Unlike a lot of you running larger diameter wheels and tires that have the effect of jacking up the car, requiring a LOT of suspension lowering, I am running 17s and 18s with low profile tires. The smaller diameter [ but wider ] tires plus having the suspension lowered all the way on stock bolts, effectifly lowers the car pretty far. I have about 1-1/8 inch clearance under the rubber side airdams with no-one in the car. I have the least ground clearance of anyone in our club. For the past 6 months I have been gleefully scraping my way around town and just dealing with it. On Monday evening something finally broke. We were heading down a country road at about 45, approaching a place where we were going to turn off, so the speed was cut back a bit. At the bottom of a long slow dip was a tiny bridge over a creek. It had just been re-paved and had a lift of about 1/2 inch over the bridge proper. Well, the combination of a swoop pressing the suspension up, and then hitting a sharp edge on the new pavement, the deed was done. The center airdam that normally just swings out of the way was caught square on the edge of the new pavement and BOOM! It broke one end completely off, and swung back under the chassis. When we got to where we were going, backing up allowed the damn to swing out the front. With only a few inches clearance, we had to swing the darn thing back and forth to binish breaking it off so we could later drive home. Now I have gotten under the car and removed the remains of the center where it bolts to the chassis. Looks like I can easily weld the bracket back together again, BUT, .....I'm going to trim a bit of it off, as well as trim some of the rubber side air dams. My husband likes the absense of all the scraping noise from the front, but the flapper is important to radiator airflow, and high speed stability, so it has to go back on. Since I spend virtually no time above 100 MPH, the aerodynamics aren't as critical as they would be we did drive so fast, so I am also considering raising it back up a little tiny bit.

Anyway, it was an interesting noise when it hit and broke.....Had visions of exploded remains all over the road......fortunately very little was hurt.

 

luckily that was the only thing you damaged...im lowered on stock bolts all the way but i am running 19/20s...i do seem to have that same part your talking about scrape on all the little bumps...but it sure looks a lot cooler lower...so i just turn up my music and don't let the scraping of that piece get to me too much

 

Looks cool, until the radiator goes. Check it out some time.

 

No problems here. I slow down - driving a slammed car requires a different driving style from driving a 4x4

Seriously, rocker rails and frame savers are your friends - as are looking way ahead and driving more defensively.

EG

 

Us older folks refer to it as being "lowered", not slammed. I've lowered my car on the stock bolts as well and I'm always very careful when pulling into the driveway, crossing railroad tracks, etc. I've found the best way to avoid damage is to approach most obstacles on an angle at a very low speed.

 

EG, I think your car looks way cool being that low, however I just don't understand how you can drive it on the road! I dropped my '01 coupe as far as it will go on the stock bolts, and I'm nowhere as low as you, but I still scrape going in and out of my driveway, and it's far worse at my mother's driveway.

I couldn't avoid some fresh roadkill a couple of weeks ago, while on my way to work. I whacked my center air dam with it, then must have scraped it really good with my exhaust system. Even though I rinsed the underside with soapy water, the car still smelled like a barbeque for a week afterward. The neighbor's two dogs kept coming over and sniffin' the car!!

 

My car is slammed - not lowered. Ask anyone that has seen it in person

 

Slammed sounds so violent. I prefer the much more gentle term of lowerd.

 

The only things I have scraped is the speed bumps at work - and I crab over them at 0mph sideways. Rubs against the A&A Rocker Rails and no damage done.

I have driven Grond for more than 20,000 miles like it is with no worries. Been to Kentucky, Canada, Pennsylvania etc. without any issues.

Being this low requires a different mindset. Every transition requires forethought. Transitions are changes in surface - from primary road to driveway, car park, underground garage, speed humps, gas stations, side roads, back roads... You do not just go barreling along like it's a Ford Explorer with 8inches of ground clearance.

You also have to know where you are going - and know that there are just some places you cannot go, end of story. The worse is road works - that bites.

All the performance cars I have owned have been slammed, so I have been driving this way for 20 years across many different countries. After a while, it just becomes second nature.

I look way ahead and have not hit anything in the road yet. I leave enough space between me and the car in front so that there are no surprises (or flying rocks for that matter)

EG

 

Lowered is when you manipulate the stock bolts or even cut the front bushing. Slammed is longer rear bolts and no front bolt.

Super slammed is ALLKAR and VetteThret with coilovers - now their cars are L-O-W !!

 

I scrape every once in a while, and I'm not lowered or slammed. I do have 19" wheels with low profile tires, but it is practically the same as stock on height. Just can't imagine being lower still!!!

 

I'm stock and I scrape. Amusing, what you slammed Guys will go thru to look cool.

 

 

Everyone chooses to live their life their own way.

 

Okay, you got me on that one.

 

I am lowered on stock bolts in front with longer ones in the rear. My car has been lowered like this for about 9k miles. If I were to drive my vette like my everyday car I would scrape everything. This would still be the case even if I was back at stock height. You have to change your mindset when driving your lowered or slammed vette, period. Only the sides of my airdam touch when I come of my driveway. This is only because I am perpendicular to my driveway at that point and I have a 2" drop off from the curb. It is much easier to drive the roads that you have been down. Sometimes obstacles pop up such as a section of road that is being resurfaced. At that point I will enter the section at a 45 degree angle to avoid any scraping. Does it look stupid to most people watching me cut accross lanes, probably. Do I care? Absolutely NOT. Low is the only way to go...

 

OKay I guess according to the lowering/slammed experts here, I am just "lowered" stock bolts only, not even cut bushings, but like the way it looks with 19's all around and bigger tires helps it look lower

we have a parking garage here at work, very steep angels going down and turning..I have to go verrryyy slow pisses people off behind me, but I just wave at them when the honk

 

 

If you drive through Missouri on I-70 and look ahead and see different colored payment you'd better slow down. There could be as much as 1 to 1 and a half inches difference in the surface. We call them 70 mph speed bumps. My vette is a the stock height and there are a few times that I have scraped.

 

get some rocker rails and frame savers. most importantly, use common sense when driving a lowered vette. be aware that your front end is only a few inches off of the ground and even seemingly small bumps or changes in the road should be negotiated with caution.