im pricing everything out right now and not planning on dropping the cash for a few months(deployed to afganistan atm) but i want to lower my 8, and do aftermarket wheels/tires,

would you recommend me doing the wheels/tires and lowering all at the same time? (I've never changed suspension on a vehicle before, but I've done brakes and such before, is it something i could figure out? or should i get professional help?)

05 velocity red GT, thinking about forgestar f14's and a couple by momo,

2nd question, what have you guys noticed about the handling of your 8 after you've changed the ride height? I'm trying to decide should i do full on coilovers? or just lowering springs and keep the rest of the factory parts?

appreciate the help

 

What is your purpose for lowering the vehicle? What is the purpose for the new wheels+tires? How much modification are you willing to do? If you screw it up, are you able to pay to get it fixed?

After you answer that, we can help ya out.

 

good points to bring up, most of which i have thought about, I'm the type of person who wants to do it right the first time, I'd rather spend more now rather than ghetto rig it, i just wanna get a nice lowered stance



basically i want it to sit like this without killing ride quality

 

its a bad picture, and i need spacers really bad... but this is my car on sprint springs. Its a 2inch drop and the most aggressive drop with springs, rsr made comparable ones as well with similar height drop.



I bought my sprints used because they were discontinued and after i got it installed it was around $600. If i knew it was going to cost that much at the beginning i would have saved for coilovers. This is what i think you should do, jump on the powertrix group buy and get a set for 1k.

I love the ride quality and did not notice much of a change besides it being slightly harsher. IMHO standard S1 shocks suck *** and are way too soft. the 40th anny comes with bilsteins that are pretty good which are noticeably more harsh than the standard shocks. Your ride wont become unbearable unless you get a stupid high springrate on coilovers at like... 16k or something.

I think you should get the powertrix coilovers because not only the price, but you get adjustability. If you get springs, especially the aggressive ones like RSR or Sprint, dont expect your oem shocks to last a long time. Expect to cut its life in half.

EDIT: i did my springs by myself but by accident put the rear springs on the front and i wanted to go to the mazda corral the next day at a grand am race so i brought it in to get done. Its fairly easy and i followed this guide.

FRONT: http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...ock_front.html
REAR: http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...hock_rear.html

 

You can't have your cake and eat it to.

If you want to sit like that, your ride quality is going to be pretty much crap. You will have to run such stiff springs to prevent you from hitting your bump stops, and bottoming out at the slightest bump/dip.

So it appears you are looks-oriented rather than performance. In that case, you can get a cheaper coil over kit if you want to have the adjustability like megans. Same with the wheels, you can probably pick up some rotas or something similar and save a couple hundred dollars.

 

well it was just an example cuz i ilke the wheels, i have no experience in lowering cars and i appreciate the insight, so the picture that i posted is more a looks based thing, thats good to know, and yeah like i said I'm not willing to sacrifice the ride quality to the point of crap,
(thx EricB) for the guides link

guess its back to more hours of google/forum reading

 

You need to get a full alignment after lowering the car. Just keep that in mind.

1. Make sure your car is up on maintenance. Last thing you want is to drop a grip on wheels, tires and suspension to only be looking at it in the garage waiting to be fixed.
2. Best bang for the buck is upgrading the tires and sway bars.
3. If you have the money to do all it at once then do it. Saves you downtime.

 

If I'm not mistaken, that blue RX-8 belongs to Reverend.