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All,
If you want a smooth ride, good suspension travel and a properly synched speedo,
leave your car at stock height. As soon as you deviate from stock you walk into
the Ocean of Give and Take. The more you change, the deeper Give and Take
becomes. I'm not talking replacements (like new shocks), I'm talking
*engineering*.
The car was designed as a *family wagon*. Believe me, whenever I change
something for my performance reasons I have to remind myself (and sometimes
others) that, genetically, she is not a sports car but a family car so she will
not perform exactly as my imagination wishes (though I am trying to make the gap
smaller :b ).
That being said, I offer my three cents to those who wish to deviate from stock:
Ask questions, listen thoughtfully to opinions, then do what YOU want. You
should try to please yourself and no one else -- then you will be happy.
As a side bar, if you can, try to experiment. For example, after lowering my
baby two notches I wrapped her in 195/60s and, even though I liked the lower
look, I wanted lower. So I put on 195/50s. Oops, suddenly I was so low that my
front tow hook became a speed bump plow (literally!). Two days later the 60s
were put back on. I believe 55s would be just right, but I can't afford the
$150+ per tire right now! Also, the smaller tire diameter of the 50s really
threw off my speedo readings (this is where the synched speedo from above comes
in) and made my ride even more rough. I didn't mind the added roughness because
I liked the better cornering (in the Ocean of Give and Take I think I'm a pretty
good swimmer)!
Toby Erkson
air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
modified '72 Squareback 2.0L
stock '75 Porsche 914 1.8L