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Wow, I shouldn't really get into this one as I don't have the time to properly have a go at it, but at the same time I couldn't just let it go. "These conditions are dangerous for emergency handling characteristics and are just not acceptable." "Your front end wont last long if lowered and those who say the handling feels good have probably never driven a properly set up, tight, type3 that's been aligned properly." I regularly drove cars lowered 3 notches in front and 2 notches in the rear. Heck, I even took one to Sears Point Raceway somewhat regularly when I was into VW's still. I never noticed anything that felt un-safe, and if anything, it felt SAFER as the center of gravity for the entire car was lowered. And yes, I have driven stock "tight" T3's with factory alignment settings before. I think 2F/1R with 145/165's was always my favorite setting on drivers. Ride was still good and they handled well. Good compromise IMO. 3f/2r would occasionally bottom out on big bumps and such, but that was due to limited travel at that point and it was only bottoming out on the suspension stops just before a part of the chassis (usually frame horns) would drag. On a personal nice stocker I would lower the front 1 notch to make the car sit level and reduce the front tire to fender lip gap. It also made it less prone to understeer as it transferred more weight to the front tires. I have lowered many cars in my lifetime and none have had "dangerous handling characteristics for emergency situations". If anything, they handled better and therefor made it easier to avoid accidents. "I have seen some people remove the rubber stoppers to lower the car even more and this really exasperates the shock loads on the bearings and bushings in the beam which are so hard to obtain and replace." How do you figure this? Why would the shock loads be any different on these parts if adequate suspension travel was present? "I've seen bent frame heads because the car bottomed out in a dip and hit the clamps." This was due to improper lowering technique's. Other wise known as a hack job. A properly done car won't do this. Maybe you have never driven a properly adjusted and set-up lowered car? "If your car is a trailer queen or a sunny Sunday car on smooth streets then lower away but for the daily driver, especially the highway car you probably won't be pleased with the high-speed handling and the suspension won't last long." I drove my fastback for 3 hours straight (did have to stop for gas once) at 110mph lowered 3 notches in front and 2 notches in the rear. It was rock solid and stable the whole time. It was very comfortable at that speed other than the engine being at 4800rpm the entire time. "Those that know me know that I shudder at the thought of lowering any type 3 so let me put my reasons down on paper." If that makes you shudder, what does 6 notches in the front and 3 in the rear do to you? LOL That is where my 66 Fasty was set while I showed it. Yes, it was a trailer queen at that time and drove/rode horribly. We had to build ramp extensions that doubled the length of our trailer ramps and then use 2x8x48 long boards after those just to get it on our trailer. It also required a floor jack jack handle to be carefully placed in the front suspension, then pryed down just to be able to remove the Porsche 2 liter alloys with 195/50-15's from the fenderwell. I had to do this for every show because I would always pull one sides wheels and tires off and put mirrors under the car. License plate was KSNPVMT or Kissin' Pavement. I raised it up to about 3f/2r when I actually started driving it. :-P After reading back through my reply's to check for typo's/etc. I noticed that I should mention that "notches" means outer torsion bar splines. I always used the outer splines for a basic setting and used the inner/outer combo for fine tuning. -Patrick D. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org