Re: lowered suspension (archive)

You're into a lot of different issues here. Lowering helps because it lowers the center of gravity, which helps keep the car planted. Higher ride height doesn't allow wider tires, it allows taller tires. At the risk of sounding like a Pontiac commercial, wider (in the case of tires) is (ussually) better. Taller is not. Ultimate grip and transitional handling will be better with shorter wider tires.

Yes, a stock 02 will handle well. Improvements can be made nonetheless. Urethane is good, but some consider the ride to be too harsh for street use (depends largely on your tolerance level for small bumps). Personally, I think urethane is a must for sway bar end links at the very least. I'm going to be going to urethane trailing arm mounts at some point as well. If you're really concerned about building a streetable car that people won't complain about riding in and that may actually leave you with two functional kidneys, choose your shocks carefully, stick with (new) rubber bushings, and you should be fine.

is there any real benefit to lowering an 02 3/4-1" with aftermarket springs? would a person not be better off with stock height springs with an increased spring rate and the wider tires that the higher ride height would allow. It is my understanding that the 02 was a pretty good handling car to begin with. Are urethane bushings that much of an advantage over stock rubber. I am planning to build my car for moderate street performance and occasional autocross action.
HR

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