the various spring options and their rates suggested that the front rates are lower than the rear rates on the H&R's, which is the opposite of OEM. This would be a deal killer for me, as the front to rear motion ratios are excellent from the factory and I don't want to mess up the feel. So, i asked H&R about it and while they won't quote exact rates (they consider them proprietary, which is fine), they did say the fronts are indeed stiffer than the rears, and that the overall progressive rates they aimed for was "slightly higher than OEM". That is good enough for me, so i ordered them as these have the lowest drop of everything I've seen, and ride nearly like stock, which is what I wanted.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this thread!

Hey just curious since you pretty much just did what I have been wondering about. Once you get lowering springs is it absolutely necessary to introduce spacers to aid in any specific function once the center or gravity is lowered, or is it just purely aesthetic?

I read quite a few times about how spacers can introduce understeer/oversteer, cant remember. But also was not sure if that was only if you did not lower the car.

I plan on getting some Apex VS5-RS soon and definitely leaning towards completing the “stance” look, but I really don’t want to compromise on any handling.

 

[ashmostro]

It's purely aesthetic!

As for changing front to rear balance, if you go with different spacings you can change the balance. Spacers effectively lengthen the suspension arms which in turn softens the spring rate at the contact patch. That's why I went with matching 15/15 instead of the common 15/20 you see some folks do on the platform.

If I were to do it again, I'd go with 20/20.

 

[ashmostro]

Oh, and if you go with Apex wheels with offsets intended for this platform, you shouldn't need spacers at all. They're really just needed for the OE wheels.

 

[Elusive23]

Oh, and if you go with Apex wheels with offsets intended for this platform, you shouldn't need spacers at all. They're really just needed for the OE wheels.

Awesome, much appreciated!

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