Spring Clamps

[pureliquidhw]

do you recommend the smaller drop? Or does it come down to personal preference.

[therieldeal]

going any lower than about a 2" drop can actually make the car handle worse, because it screws up your roll center

[pureliquidhw]

how would you go about calculating that?

[Turpro]

going any lower than about a 2" drop can actually make the car handle worse, because it screws up your roll center

a 1inch drop would be fine on stock struts but won't look lowered at all. More than 2 is bad for handling. Stay in the 1-2in dropsrings with good struts that are made to handle a drop. If you look under your car there's lowercontrol arms in front and trailing arms in rear that run from about the middle of the car to the spindles. If that bar is anymore than paralel with the road then you'll lose good handling.

[firelizard]

More than 2" is bad for the handling? What the crap?

Have you guys seen the BH race cars? Are you pulling this info out of thin air or something?


Besides, it's not like an otherwise stock Protege can go fast enough for less than awesome handling to matter.

[pureliquidhw]

Since the protege can't go that fast, handling is going to have to be it's strongest suit; Less than awesome handling will make a difference.

[firelizard]

Okay, then can someone explain to me why a low center of gravity became a bad thing?

[Turpro]

Okay, then can someone explain to me why a low center of gravity became a bad thing?

Low center of gravity isn't the issue. It's the angle of the lca's and trailing arms. When those go more than parallel with the pavement you will push harder on the struts.

[firelizard]

Stiffer springs should take care of such a problem. I wasn't aware that trailing arm angle had anything to do with roll center... Actually, I didn't realize the Protege had a trailing arm suspension at all. >_> I just assumed it had a McStrut in the rear too. Oh well, knowledge is power.

edit after research: twin-trapezoidal link - not quite trailing arm.

But nobody makes stiff springs readily available, just like nobody makes springs that will drop the car more than 2.25" anyways. Or struts that will survive an extreme drop for very long.

And I doubt that anybody who even had the idea of "spring clamps" last long enough to post about it is actually serious enough about handling to care about the possibilty of increase roll couple.