Benefits of 1 inch lowering on 1990 Integra?
 

I found some used lowering springs for my Integra for around $80. They lower the car 1 inch in the front and 1.5 inches in the rear. I get that any lowering can be helpful, but I am wondering if this is too little of an amount to make it worth the effort? I am sure if I wait long enough I could find some that lower it more, but can anyone give me an idea of what kind of results I would see in increased FE on this car with a 1 inch drop? 1%? 5%? 0.5% etc. Thanks! :snail:

if you are not too worried about ride quality buy 63 dollar ebay adjustable coilover springs that have threaded aluminum sleeves that let you raise or lower up to four inches. initially the rides is stiff, as the break-in they get softer. they let you experiment with infinite adjustability. spend the extra 10 or so dollars for the ones with the number labeled sleeves so you don't have to count threads to get them even. they are all interchangeable in typical honda fashion Compatibility:
88 - 91 Honda Civic / CRX
88 - 96 Honda Prelude
92 - 00 Honda Civic
93 - 97 Honda Del Sol
90 - 01 Acura Integra
includes all submodels

Ive had those ebay coils and those things scared me.. lol..

I don't know how much of a FE gain you will make of this but if you enjoy any sort of spirited driving $80 is worth the money for a few smiles in the twisties.

Do you know the name brand or spring rates?

If they are signigicantly stiffer you can reduce braking in the corners and carry more speed/less throttle coming off the corners.

And depending on what spring they are you won't get your back beat out of alignment dailying this thing.

Lowering a car reduces the frontal area by a tiny amount. If your tires are 7" wide, then lowering it an inch reduces the frontal area by a whopping 14 square inches, or less than a 1/10th of a square foot (0.0972 sq ft to be precise).

A typical car has a frontal area of say 22 sq ft and has a Cd of about 0.33. That means the CdA is 7.26 sq ft. If you reduce the Cd to 0.32, then you reduce the CdA to 7.04 sq ft -- which is more than 2X the reduction you would get by lowering the car 1".

You can probably easily achieve a Cd of 0.30 or better by doing a couple of the simpler ecomods; like grill blocks, smooth wheel covers, rear wheel skirts -- let alone Kamm backs, belly pans, and boattails.

This a very nicely written summary. Very respectful; I appreciate that.

If the car needs new springs anyway, it's worth going lower for the small benefit it gives.
But combined with the installation costs - unless you do it yourself - it's one of the mods that you'll never recoup.

My car has a clearance of only 4 1/2" stock, your cars clearance may not be much better.

What i do want for my car is air suspension, so i can drop it low on the highway and raise it on the back roads.
One day i hope to do it..

lowering
 

Fiat is currently producing a JEEP and Dodge RAM pickup with air suspension which lowers the vehicle for better mpg on the highway.
The air wants to see a car which is 5X as long as it is high.Anything you do to lower a car,moves it in this direction,improving it's effective fineness ratio.

Dont forget to get an alignment, another 50-70 bucks

anything more than an inch (IMHO) really deteriorates the ride quaility.

reakky, how often are you whipping thru turns as an eco-modder???

The springs are Eibach Pro-kits, 4010-202 & 4010-201. I was going to do it myself, mainly just because I was bored. But it doesn't sound like I'd see much of a return. Maybe if they get down to $40 I'll grab them.

I've read there is a sweet spot for ground clearance; lowering typically improves aero but there is a point at which further lowering starts to make the aero worse again.

Subaru XT6 had an air suspension that automatically lowered above 55 mph. I would lower my Saturn, but it reduces the life of the CV joints. I would rather have stiffer springs and stock height. If the springs are too stiff, the car will bounce, since the stock struts are not strong enough for adequate damping.

Frank, I think you're right -- there has to be a minimum height and an optimum height. I know with the Schlörwagen they tried a series of different heights, and it improved the Cd to raise it up.

I will have to disagree. If you have ever driven in a car with proper coilovers (not the ones from ebay) you would know.

You shouldn't loose much ride quality as long as you don't cut your springs

Maintaining momentum around corners to brake less going in and accelerate less going out. It's not going to help much on aero but when you're driving in a twisty area you'll be able to drive faster, possibly in a higher gear with lower RPM and higher engine load.

Also, you'll have tons of fun. Get someone from the local forum to come help you with the install, then give them beer. :thumbup:

An alignment will probably do you well anyway- chalk it up to regular maintenance.

My Rabbit's lowered 2" on Ebay coilovers with 4" ground clearance on the oil pan. It rides rough but the ability to throw it around corners is well worth the price and (sometimes) annoyance. And it looks a ton better. Got my alignment done by the guy widely regarded as the best in the area (Jeff the Alignment Guy) and it cost something like $114 because he had to put in rear wheel camber shims. You Teg probably has a better and more adjustable rear suspension setup.

[QUOTE=Sven7;325454]Maintaining momentum around corners to brake less going in and accelerate less going out. It's not going to help much on aero but when you're driving in a twisty area you'll be able to drive faster, possibly in a higher gear with lower RPM and higher engine load.

Also, you'll have tons of fun. Get someone from the local forum to come help you with the install, then give them beer. :thumbup:

completely agree! my crx is lowered on ebay adjustable springs and i accelerate slow but when i hit a turn its like driving a go cart on the street, very very fun! as they say "the fun is in the curves" and so are gas savings when you don't slow down. oh and by the way, speed that is slow, say 50 on the straights is fast on the 35 mph turns, a good way to deal with tailgaters. if you drive a go cart!:cool:

sweet spot
 

Thanks Frank.If you should happen to run across that one again,it would be a good one for us to chew on.

Eibach is an excellent brand of spring.

Maybe consider air deflectors for the front wheels, based on Hucho's picture of the Opel Calibra in the wind tunnel, which shows the bow wave airflow moving outboard at about a 60 degree angle. So, that air hits the front wheels/tires at a pretty gross angle, very draggy. (Try tuft tests at highway speed on your car.) Fair that flow and gain a bunch of slippery.

My guess is that this because shear forces increase the narrower the gap between two moving surfaces is (car bottom and road):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagen-Poiseuille_equation
https://upload.wikimedia.org/math/6/...57d061256e.png

Maybe this effect could be reduced if you had a snowplough shaped lip underneath the belly pan which directs more air away from the cars underside? (And then you may also need side skirts to prevent air from moving back again).

1-inch w/ RAM 1500 = 1% mpg
 

The new FIAT/Dodge RAM 1500 with air suspension claims a 1% MPG HWY increase for a 1" drop.
The VW Jetta Hybrid 189-mph LSR claims no Cd reduction for its 'drop',just an improvement from smaller frontal area.