On the track the lower you go the better. This works well because tracks are fairly flat and you do not have pot holes and speed humps to contend with!. Manufacturers have to take speed bumps, uneven road surface, passenger comfort and road noise into consideration when setting up a cars suspension. Most production cars have soft comfortable suspension that does very little to maximise handling and driving experience. Track cars are set up for driver preference and style. So the settings are not just different for each model of car it is also a subjective thing depending on the weather, and the drivers mood! The aim of a good suspension system is to keep the tyres on the road at the best angle and to create the largest possible contact area. Body roll needs to be minimised and the cars center of gravity should be as low as physically possible.
A Common mistake made by many, is going into the local car part store and buying a suspension kit that lowers your car 30mm and expecting this to be the perfect set up. Different engine weights, wheel sizes and car weights need different suspension characteristics. If you go too low you risk grinding the tyres in the wheel arch requiring you to roll your arches (making them bigger by folding the metal underneath) you also risk damaging the drive shaft and gearbox if the angle from the final drive to wheel hub is wrong. It is also a mistake to buy lowered springs and fit them to standard shocks or get uprated shocks and then apply them to standard springs. The entire suspension system should be viewed as a complete unit and parts matched up.
There is no denying it, cars look good when slammed to the ground! You reduce your ground clearance and can cause problems with tyres rubbing in the wheel arches. Remember that roads have speed bumps and instead of slowing a lowered car down they will grab the sump and rip off the bottom of the engine and most of your front bumper.
For most road cars we would not recommend going lower than 35mm from the opriginal ride height. Hot hatches which tend to have uprated suspension we recommend just 30mm. If you have changed the wheel size then these tolerances could be much lower. A car fitted with standard suspension and 17” rims would be OK but if you lower it as well you may get a range of problems. The aim should always be to improve handling and with the car being lower there will be less air going under the car and this can help with stability. Remember lower springs should be fitted to matched shocks and just cutting the springs is VERY VERY bad idea – you are asking a piece of metal designed to a tolerance to work effectively with a big chunk of its structure missing.
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