Lowering my new mk2

[Crewie77]

Hi

I am looking at lowering my mk2 gt. but I am unsure what to use thinking of about a 30-40 mm lower. I need to use it daily But do I use coilover or spring not had much experience of coilover. What do people on here use.

Also how looking at running 15's how wide can I go before the catching the arches.

Cheers

Adam

[Mr Funk]

Shocks and springs are fine if you only want to run it 30/40mm, coilovers are better if you want the freedom to slam the backside out of it now and again. But keep in mind that every time you lower it you'll need the tracking and camber sorting.

*Very (very) quick rule of thumb is 30/40mm is fine for daily use although there's no reason why you can't go lower.
*Buy the best you can with the budget you have, seems a no brainer but it's true. People may disagree but the fact of the matter is that if you buy £150 set of coilovers you will get exactly that, it's sometime better to buy a more expensive set of springs and shocks than a cheap set of coileys. I run Weitec Gt and they are superb, same as a few people on here. Shocks and springs wise (and keep in mind it's 6am and I haven't run them in years) I think boge still do a really good lowering kit and so do Eibach but I'm sure someone will put me right on that.
*Buy a lower front strut brace. It's a five minute job and will really help the car.

15" rims will be fine but the arch rolling really depends on how low you're running it. For reference I run 9" 16's on the rear but my car really isn't normal.

Best bet is to ask a ton of questions and do your research. Hit the search button and go from there, that's what we're here for.

[wassell]

have a look at these mate, could be worth looking into

http://www.swdubs.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... 20&t=25903

[Crewie77]

Thanks for the advice on with the researching.

Cheers

[james butler]

make sure you know someone who can set up your camber after you have changed the suspension.
i marked up the bolts before lowering thinkin stupidly that they would need to be in the same position after changing the shockers
ended up with the top of the wheels sticking out of the arch

[pajsh]

I found this website the most comprehensive in evaluating options (which took me around 6 months!).

http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl?c=SUS ... s=category

I'm sure if you have no specific handling requirements you can slam it with a set of E-bay cheapies for £150. Even if they don't last you can go through 3-4 sets against some more upmarket products.

If you are only looking for around 40mm drop then I think you will get a better deal and ride with springs and dampers albeit probably a bit more work to reclaim the parts you need from the existing suspension. And it should be usable as a daily driver.

I agree with Funk and feel if you are looking to improve the road and track handling you need to be spending £500+ minimum and as much as you can justify.

My compromise from Venom Motorsport http://www.venommotorsport.com/product_ ... Suspension were Spax coilies with adjustable damping for £560 delivered.

Adjustable damping for switching from potholed "B" roads to Oulton Park's table smooth asphalt was a priority rather than outright lowering.

Depends what you want and what you've got to spend.

[roccoGTX]

What's the point of 'lowering'?
Mine was lowered when I first bought it and it handled like a pig - like one of those racing speedboats in a rough sea.
To my mind it was very dangerous. I had it put back to normal spec - brilliant!
After all, I think that the German engineers knew what they were doing.
The other thing is, the 'lowering' can also affect the performance of the rear spoiler, suspension, wheel camber etc., so you need to consider this as well, and overall handling.
In other words - you can't just lower it without looking at what else it would affect - could be expensive.
It has to be 'balanced' properly and I think that you should have expert advice for this mod.
I've seen so many cr*p mods on decent cars.
Be careful.


Cheers

John

[Mr Funk]

What's the point of 'lowering'?
Mine was lowered when I first bought it and it handled like a pig - like one of those racing speedboats in a rough sea.
To my mind it was very dangerous. I had it put back to normal spec - brilliant!
After all, I think that the German engineers knew what they were doing.
The other thing is, the 'lowering' can also affect the performance of the rear spoiler, suspension, wheel camber etc., so you need to consider this as well, and overall handling.
In other words - you can't just lower it without looking at what else it would affect - could be expensive.
It has to be 'balanced' properly and I think that you should have expert advice for this mod.
I've seen so many cr*p mods on decent cars.
Be careful.


Cheers

John

If it handled badly it was probably either a bad kit or set up badly. Mine's lowered by a considerable amount, has a couple of other bits and pieces and I will openly put good money on it out cornering and out handling any standard set up.
And why? well other than the obvious handling (although I fully admit that lowering it until you can't take it anywhere is utterly ridiculous) they tend to look good, having you standard set up is fine if that's your bag but I can't really say something like the nationals would be half as fun if all the cars were the same.
The German engineers did indeed know what they were doing but even they made some terrible errors: There's no front lower strut brace, something that no matter how much you try and argue is a nigh-on essential mod. The brakes are also shockingly bad considering they could have easily put the bigger ones on and keep in mind that they did it all 30 odd years ago. If their engineering skills were so great they'd still be building it.
And please don't ever try and suggest the wing does anything other than keep the boot from flying up and chinning people.

Just let the lad lower it.

[the edmundator]

The German engineers did indeed know what they were doing but even they made some terrible errors: There's no front lower strut brace, something that no matter how much you try and argue is a nigh-on essential mod. The brakes are also shockingly bad considering they could have easily put the bigger ones on and keep in mind that they did it all 30 odd years ago.

I'm not sure that they made errors, so much as strategic decisions on the basis of cost vs. profit. The brakes, in particular, are not bad because they're too small, they're bad because VW couldn't justify engineering the car for a proper right-hand drive conversion.

The factory suspension is designed to be the best compromise between comfort and handling for normal road use - if that's what your Scirocco is being used for, I'd suggest sticking with standard unless you're happy to compromise a less comfortable ride for extra feel/grippyness round corners: many people are.