For those of you that have your cars lowered... did you do it for looks or better handling? I know most of you would want to answer BOTH but please choose the one that was the bigger motivator.

I lowered my car because... well, the stock handling on our generation kind of sucks. The improved looks were just of a nice bonus. When I chose my springs, it was based on comments regarding performance, comfort and reliability (rather than wheel gaps). I know however that some of you have different priorities, so I am curious to see what the split is.

 

I like the look but i want something that doesn't bounce and what not over every bump in the road. Who cares what other people think of what your car looks like, as long as you like the look that all that matters. Now for performance/handling you are the one driving the car so if you like the extra stiffness in the car thats great, get coil-overs. If you want something not so harsh get lowering springs and shocks and struts.

 

This is an interesing one for me. I guess I did it for performance. I did not like how the stock setup ran. However, the ride is to harsh for me now. Also, I think the car sits to high stock. So AFTER the upgrade I like the looks more than performance.

I vote performance since that was my original reason.

 

Jus got tired of front lookin lifted sky high and rear bein saggy with any weight looked ugly as hellllll!!! So Looks is what i was goin for and the performance was jus a bonus.

 

I did it for both...

 

yes

 

looks

front is too high and back is too low

 

 

Intriguing, but the question is redundant, no?

Lowering this car negatively impacts handling, period.

However, all of the springs and struts that improve handling typically lower the car at least a bit.

Sorry if I'm just being semantical here, I just want to make sure no one actually thinks lowering their Maxima will improve handling. It won't. It's the change in springs and struts that improves the handling. Lowering makes handling worse.

 

Both. Not a fan of the "on stilts" look and wanted to reduce body roll. But like most people that do it for performance (I presume anyway), I also upgraded the struts and added a fstb.

 

I suppose there may be edge cases where one does not imply the other... and yes, different suspension setups have advantages in different terrains and conditions... but lets not get carried away.

I don't want to get too much off topic, but generally speaking I'm curious on your thoughts on how does lowering the center of gravity negatively impact handling?

 

The only positive thing gained from lowering is lower center of gravity.
That's it.

Lowering a car changes the geometry of the suspension. Things like working angles, leverage points, roll centers, etc. all of these carefully calculated things are changed, sometimes drastically. those changes will slow you down, not speed you up.

Its a common effect to think the car feels faster after lowering, its usually stiffer and more responsive in feel, plus a bunch of placebo effect. In truth though the car will be slower on a track.
Lowering this car especially is bad because there are no adjustments or adjustable products for purchase to even semi-correct the geometry.

 

^
so don't spend $$ lowering or are you saying do it but don't expect performance gains?

 

Both: But in spirit of the question, primarily looks. If I wanted something that looked like a 4x4 going down the road, I'd drive a truck.

 

I'm only clarifying that lowering a car, especially this car, normally makes handling worse.

The best thing you can do for a 5th gens handling is a RSB, good tires, and decent Coilovers that don't lower the car too much.

In real life, on the street where we all drive pretty much, looks and feel are more important than actual handling improvements. As long as you aren't suffering delusions that you have improved the handling by lowering the car, who cares. Make it look good, ride smooth, be responsive, and you will love it.

Fyi, I had my car pretty low, and it did handle better than stock, but that is because decent Coilovers, not because I was low. My car would have been faster on the same Coilovers if the car was raised up higher. It was low for looks.

On my G, the car gets raised when it goes to the track. Low for the street.

 

I chose to lower my Max for the looks. I have always been partial to cars with a lowered stance, just looks more aggressive. I don't know if handling was really improved on my car or not, but I sure do enjoy the ride.

 

I'm low for looks mainly. Riding coils because I can adjust all aspects of it, the ride I like to think is better performance wise jus because my stocks were blown. Now I'm pretty stiff and way less body roll. I guess my main reason was because I didn't wanna look like a rock crawler in a car with wheel gap my head would fit in

 

I did mine strictly for looks as I don't drive hard. The OE wheel gaps on Nissan and Infinitis are horrible, enough to bother me to the point of spending several hundred to solve the problem, haha.

 

Same here

 

the question should really be, when you lowered your car did it handle better before or after?

aside from coilovers cranked way down and maybe S-techs or something similar, the answer for just about every maxima owner is that it handled better after lowering.

