Lowered and Daily Driving?
 

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?

Scrape scrape scrape. I prefer stock height or lifted.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Both of mine have what you can call as functional lows:

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps6vwyygnf.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...pskvdkgitn.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...psowa5xdgq.jpg

Surprisingly the 1000hp Z can go more places than the nismo given the rear diffuser on the nismo inhibits my clearance...

I'm on swift's also and aam's exhaust which is pretty low. I just have to baby railroad crossing and not hit a pot hole at speed. If i crawl over a speedbump i can usually get it without scraping. But yes as a dd now it is difficult driving in the city.

I was scared being too low so I went with swifts , I still scrape so it can be scary

This has been super helpful. I'm thinking about throwing on some sway bars and calling it a day... Unless someone decides to sell some nismo springs pretty cheap.

I'd never lower my Nismo - ever. Right now, I'm just 1/2" above "safe" on most situations on the Texas roads.

Car looks and handles great when lowered. You pay to play. I'd be lying if I said, I never scrape. I will be on my 3rd lip or go for a bumper and going on my 2nd set of skirts. As for driveablity for daily driving, there is always a way to maneuver the car on inclines and bumps.

2 Z's,ftw!

i have a 14 tour/sport Z, has 3k miles on it, daily driver, also have motordyne exhaust, if i go on swifts with my stock wheels/tires (19 inch sport rays) will i scrape my motordyne ?

I'm all carbon so yea I get it. I'm on the airrex elite air system and also have custom splitters so I just air all the way up and if I scrape it scrapes the splitters and not the side skirts or front bumper. It's also daily driven despite what some believe. Only stays home if I got the family with me or during a storm. Otherwise it's fun time every day!

Yeah, it's a pain in the arse!. A drama to back up out of the garage driveway. It's just 1 inch lower in coilovers and still scrapes the front splitter, I have stock side skirts and I want to go with the Amuse ones but that will be even worst. Air bags like nomodsjk has will be ideal, but I don't want to spend the money in air bags.

My Z is dropped on Swift springs and I use them as my DD... If you are careful I know you are not going to scrape the front bumper.... some Puerto Rico roads are very fckt up, and only sometimes I scrape the front lip... I paid that your roads are +1,000,000 better than our roads hahahah!!

Driving lowered really isn't that big of a deal. The performance aspect would be stiffer springs rates and aid in your handling. Now if your are purely going for aesthetics than I have no back up for you except to go with an air suspension setup so that you can look pretty while parked and then lift it while you're driving around town.

I'm on Swifts
 

I don't really notice a huge diff. I scraped in a few places before the Swifts but with them I take a little extra precaution so I rarely hit anywhere. I angle the car entering and leaving the parkade where I work and never scrape now. Before I got the hang of it I did scrape there a couple of times. The drop is a +++ for me IMO. No issues there.
Before the Swifts I thought the Sport wheels made my Z look like one of those ridiculous Donks. I got the Swifts 'cause I thought anything to change that would be well spent dollars.

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