I got me some 19" Volk SF Challenge rims and Bridgestone S03 tires, and am wondering if I am going to need to lower my car to make it look right. Anyone have any pics of a lowered Z with 19s?

 

the car will look hot lowered with 19's. Depending on your offset, if they aren't sticking out too far, you can go as low as 50mm and it will look hot. My car is only 20mm down, but i scrape the plastic aero thing in the front occasionally so i'm not going to go any lower.

 

whats the specs on those rims? offsets?

 

19x9 +26 F if you have brembos, you can put +17 F if you plan to keep stock (non brembo) brakes and like deep lip rims. 19x10 +17 R. racinghart C4.

 

The offset values for my new times are +21 and +23. I guess I really won't know if it needs to be lowered until I see them mounted. I know I would need new springs if I went ahead with it (I hear Eibach are the best), but is there anything else I will need? Will the handling be affected that much? I really like how the car handles stock and am a little skittish about messing with it too much. Yesterday I accellerated into a left turn to beat an arrow signal, took the turn sideways, and recovered effortlessly. I drove the rest of the way to work with a huge grin. I love this car!

 

The eibachs should be all you need for now, they work really well. It will actually enhance handling a little with the lower center of gravity and stiffer progressive spring rate than stock. They aren't that low either about an 1" to 1.2" i heard, so it should work well with your setup and make the car just look more aggressive. With a +21, the rim should have a fairly nice lip too, should look awesome and i doubt it will rub, i seen a lot of lowered Z's with Volk TE's with +22 with no problems.

 

Here is a pic I shot today of the new rims and tires - it needs to be lowered right? How do I figure out by how much? I don't want it to look "slammed" and I would rather not scrape every speed bump.









(sorry I couldn't figure out how to insert the image directly)

 

If you go to 350Zmotorpsorts there is a picture of my car on the main page as well as the customer cars. I have the same rims, same offsets on a silverstone with Eibachs. Looks great!

 

I got 19's a few weeks ago and it definately needs to be lowered a bit. I've ordered RS*R springs which lower it 15mm. I don't want the car dumped, just a little lower than stock.

 

if you decide to lower with anything that drops your car more than .8inches you should get a camber kit. a drop more than .8inches doesn't allow the car to be set to the CORRECT stock camber settings. camber kit fixes the problem. incorrect camber settings will lead to improper wear of the tires, though i'm sure we all know this already!
about the camber kit, at least that is what i've read on the forum. dont have a new suspension myself so i can't take credit for that information through firsthand experience.

Rajiv

 

SunDevil,
I'm live in Tempe, where did you get your wheels?

 

WOTM, that is funny - your brother installed my rims. He showed me pics of your ride yesterday!

Hupperware, I am talking about 350zmotorsports.com, he is the one I got the rims from. They are Volk Challenge and I am very happy with them so far.

I am a little confused still though; forgive me I am new to this stuff. islandsnow said that the Eibachs are all I need and that they lower it about 1" to 1.2". hndumafia said that if I lower it that much I should think about a camber kit. Who is right?? I certainly don't want these tires to wear unevenly, they cost me a fortune. Thoughts?

 

I am glad that you like your rims! I love mine! The Eibachs do slightly lower the car. I am going to be in Phoenix this week if you want to get together you can see exactly what your car is going to look like. I am going to install the camber and traction rods this week. I think that it is a good investment in tire longevity. PM me if you want to see my car.

 

moved

 

Moved?

 

 

sundevil, you won't have to worry about buying anything else for now, they lower the car approximately 1", here's the official spring lowered height.

Approximately 0.8" front and 1.2" rear drop

They're one of the best companies out there that make springs that retain ride quality. Sure you can buy coilovers but if you're not going to track the car, it's not worth it in my opinion. My car is very close to the eibachs at 20mm down and many had their car aligned perfectly, no need for camber rods. But it doesn't hurt to buy them if you have the cash.

 

So the general consensus is that I need the springs and camber rods if I have the cash, but no coil overs - but that's it. What do the camber rods do for me? Does Eibach make both? Forgive me if I sound like I don't know what I am talking about, that is because I don't. Thanks for all of the help!

 

Sundevil,

here's a basic explanation. When you lower the car by any means (springs, coilovers), the rear tires tend to camber in at the top, meaning they lean inwards like the letter A. If they lean in too much, you have to buy camber rods to straighten this out so the tire rides flatter again.

The eibach springs will lower the car, pretty much the same amount as my nismo suspension kit. 20mm is pretty close to .8 inch. Most people with the nismo kit didn't have to buy camber rods and could adjust most settings back to perfect alignment. But all cars are slightly different, after installing you should get an alignment to see if the alignment is within specs. If there is too much camber on the rear wheels you will need the camber rods. Some Z cars came off the line with alignment way off and tire feathering problems and others were okay. So there is no guarantee that your car will not need camber rods, but probably 9/10 cars will not by just adding the eibach springs. One guy here did have adverse tire wear with just eibachs, but he also tracks the car so i wouldn't say that is a normal case. So basically if you want slightly better handling but don't want to pay a lot for coilovers (which could make your ride harsher and are made more for track use) and you want the look of the slightly lower ride height. The eibach springs should be all you need. Eibachs are usually the first mod people do, because it enhances performance as well as looks with their rims. Actually the guy with the Teins above looks like the tires are aligned correctly too, hard to see from this angle but it doesn't look adversely cambered in on the rear wheels for how low he dropped it.

eibach by the way doesn't make camber rods. I think JIC and other companies make them.

 

islandsnow, thanks for the explanation. That clears things up for me alot. I am interested however in your Nismo suspension kit. Do you have a link to more info on that? How has it changed your ride/handling?

sundevil67