Upgrading Suspension!--Part I

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One of the most popular upgrades is suspension. Many compact car owners lower their rides in search of better handling, lower and more aggressive stance or to eliminate excessive body roll. In this section I'll describe my current suspension set up and explain the choice behind it.

While the ongoing search for a 'slammed ride' look and market flooding with variety of ride adjustable suspension has allowed many drivers to achieve desired look, many of these adjustable suspensions come with rather major flaws. At the affordable end of the suspension spectrum, the sleeve coilover set-ups are often a compromise of desired ride height over ride and suspension travel. On the opposite end, elaborate systems such as integrated coilover set-ups and airbag suspension have limited appeal because of the price, extent of modification and indefinite set-up which proves tricky to achieve desired effect.

For the mainstream of people with daily driven cars, limited budget and need for suspension set-ups performing well in motorsports, spring and strut upgrades often result in desired effect. My suspension set up consists of non-adjustable performance struts and stiffer lowering springs. The choice was made on the aspect of affordability and well proven performance.

Parts used:
- NEUSPEED 'SPORT' springs (P/N 55.20.11) lower 1.8" Front and 1.7" Rear
- Tokico 'High Performance' aka 'BLUE' struts (P/N HU3714 Front, P/N HU2781 Rear)
- Energy Suspension polyurathane front sway bar endlinks (P/N 16.8105.R) red (also available in black, replace R in the P/N for G)