How low is your ride?

[Shushman]

Im drawing up a list of things that i will need and springs is a concern for me. Here is the type of drop im looking for as id have 15x9 wheels. What drop would i need?

[Irish_chris]

this low

[Jason_323i]

I can drop mine to the deck on coilovers, but e21 were designed when saloons had 4x4 ride hieghts.

[nas80]

Yea i could drop mine lower but my ride height is the same as neeks (first post in this thread)

The problem with airbags is they don't work properly. More you raise better the stiffness and when its low its too soft. Which is the wrong way around!!!.

[e21-Mark]

I could drop mine lower but I'd only be able to drive 50yds in either direction till I hit the speed humps. I could always remove the exhausts I guess?

They look good low, but they just don't handle as well.

[Shushman]

How low do you think the car in the first post is? Its sitting on 15" wheels.

[bartgouda]

You actually can't drop your car all the way, the front lower control arms will hit the subframe, making any more "lowering" result in nothing but loose springs.
My car is on coilovers which I have set to be 0.5 centimeter of the lower control arms, about as low as you could go without hitting the subframe all of the time.
Currently my front subframe is 7 cm of the ground, which is pretty close but not as close as I'd want it too. Ofcourse smaller wheel/tyres diameter or modding the subframe/control arms might get you more low, but on a otherwise stock car, that's about as low as you can go.
I believe Neek is at the same height as me, he's got stock control arms too.
From my calculations, my car is lowered about 12 cm from stock, but most cars have sagged already so it might be a bit more than that.

[bartgouda]

Here's some pics of my car btw:

[Shushman]

Yea thats the sort of ride height im looking for. Iv been searching for coilovers and i can only find ones that are £500. Which ones could i buy that would cost aroud £300? Your ride height looks like thats pretty much the lowest id go. Im just trying to figure out which coilovers would fot this car.

[bartgouda]

Mine are GAZ coilovers which were about £600, might be a bit expensive for your taste but they are definitely superb quality, very good coilovers!
There aren't that many other options, but you could buy a Ground Control conversion kit and do it all yourself...

[Shushman]

If you could post up a link to the springs that would be great. Im lost when it comes to coilovers ha.

[Shushman]

I foundthese. I know gaz and eibach are trusted. But these wouldnt be so bad for now until i afford more would they?
Also. How much lower from stock is your car?

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewit ... fied=false

[bartgouda]

http://www.ground-control-store.com/pro ... =17/CA=102

These are the ground control coilovers, and these:

http://www.raceperformancemodified.com/ ... ilover-Kit

Are the GAZ coils, which I have and am very happy with.

The ones you linked unfortunately are for an E30, which will not fit your E21. On an E21, the entire coilover system needs to be welded to the stock strut, which is quite a lot of work/complicated. Also, E21s are by far not as popular for modifying as E30 are, and so there are way less companies offering coilovers for them, or any aftermarket products for that matter.
You could go with Bilstein B6's and some racy lowering springs, which will give a really nice ride and a decent lowering.
Or, you could look into what E30 guys do: Shorten the strut, put in Golf MK1 shocks and short lowering springs, or a coilover thread or something. Don't take my word on that though, properly investigate it before you start ordering things:P

My car is about 11cms lower than my friends E21, which is supposedly stock, but I've seen much higher E21s than his, so it might even be more than 15 cms.
If you can find any lowering springs that will go about 60mm or lower, it'll be decently low and handle considerably better.

[Wilmo]

Would it be rude to say that I think so low is butt ugly, enormously unpractical and that I do not see any reason to drop a car to the ground?

[nas80]

yes because up to a point being lower makes the car handle like a car - instead of a stock e21 which is like driving a plate of jelly.