suspension question

What are the practical and performance differences between a height adjustable suspension and lowering springs (aside from the obvious of course) Is there more front tire clearence with C.O.'s? Is it necessarily a performance advantage or can equally good results be achieved with a good shock/spring combo?

Coil-Over is exactly that.. They allow you to adjust the height to the conditions you are driving. Actually it is more correct to think of this as adjusting the weight distribution over the wheels more than the body height/tire clearance. If you are adjusting to clear your tires.. IMHO.. You've got the wrong size tires! Additionally, IMHO, unless you see alot of track time, stick with a nice spring/damper combo i.e. HR'S & Bilstiens

HAQ 99' M Coupe
Cosmo Black / Kyalami Orange - Black Leather

Originally posted by AC
What are the practical and performance differences between a height adjustable suspension and lowering springs (aside from the obvious of course) Is there more front tire clearence with C.O.'s? Is it necessarily a performance advantage or can equally good results be achieved with a good shock/spring combo?

The primary advantage to coil overs is that you can corner balance the car (i.e. as close to 50/50 weight distribution as you can get- front to back, right to left, right front to left rear, and left front to right rear).

Originally posted by Bruce


The primary advantage to coil overs is that you can corner balance the car (i.e. as close to 50/50 weight distribution as you can get- front to back, right to left, right front to left rear, and left front to right rear).

Corner weights I will agree with. Left front plus right rear versus left rear plus right front.

But side to side and front to back? If front to back was that easy, all cars would have 50 - 50 front to back.

Originally posted by Pinecone
But side to side and front to back? If front to back was that easy, all cars would have 50 - 50 front to back.

The majority of stock cars (BMWs included) don't have adjustable coilovers, so the only way to get 50/50 front to rear is in teh engineering.

I have a corner balance sheet (in pdf format) in case anyone is seriously interested in properly corner balancing your car.