FTO Drivers Club, Western Australia

[help?]

hey, i wanna get my fto lowered, im thinkin of gettin whiteline springs (50mm) ones.. or shud i get king springs? also how low do u guys have ur cars? ive looked around the net and alot of people get em 40mm at the front and 25mm at the back.

isnt it possible to have it 50mm all around?

also do u need to replace ur shocks? coz if so i dont have the $$$, i only have enuff for springs..

[RichardH]

The reason why people tend to lower the front an inch more than the back is that the standard ride height (for GPX anyway) is an inch higher at the front! You can spot the "nose-high" look a mile off...

Measure from the centre of the wheel up to the bottom of the guard. I think stock setup is something like 15" front, 14" rear, but don't quote me on that.

I simply lowered the front springs on mine by 25mm to level the vehicle.

If you're looking to lower the front by 50mm, I would expect your springs would be extremely firm - very high spring rates. Not doing so would risk hitting the bump stops, or worse. And higher spring rates should demand dampers capable of controlling the springs. I wouldn't recommend leaving the old (worn) stock dampers in place and subjecting them to such a setup!

- Rich

[help?]

okay, well ive never actually seen a 50mm low fto.. if urz is only 25mm how duz it look??, and wat size wheels do u have?

im gettin some new 17's put on to replace the standard wheels and basically i want it low euff that it looks as if the car is almost sitting on the rims.. why is it that noone duz this on fto's anywayz? its impossible to find pics of lowered ones.. !!

thanks for ur help tho!

[RichardH]

> almost sitting on the rims.. why is it
> that noone duz this on fto's anywayz

I can't speak for anyone else, but my reasons are:

(1) It will no longer be a nice handling vehicle. Which is one of the FTO's real attractions for me.

(2) Why spend the fortune necessary to have dampers capable of controlling the extraordinarily high spring rates required... when it won't handle anyway...!

(3) I don't want to have continual wasted spending on repairing the lower spoiler. Nor do I want to hear the dreaded 'clang' of the front towing eye on driveway kerbs as I reverse out.


Having said all that, 45-50mm is still going to leave some clearance. With what you described, you'd need it lower still. Have a look at the FTOWA member profile pics of Mark Allanson... That's basically lowered by 2-2.5 inches, with larger rims. There's a good side view of it...

- Rich

[RichardH]

...and I should add that Mark's car still handles very nicely! His MC Motorsport lap times attest to that (and to his vehicle control, of course).

- Rich

[ftoltd]

The Nakara Tune model was lowered by 35 mm and looks good and drives perfectly, The nakara tune model had the suspension set up and tuned by the japanese race car driver Akihiko Nakaya, Driver of the TAEIVON FTO. He did a run of 300 special edition ftos, i guess you would say it is a bit like HSV with the holdens. I have a nakaya tune model and recommend this suspension set up it looks great and handles like it is on rails

[help?]

thanks guys, i think i will get it around 45mm at the front and 25mm at the rear, the guy on http://www.mitsubishi-fto.org/steve/lucifer/index.html
has done it and it looks awesome..