99 10ae noob question bring the flames
 

Ok so I have a 99 with tokico illuminas and gc sleeves and eibach springs. Im currently hub center to fender 12" f and 12.5" r. I want to go about an inch lower and was going to throw some stiffer springs on cuz as is I sometimes scrape on stupid Sacramento speed umps. Now the problem is if I drop another inch ill lose almost all travel on the illuminas. So I've been looking at full coilovers and I don't really need something super expensive with all that fake 30 clicks of adjustment crap. I just want to be able to set ride height and preload seperately. It is a daily driver however I want to get into some autox or track days. It does have a fast forward supercharger and I need to see what she's got anyways I've been trying to learn pros and cons on some shocks and would like to stay around $800-1200 range or cheaper. Of course I don't want cheapo ricelands or crap like that. Idk I'm still trying to read as much as possible. Thanks for reading my 10 page essay!

What's your reasoning for going lower?

I'd like to fill in my fender gap a little and lower the cg a hair

check out the "suspension thread" or whatever its called. there's a chart posted of shock length, thought I think illuminas are some of the shorter if not shortest out. quality coils are over your budget, the only thing I can think of under 1k is the FM Vmaxx and tein street basis.

Ya up front I have about 1 1/2" till bumpstop and rear is about 2 1/2...
What's people's take on Megan crap? I know all the herra frush jdm kids run that I'm wondering if the valving is ok or not...?

you mentioned that you don't want crap and want to auto-x, so I don't suggest crap like megan.

you really don't need to go lower. lowering cg is a ricer excuse, I bet your car will actually handle worse lower.

You're in sac? I'm in sac. We should hit up some twisties sometime

Ya I don't imagine it would change much... I am on stock wheels so there's a nice gap. Ya I'm more than down to meet up and chill. I'm in west sac

My 10AE sits right about where yours does (12" F 12.25" R) and I've had it corner weighed to LF/RR 49.9 %, RF/LR 50.0 %. It performs very well autocrossing and tracking, and is as low as I'd ever want to go for ease of street driving, and if I may say so, looks perfect as well. You don't need to go any lower.

Ya I've heard that that's a good height but it just feels so high still. of course there's tons of speed bumps everywhere so its not too bad. You have the vmax package? How do you like it? I've heard good things

Stick with 12 and 12.25. Anything less will hit everything. Going down curbs, going over train tracks, bumps on the road, coming out of parking lots with a high driveway angle... 12,12.25 is still quite low and will rub here and there but its drivable.

You're at a good spot now. The only coilovers I can think of that let you adjust ride height and pre-load independently are the teins, and let me tell you, the dampers in tein coilovers suck. I would put them on the same level as... well all the other coil over setups that cost less than 2 grand. And why do you want that anyways? Uber expensive setups like penskes dont even have that because there's no need.

Oh I know there's no need on a performance car cuz that's one more variable for something to go wrong. I just thought of doing it because of the travel but if most other shocks have more travel at said height then I guess it wouldn't matter... I was thinking of going 16s to fill in my fender gap a little but at the same time it is harder to find a 16x8 under 14lbs than it is a 15x8.. idk. Since it is only dd for now I want it to look good and still maintain some handling but I guess I just need to figure out what I want

Here's a side shot of mine at those ride heights - it really, really isn't high at all, and pretty much whatever gap is left (a finger? two?) really needs to be there.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342630297

Any lower and you'll be scraping everywhere, and will be touching on less than optimal suspension geometry if you're planning to auto-x/track.

I've been very happy with the Vmaxx package - great budget coilovers, ride very well, and are pretty capable and competent for those at least starting out with auto-x and casual track days. I do plan to upgrade as these are a bit soft, but I don't think you can go wrong with these.

I think the main problem is tires. U got bigger tires, they will close the gap.

Gdspeed she looks nice and just like mine minus the 6uls. Well I'm runnin 205s on stock 15x6 so they're bigger than stock...

225s will tickle your fanny :D

Sorry but thats the only pic i have with those tires on (225s).. the front is about 12.25 in this photo rear is 12.75. You can see the front is very tucked in. Also the tires come out more to the fenders making them seem even closer since they are wider

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342632820

While this is with 205s at the same height.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342632820

Ok so should I just get stiffer springs? Idk what they currently are ill check but as is I sometimes scrape on speed bumps around my apartment

are you selling your car?

Not planning on it. I am gonna sell my supercharger soon hopefully

I ask because there's one on craigslist that fits your description to the tee