How low can you go?

[VTEC_Inside]

Bit of a rant thread here.

My idiot friend with the NSX is going to drop it another inch or so tomorrow. The only reason he wants to do this is because he thinks it has too much wheel gap in the back.

The car was purchased with Tein coil-overs on it, so its just a few turns of a wrench.

The thing is that the car rides quite nicely as it sits. I feel its more comfortable than my RSX, and it still handles quite literally like its on rails.

It also has less than 1cm of clearance under the front lip as he pulls into his driveway.

I told him that I'd drive it into his driveway just once so he can see what I see, but he just doesn't think I'm serious.

To make matters worse, there is a bit of a dip in his driveway just before the garage, where I could swear the bottom of the car almost touches the asphalt...

Arg... Not that hes going to listen to me any more than he has in the last couple months that I've tried to convince him otherwise....

Pic for reference, thats my RSX behind it for height comparisson:

[giant_mtb]

It looks perfect.  He's silly.

[The Pirate]

Yeah, that's perfect.  And amazing.  I love the NSX.

What year?  NSX or NSX-T?  Manual, I hope.

[VTEC_Inside]

Yeah, that's perfect.  And amazing.  I love the NSX.

What year?  NSX or NSX-T?  Manual, I hope.

1992 5spd.

[VTEC_Inside]

I'm having another bitch fest with him right now over it, getting no where...

[giant_mtb]

Just let him do it.  He'll be the sorry one when he's scraping his shit everywhere and bumping his tires on his fenders over bumps. 

[SVT_Power]

I wouldn't say that's too low as is. I can see the desire to go a bit lower.

But in my books, top of fender flush with the wheel is the minimum. I like my cars low 

[280Z Turbo]

You need suspension travel or else your car will handle like crap.

[Raza]

Oh god...did he buy the offroad model?  Hideous wheel gap. 

[hotrodalex]

I would lower it at least an inch or get larger tires. That gap does not belong on an NSX.

[Cookie Monster]

It's a large gap but if he can't go any lower I'd keep it as is.

[omicron]

If that's him wearing a hood in the photo, that explains this nonsensical desire for having the front wheels poking up through the fenders.

If not, well, I'm sure he was wearing a hood just out of shot.

[Raza]

I would lower it at least an inch or get larger tires. That gap does not belong on an NSX.

It's a large gap but if he can't go any lower I'd keep it as is.

I wouldn't say that's too low as is. I can see the desire to go a bit lower.

But in my books, top of fender flush with the wheel is the minimum. I like my cars low 

Just to confirm, you guys aren't joking, right?

[Cookie Monster]

Just to confirm, you guys aren't joking, right?

I'm not

[hotrodalex]

I'm not joking. I think he should get it lowered.

[VTEC_Inside]

If that's him wearing a hood in the photo, that explains this nonsensical desire for having the front wheels poking up through the fenders.

If not, well, I'm sure he was wearing a hood just out of shot.

Nah, that's one of my other buddies, he drives a bone stock '05 325xi.

[VTEC_Inside]

Here is the thing, I can understand wanting to get rid of the wheel gap, but not at the expense of ride quality and general drive-ability.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the front lip comes within a centimeter of the ground as is. He even put a new lip on it after he bought it because the old one was chewed up a bit. How many $125 lips its going to take before he realizes hes an idiot I dunno.

The other thing is that the previous owner had the car corner balanced. He tracked the car on occasion. It really is setup quite sweet from a performance standpoint.

As of this morning we are no longer friends on facebook, lol... I called him a dumbass on his wall because he didn't know what people meant by "counting the turns" on his coilovers.

[Rich]

I don't know why people are obsessed over wheel gap.  GM HD trucks?  Yeah, too much gap.  This?:



Looks great, IMO

[Cookie Monster]

Here is the thing, I can understand wanting to get rid of the wheel gap, but not at the expense of ride quality and general drive-ability.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the front lip comes within a centimeter of the ground as is. He even put a new lip on it after he bought it because the old one was chewed up a bit. How many $125 lips its going to take before he realizes hes an idiot I dunno.

The other thing is that the previous owner had the car corner balanced. He tracked the car on occasion. It really is setup quite sweet from a performance standpoint.

As of this morning we are no longer friends on facebook, lol... I called him a dumbass on his wall because he didn't know what people meant by "counting the turns" on his coilovers.

Yeah, in his case I definitely wouldn't lower it, but in general, on a sports car like that I'd like to have a smaller wheel gap

[hotrodalex]

I don't know why people are obsessed over wheel gap.  GM HD trucks?  Yeah, too much gap.  This?:



Looks great, IMO

Doesn't look horrible from the angle, but I rarely look at cars while lying on the ground. I like the tires to be on the edge of the fender, it just looks right. I'm not saying I'm going to lower a family Accord or Camry to eliminate any gap, but it's a sports car. It's supposed to look sporty.

[Rupert]

It's supposed to drive sporty, and looks come second.

[hotrodalex]

It's supposed to drive sporty, and looks come second.

Lowering it one inch won't change how it drives if you do it correctly.

[SVT_Power]

Just to confirm, you guys aren't joking, right?

Nope

[VTEC_Inside]

Lowering it one inch won't change how it drives if you do it correctly.

The dampers are adjustable as well, so I'm sure it can be done without affecting the ride all that much. That's not the ultimate problem in this case though.

[hotrodalex]

The dampers are adjustable as well, so I'm sure it can be done without affecting the ride all that much. That's not the ultimate problem in this case though.

Exactly. The only problem with lowering it is the fact that it will scrape the curb. I don't see that as a fault of the car but a fault of the curb.

[Rupert]

Lowering it one inch won't change how it drives if you do it correctly.

Right, but my point was larger.

[sportyaccordy]

As a habitual car lowerer, I must say his NSX is fine where it is. The angle of the picture makes things look worse than they are. The NSX is incredibly low, and I imagine will be pretty sensitive to such an extreme suspension geometry change.

Not to mention, IIRC, Tein coilovers can only be adjusted in such a way that lowering the car takes away from the range of motion available to the dampers.

So aesthetically and functionally it seems a bit silly. I'd almost prefer that he get 1" bigger wheels for it than lower it more, but even that would be unnecessary....

[Tave]

Doesn't look horrible from the angle, but I rarely look at cars while lying on the ground.

That angle makes the gap look as large as it can look.

[Tave]

I like it when the gap is symmetrical. Lower it too far, and the gap at the top disappears, but the gaps to the front and rear of the tires stay the same, and it looks uneven. No me gusta.

[hotrodalex]

That angle makes the gap look as large as it can look.

I've seen worse angles.