I'm thinking of getting LG GT2 coilovers pretty soon.

I am not looking to slam the car or anything like that, I just want to lower it to improve handling characteristics.

How badly do these cars scrape when lowered?

Right now I scrape about once or twice a month. The things that get me are low but long speed bumps (they seem short enough to not take at an angle but the middle of the car tends to hit the bump) and particularly steep driveways that I don't have enough time to get a proper angle on.

If I lowered the car say 1.25" or so (or really whatever LG says the GT2's are designed for) how much more often would this occur?

For reference I do daily driver my car.

Thanks so much!

 

My C5 lowered on LG spindles would scrape regularly. At one of the heavily worn turn lanes near my work it would scrape the exhaust without any angle change.

 

I know you are new here " welcome to the forum:
But really, unless someone drives in your shoes how could anyone tell you what you will experience?

if you are scraping now and plan to lower it more, it will scrape more... that seems fairly obvious to anyone.

If I answered your question by sayin it will scrape 450 times. How would that relate to your experience or driving situation.

Of course it will scrap more if you lower it more, conversely it will scrape less if your raise it. No one can tell you how much more it will scrape without knowing your exact clearance and the height of every bump, curb, pot hole, uneven surface you will encounter on any given day.

Am I missing something here?
Bill aka ET

 

Thanks for the reply. I think stock C5's don't scrape all that often. I know mine doesn't. I guess I am trying to get a gauge from people who have lowered their car some just how much more frequently they encountered scrapping.

Is it "Eh, I scrape a little more now but nothing too bad" or "I'm pretty much hitting everything" or somewhere in between?

I'm not expecting people to know the roads I am driving on or anything like that. Just figured a few people who had the experience lowering their cars could chime in on how it has affected their driving experience.

 

My car is lowered, and don't scrape on roads that are well maintained, and when negotiating curbs, bumps and road hazards, I will scrape the front air deflector. I've lowered mine to the point where my back tires will not hit my inner wheel well liners when the suspension is compressed.

I think my stance is perfect.. lowered on stock bolts.

 

every day

 

Im lowered on LG coilovers and I hit my tires more than i scrape. I hit my air deflector going down my driveway (its 150 yards long) and every so often pulling into my barn (about a 1" lip) but i dont hit the venter of the car on anything. On freeway bumps at speed i hit tire to fender briefly, no real tire damage, and if i wasnt looking for it i wouldnt notice it.

 

I really think you have answered your own question. If you scrape now and the car is not lowered, it would be reasonable to assume that when the car is lowered more there would be more scraping.

 

 

What are you scrapping? Are you scrapping just the front air dams or are you going over humps long enough to scrap the center undercarriage?

The front air dams are by design allowed to give some flex; the middle portion is actually spring loaded. If you're exceptionally concerned some members have trimmed an inch or so off of them to account for the lowered stance. It's advisable you do not remove them, as the center piece in particular is what feeds air to the radiator.

If you're scrapping the middle of the car there are frame rail protectors out there you can buy. One nice thing that is also now offered is rail protectors with integrated jacking pads; you won't have to carry pucks around.

You can help with the scrapping by your driving. The owners' VHS video shows how to take speed bumps and it's the method I use; slow to a crawl, then prior to going over the bump ACCELERATE, pushing the weight to the rear and lifting the front. I never scrap speed bumps now. For driveways it's all about the angle of attack.

 

The only issue I have is when I come off the end of my driveway onto the street, my center dam is cut to hang 1" below my fangs, the dam always scrapes & if I go too fast the fangs will hit. I am currently on 1" dropped spindles & lowered stock bolts for a total of 1.5" in front 1.750" in the rear. I also have Elite Engineering hard plastic rocker rails which are 3/4" thick, I have not had any instances where those scraped.

 

I'm lowered on stock bolts and cannot recall ever scraping anything but the front air dam.

 

here seems to be that they are critical for air flow mostly at very high sustained speeds and are not so in everyday street driving. Many have posted here having removed them to eliminate front air dam scraping noting no significant effect on temps. A purist would likely leave them on. My FAD scrapes on neighborhood speed bumps at any speed.
David

 

Lowering your car too much is the best way to make your car slower on most roads, but it looks better going slow is the only gain. 2 people in the car, luggage, and a full tank of gas will make it even slower when lowered.

 

When I had my center dam even with my Fangs at slow speeds usually around 30-40 I always ran temps over 200, once I changed that to hang 1" below the Fangs that issue went away.

 

Many lowered cars in my area NEVER scrape because they never leave the garage. If you drive it and it is lowered it will scrape almost every day. They may call you "SPARKY" but it could be worth because it's really all about looks.

 

Lots of good information here, some bad information , and some alternative facts.

Lowering the center of gravity increased handling performance. . There are no curbs speed bumps, or pot holes on a road course. So lowering the car is benificial for performance handling.

If you are a bit agrressive when driving on the street, a lowered car is much more fun to drivr. For rxample, with stock height you can take a clover leaf off ramp at 50 mph, with a lowered car you can take the same clover leaf at 70 mph with the same body roll as if you were doing 50.. but the fun is in the g-force created by the increased speed.

As far as removing the air dam...that's a no no . The cooling fans are electric and designed not to run all the time, they shut off at 35 miles an hour and rely on that air dam to force at speed, air flow to cool and offer heat transfer. . Lowering your car moves the air temperature closer to the road surface temperature, in many cases that air is 140 f. There is little heat transfer at that temperature, and removing the air deflection completely romoves 50% of the available air flow. The C5 cooling system is barely effective as designed, but these two aspects, lowering and especially removing the air dam are both a problem for effective heat Transfer.

Those who say there is no difference at speed ,they are offering alternative facts aka bulls hit ).

There are no fans running above 35mphi unless the ac is on.. people can do what they want, but I only offer the facts, not alternative facts aka ( you know the rest )

Bill aka ET

 

Every time I pull in or out of my driveway.

 

scraping would only be relative to the conditions you're driving in and how well you know the roads you're traveling. My previous vehicle, g35 coupe, was laid out "stanced" and would only scrape the front lip every so often, but I knew the roads I was traveling or was more cautious when going somewhere new. I do the same in my vette even though it sits a little bit higher than my g35. I'm lowered on stock bolts currently btw

 

How about this, "More often than you want them to".