Slamming your chariot is the easiest and simplest way to improve the looks of
you car dramatically. Quite often the first thing people do, on receipt of a new
car, is to knock a few inches of the ride height. The cheapest way of lowering
is to slap on a set of lowering springs. These cheap and readily available from Koni, Spax, Jamex etc, as well as mail order companies "own brand" such as Motech and Autotint Design. Cost is about £80 for a set of 4. Most springs will only lower a feeble 25-35mm except for
a few companies such as Jamex who do an extra-low -60mm set (£110 - more money for less metal?!).
Bear in mind that Ford made the RST 25mm lower as standard, than an XR2i or Si.
This means that a 25mm lowering kit on an RST will leave it at the same height
as standard. The same kit on an XR2i will lower it by 25mm.
Lowering springs on the standard shocks can lead to a bouncy ride and unpredictable handling, so it's better to go for shortened and uprated shocks. Koni are the most popular and work well with Jamex springs. with shortened dampers it's possible to go up to 90mm lower, although this will cause no end of problems with clearance. No companies make springs this short so there are two solutions, the cheap way is to saw off a couple of the coils, the expensive way is a coilover kit. Chopping springs is definitely NOT recommended. The springs are likely to dislocate from the spring cups and the spring will no longer compress and de-compress as the manufacturers intended.
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Before:
RS Turbo standard ride height
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On The Floor:
Digitally slammed by 90mm
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The first photo below shows an RST as standard ride height, and the second
had been altered in Photo Paint to simulate lowered suspension. The method to do
this is create a mask around the wheels and the shadow under the car, create an
object from this mask and move the object up, pushing the wheels under the
arches. The shadow will also move, giving a realistic look. The clone tool is
then used to fill the gaps the object has left.
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Before:
RS Turbo lowered 35mm
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On The Floor:
Digitally slammed to -90mm
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Full suspension kits start at about £250 for non adjustable, going up to £650 for variable ride-height 2.25" coilover kits like the Spax RSX and Rally Design kits. These kits use race-spec 2.25" internal diameter springs which are available in 4"-14" lengths
and various poundages from motorsport providers such as Demon Tweeks. Springs this short will let you go lower than is possible without the underside of the car scraping the ground! Coilovers will also
help to give the strut clearance for 16" or 17" rims, whereas standard dampers will need the spring cups modifying.