Lowered and Daily Driving?

HapaZ

I'm on a stock suspension setup and I'm considering lowering. I've had a lowered car in the past so I know what it's like to daily a dropped civic, but with my Z as it is now I already feel like I have to be pretty cautious going over bumps and in/out driveways. How are people running lowered suspensions and using their cars as daily drivers? Are people just accepting that things scrape from time to time?

rooftop

Scrape scrape scrape. I prefer stock height or lifted.

kenchan

NORAIN

I'm on Swifts which lower you 1.25" front & 1" in back. I scrape the rubber spoiler sometimes, it doesn't really hurt it. I have FI exhaust which hangs pretty low so I try to avoid the big speed bumps and hit the others at an angle.
But it looks so much better a little lower! And I don't DD, I have a beater Ranger for DD.

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AntiVenom

I know this is not something that we will ever get agreement on. some people will always wanna scrape the ground.

my 2 cents is that the Z already has low enough to have a good center of gravity to provide excellent performance. So the only reason to lower the car is aesthetics. In my world that means reduce wheel well gap. The Z has very little of this to start with. However, given the tire sizes that we have at our disposal often times people go with smaller diameter tires, which increases that gap. Which in turn drives people to lower their cars more aggressively. Which leaves you with a car that can't go over speed bumps without scraping. This is fine for a weekend car or a show car, I guess, but sucks to DD.

I don't DD my car, but I also don't want a car that is a PITA to drive around town. I also hate wheel well gap. Even more I hate the look of how a smaller diameter wheel/tire combo looks inside the wheel well gap of a lowered Z. maybe I am just ocd about body lines, but the round shape of the tire fights the silo shape of the wheel well. I will try to find a photo that illustrates this last point.

So that drove me to taking a different approach than most. Which is to pick a wheel/tire combo that filled the wheel well. Which left me with two options: 20s wheel with a 265/305 setup or wide 19s with 275/325 setup. I am leaning towards the first, since they are cruising wheels and weight isn't a huge concern (I will use the stock rays for track, and eventually get some 18s).

Anyway the short of it is... consider what you are doing before lowering. This car is effin low and you won't be getting a real performance benefit from going lower. It will however become more annoying to DD. The looks can potentially be tackled in a different way.

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Zcoupe

I Daily drive mine, I would say if your cautious you get use to it, never have scraped my exhaust or the sideskirts, the worst thing is the front air deflector starts looking like a scruffly beard from scraping everywhere, thats really just unavoidable happens every morning coming out of the drive way.

wanker

Depends on your daily drive. I drive a lot for work, and I soon realized that lowering my Z would be a bad, bad idea. I already scrape the front rubber spoiler every time I pull out of my driveway, enter my building's parking structure, go to the store. A lowered Z would be a nightmare. I just installed some wheel spacers and called it a day.

dP3NGU1N

I'm lowered about 1.25 in all around. The only thing I've scraped is the front chin spoiler. Not too bad driving around LA. You do need to avoid some particularly terrible inclines but otherwise it hasn't really affected me too much.

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JWillis72

Mine is not a DD but was lowered when the coil overs went on. 1-1 1/2" is doable with stiff set up but you have to be careful.


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AntiVenom

just because something is doable, doesn't mean it's enjoyable.

i know it's a "thing" to drive a lowered car. my question, particularly in the case of a car like the 370z which is already low from factory, is why lower? what are you trying to accomplish? Especially on a DD

edit: i am not even saying it has to be performance related.

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Asheth

You pretty much said it aesthetics. I thought about this in a different way I guess more justification to go ahead and lower it.

If you bought a 09-14 nismo and never lower it you are still lower than a non nismo definitely longer which makes angles more of a hassle than it would be for a non nismo. If you scraped the air deflector you would definitely scrape the 09-14 nismo bumper at stock height and that will cost you more than that air deflector.

The Z stock is low compared to some family sedans or a American muscle cars like Mustang, Camaro, Challengers but to handling sports cars that many of us love. Like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsches, corvettes, etc... It's higher or about even.

Driving around Baltimore(which has terrible roads) I've seen inclines, bumpers, hills and peaks that you would have scraped in a Vette at stock height easily or a nismo easily.

I love the C6 and especially the C7 and I wouldn't raise it up so it's tolerable to drive and its ground clearance sure wouldn't make not buy it. I'd accept the fact that it is lower/longer than my Z because I like the car that much. It wouldn't even be a consideration honestly.

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Fman007

So I've been thinking about this......what if we took swift springs from a G37 and threw it on a 370? I've heard of G35 guys using the stock 370z springs to lower their car. So, I would bet that the g37 springs are higher. getting the stiffness with less drop. I have both cars and swift on my G37. I'm tempted to try....but it's a lot of work for an idea.

JC-Nismo

Lowered and no problems here in Georgia, but 95% of my driving is on the Highway.

nis350

same here with Swift springs. only have issues with the rubber spoiler that came with the sport package. so it is much less an issue with the non sport package.

I personal think that it looks better lowered especially with wider wheels. I like the Swift because of the mild drop and the ride/performance improvements.

Masterbeatty

I my caar is lowered about 1 3/4" all the way around. The only problems I have is long dips. But my springs are stiff and I never have the dampers set anything close to soft, (except for when cruising with my wife). I autocross the crap out of my car so that's where I have all my money towards. I also drive the speed limit and nothing lower. I scrape maybe once a month and same goes for when my wife drives it.

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