When it come to choosing springs (lowering / handling springs), I've heard just about every scenario. But it seems to break down to two basic categories.

The Look

Many people want to use a spring with a mild drop, say from 1 inch to maybe 1 1/2, just to get the car to sit and look right, where it's a little more ascetically pleasing. Some cars have small rim - tire combos, and massive wheel wells for some reason. To me, it seems the more basic model the car, or maybe the lower the cost of the car, the more the space becomes an issue. (and ugly).

With a short drop installed, this allows the tire to fill the empty space area more, and take that huge gap out between the side-wall and lip of the well. The lowering stance doesn't hurt either, as far as making the car handle a little bit better (though, in my opinion, this is debatable on stock struts or shocks).

Many times the people I talk to are only slightly interested in the handling aspects of the spring set. Their main concern and objective is getting 'rid of the gap'.

Sometimes people want to replace their worn springs with O. E. springs, but a lot of times you can get a 1.0 inch drop set for less money. It's not that radical of a change on the suspension, it's a bargain to get the handling set, and they are, of course, are brand new.

The Performance.

The largest group for after-market springs would be the performance enthusiasts, who are looking for straight out performance. The wheel gap is still a concern, but getting the car to handle better with a lower center of gravity, and better control, it their primary goal.

Springs themselves (outside of a coil-over) can lower a car usually up to 1 to 3 inches. However, in my opinion, once you go beyond, say, 1.5, you will want to look into getting much better struts / shocks.

Most of the reputable spring companies say you can use OE struts / shocks with their spring sets. I believe what they intend to convey is that you can install their springs USING the O.E units. Meaning, the two will fit together.

However, O.E units were not intentionally valved by the auto manufacturer to work with the shorter stroke from installing handling springs. If your springs lower the car 2.0 inches, you have just reduced your stroke around the same amount. Considering how the valve inside might be designed, will it be able to correctly act and and dampen properly? Allow the proper amount of fluid past the piston at the right time? I believe that units designed specifically for a lowered vehicle, using handling - lowering spring sets, are the best to use. This is going to mean after market.

Many of the spring companies over the last few years have started moving towards developing their own struts / shocks to use with their spring sets. Units designed to work and dampen, tuned let's say, to the specific spring set.

On the other end of the spectrum, shock companies have long developed units specifically for handling / lowering spring sets, offering springs either made by their own tooling, or having them made by another manufacturer, but designed to work with their units. Eventually being packaged together as a kit product.

I believe these combination kits are also the best way to go when available for the vehicle. If you don't have the time and expense to test different combinations (a must on a race platform, but extremely expensive on a daily driver), you can pretty much know that the product will install trouble free and work correctly.

So many times I've discussed springs and a setup with a Client, only to find that they have one part, say a spring set, that maybe they got off ebay for a bargain price, and their goal is to build a handling project around this sole part. Simply because it was inexpensive, or conveniently available. It may not even be a name brand.

In the end, they spend a lot of time trying to get many parts from several different manufacturers, and hoping they are compatible with each other. Hoping that once they tear the vehicle apart, (you know, on a sunday when everything is closed and the manufacturers tech line is a no go, and their boss is busy gearing up to chew their ass because they're late monday thumbing a ride..), that maybe, in a perfect world, it will all fall together.

Yeah, right. And there's free air at the gas station too......

Regardless of the expense, think it through. Because in the long run, as a kit, you know it's ready to go and the parts are designed to work together, it's another done job. As a car enthusiast, you can move onto other ideas about making the vehicle handle better, and doing what' s best..

Safe Driving!