The single greatest handling modification for me was lowering the engine cradle 1". Huge difference. Then tires, then wheel spacers.

 

+1

Very interesting. First time I heard of this. How did you do that? Different engine mounts?

 

Didn't know that project ever completed nice work dude.

As for the lowering thing as I mentioned the better handling is because of the springs and shocks, not the lower ride height. The two just go together. Tein SS are one of the only Coilovers that will raise up to almost stock height, and I can assure you that at the higher ride setting the car handles better. It gets progressively worse the lower you go. The primary factor is roll center.

 

drilled new bolt location for the passenger mount, and used spacers with longer bolts in the other locations. I cant remember who originally told me about this, but they were racing a 3.5 swapped sentra with this done. Its really easy to do, drilled a new hole in the passenger mount, and put spacers and longer bolts in three places: where the transmission bolts up to the mount, where the engine crossmember meets the radiator core, and where the crossmember meets the body in the rear.

 

Did u lower the car 1" then lower the engine 1" to match it up?

 

I would say probably both, but if I had to choose I would have to go with looks because I don't Auto-X my car or anything so I guess they are more for aesthetics than anything.

 

originally for looks, but some performance came along with it.

 

no. its not related, when you lower the car the engine goes with it, but you can lower the engine without lowering the car.

 

Performance. If I do any cosmetic/looks mods, they cannot compromise performance.

 

I only have 2 cosmetic mods and those are my front only clear corners and all red tails.

Other than that, everything else is functional (wheels/altitude modification/tint/HID fogs).

 

I did it for both as well...

 

I did it mainly for looks. I hate fender gap. I went with the megan racing smaxngs and my max came with kyb gr2. the ride isn't harsh at all cant tell the differance between stock. doesnt have the slammed look . I have 350z touring wheels on 225/45 tires..

 

I'm all about utility as well. I don't think I have any cosmetic mods... I may eventually replace the gauge LEDs... although I don't see myself finding the motivation to do that.

On a side note, interesting results on this thread so far.

 

I did it for the look. My maxima is pretty immune to suspension upgrade, RSB, FSTB, GRB 2 Shock, Tien Springs, new bushings, Sticky Tires, and it still drives like a boat.

 

Did it for looks, other than that, my car is pretty much stock since it is my daily driver. Of course driving a lowered car in NYC is no fun, but I don't like how the car sits on the stock suspension.

 

I did it for both.

To me, the term performance is relative, though. There is track performance and then there is street performance. I think Tuner is really referring to track performance which is much more demanding than the street.

There is no doubt that my car "handles" better on the street as a result of the upgraded springs and struts. By that I mean reduced understeer, how the car turns in, how it handles turns of various degree at speed, lateral acceleration, roll etc. One area where handling is clearly worse is bump steer.

I don't know how that would translate to the track but imagine Tuner is correct.

But I'm not saying it handles better because it is lower - I mean I see the guys with cut springs bouncing down the road and I know those cars don't handle better.

 

Oh yeah, LED gauge bulbs too. Forgot about that.

 

Red car (99, BC coilovers) is strictly lowered for performance.

Turn in is stiffer but the steering response greatly improved at a lower height.

Slaloms for eg. at stock height are possibly the most miserable thing I've ever done in a Maxima, makes me question rather or not why I even modded the car.

Lowered at the height I put it at for race-car-ing slaloms are a breeze, at the cost of the quick whip turn in though, so I'd have to predict and plan corners a second longer but I mean who does their best at anything type of racing on the first try?

Also I've noticed keeping the stock *** sag helps a bit for killing understeer, it's dissapointing to look at but who has time to look at your stance when you're lapping? a track (Hint Hint: kind of why HnR's are consistently good springs on our cars)

Black car (03 I35) is @ stock height, stock suspension.

I am impressed at how the stock setup rewards you for simple little tricks I've learned @ road courses, but the way the rear wobbles when it's unloaded is scary

 

Looks, maximas were not designed for performance.

 

My stickers on both Maximas would say otherwise.

 

Handling with respect to body roll is significantly reduced. Bump steer and tracking on the other hand is a fcking nightmare.