I ordered Tanabe GF210 springs from Hopup Racingfor only $169 and free shipping; they've gotten some bad press, but I had a great experiance with them.

I was having problems finding a place to install them. The dealer wanted around $830 with the 4 wheel alignment! And everyone esle I talked to wanted around $400.

Then I found a place to install them in Orange City (Florida) for only $200. Normally I don't go with the lowest price because the place usually looks like cr*p and I don't get a good feel from them. But this place was spotless and the owner, Steve Pierce, seemed like a really nice guy so I said, "What the hell."

Man was I lucky to find them. They were the nicest people and actually did the work for LESS than they quoted! Amazing. To top it off the owner's wife gave me a ride home and picked me up too!

If anyone in the four cities area needs work done give them a call:
Performance Tire & Wheel
630 S. Volusia Ave.
Orange City, FL 32763
386-228-2500

Anyway, the point of this post is to show the drop you get from these springs so here ya go:

Front Before:

Front After:


Rear Before:

Rear After:



Ok, I've managed to make it look like there is no difference at all but I swear there is.

For those like me that want to know how much stuff costs:

GF210 springs $170
Installation $175
4-wheel alignment $70
Total $515

Now for my impressions. I didn't notice the drop so much when I was driving up on the car but when I walked up to the car it was shocking. I immediatly noticed a HUGE difference. The back is much, much lower and I really notice the height difference inside the car too.

I didn't get much of a chance to drive twisty roads but I did get a few fast, sharp corners and the I could tell the front end was much sharper, much tighter.

I'll post full size side shots of before and after when the sun comes up so you can see the drop isn't just in my head.

<edit>

Oh, and with the alignment I got everything within specs except the left front and it's only .1 off from spec. They owner said it was really close and kept bopping back and forth from -1.3 to -1.4 (I think it was negative).

 

Damn that was alot for lowering a car. I remember before the import scene got really big, it cost me $60 bucks to install springs on my Honda. It's harder imo to change springs on the honda. Anyways, give us a full pix of the car now.

I installed my own springs so I saved some money. Total spent was $245 bucks for Eibach springs. Shop was an hour away so I paid extra for shipping.

--Sam

 

If the after pics are right after the install it will still look like stock. Wait two weeks and then take some pics and you'll notice a dramatic drop especially with the Tanabe springs....just so you know your supposed to get the alignment after the springs settle in a couple of weeks. You may have to get another one now..

 

+1.. the springs will take a week or two to settle.

 

Doh! <smacks forehead>

Oh well. The instructions that came with the springs said get an alignment after getting them installed but it didn't say wait a few weeks.

As far as the drop goes the pictures don't do it justice, there is a HUGE difference. It's not slammed but you can really tell the difference. I should have used my tripod to take the pictures so I got the same angle on all the shots.

Here is how you can tell how low it is. If you take your finger and put it on the top of the wheel in the front your finger will be touching the bottom of the outside of the wheel well while on the back there's is about 5mm between your finger and the wheel well. That is a huge difference from the 47 inches of gap I used to have in the back.

In fact there was a small Guatamalan family of Llama herders living in the gap between the wheel and the fender before, now they have been forced to move.


I'll miss the free Llama wool underwear but it is nice to see them gone.

 

post some more pictures when you have a chance!

 

doesnt 170+175+70= 415?

 

Yes, but I do math for a living so, um... well, um... yeah... um, yeah. I screwed up. Sorry.

To make up for my bad math I have better pictures of the drop so you can see the difference.

Front Before:


Front After (flipped horizontally to make viewing easier):


Rear Before:


Rear After (flipped horizontally to make viewing easier):


Side View Before:


Side View After (flipped horizontally to make viewing easier):


It's kind of subtle from a distance, it doesn't jab you in the eye saying, "Look at me! I'm cool! I'm lower!" but, if it's your car, you REALLY notice it when you are right up on it.

Basically you lose all the gap in the wheel wells which means the front drop is much less than the back drop. The front seems to be about an inch drop and the back seems to be about a two inch drop. The top of the front tire is slightly higher than the top of the wheel well while the top of the back tire is slightly lower than the top of its wheel well.

To me it is the perfect amount of drop. If you go any lower than the tops of the tires then it starts to look odd; especially if you have a body kit. To me when the tires go above the fender, unless you have a HUGE tire and a dragster, the bottom of the wheel well looks weirdly flared out and just doesn't look right.

Anywho hope these pictures are actually useful, unlike my first set.

Note: I fliipped the after pictures horizontally so it would be easier to compare the two versions. The drop is, of course, identical on both side.
.

 

that is a nice drop well done

im gearing up to buy the NF210 springs now

thanks for the info on needing to let them settle in. I guess ill have the springs fitted, and drive around a full week before getting an alignment on my new 19s

 

Oh, I spoke to a few mechanics and they pretty much agreed with the wait to get the alignment done thing but most of them also said, if $70 isn't going to kill you, go ahead and get it aligned right away and then again in a month.

I don't know how much of that was CYA, how much of that was desire to increase sales, and how much of that was honest opinion. But since I told them I had already gotten it aligned and was going to take it to the dealership to get the next alignment I have to assume they were being mostly honest.

 

Hows the ride compare to stock?

 

Nice...

I'm getting it pretty soon...

 

and yea...

i see the diff in those before/after pics..

 

and yea...

i see the diff in those before/after pics..