All:

What is your opinions on lowering a TT? I've heard a lot about people lowering A4's, S4's, etc, but I haven't read much about people lowering TT's.

What is the general opinion? Good idea? Bad idea? Indifferent? Low enough already? Too low isn't until your butt scrapes the ground? The car is too low already, and should be on monster truck wheels?

I've been thinking about whether I should ask my dealer about lowering my car on delivery, as the TT sits about 3" higher off the ground than my 911, and I *really* like the way the 911 is as far as ground distance. What are your thoughts?<p>Chris Lawrence
chris@nrsys.org
1987 Porsche 911 Carrera
1985.5 Porsche 944
2001 TTQC 225 Brilliant Black/Aviator Grey, all options (ordered May 1st, 2000)

 

Will not lower, because i travel fast on less than perfect roads.

 

These should be available later this month. I lowered my TTQ coupe using the H&R sport springs. The ride is much tighter, and the handling more precise, but I think the coilovers will stiffen the ride and get rid some undesireable "bounciness" in the rear end.<p><a href="http://registry.audiworld.com/audi/registry/details.asp?car=3177"><img src="http://members.home.net/cmelick/audipics/sig4.jpg" border="0" alt="Click Image to View Registry Information"></a>

 

Mine is a little over 2" lower in the front than stock and almost 3" lower in the rear (exact same tire/fender clearance front/rear... tops of tires are 1/2" lower than fender apexes when viewed square-on from the side). I have yet to scrape the chin or exhaust tip entering/exiting angled drives or bottom-out the suspension either on speed bumps or at full song on less than ideal roads, but having driven low or lowered cars for decades thats a constant awareness on my part. Handling is FAR superior to stock, taking me on my local road course from lap-times of low 1:22's to high 1:18's. The car is capable of higher top-end as well and it gets there faster due to lower center of gravity and reduced drag coefficient. It launches quicker due to diminished weight transfer, keeping my FWD tires in better contact with the pavement and harder to spin them during hard launches. Additionally all wheel-hop associated with that is gone. And its 0-60 times are a quarter-second faster. When I had only H&R sport springs there was some trade-off in ride comfort but with the new H&R/Bilstein coilovers even that has given way to a far superior ride quality. The car is not harsh or hard. It is firm, but at the same time, feels "right" in it's current state. Steering input is quicker, surer and more responsive with an accompanying enhanced sure-footedness. Body roll has disappeared entirely and I have yet to induce any perceptable oversteer except with some braking at speed while setting up for a turn (which now is so easy to do its become a tecnique on some turns due to it's predictability, with complete confidence, poise and aplomb). Before I could make it oversteer just by over-cooking it into a corner and letting off the gas and seldom recover with just one minor correction like I can now (as a 911 owner you'll know all-too-well that phenomenon).

As far as I'm concerned, there is not a single down-side. The car is more neutral, more balanced, more precise and more in character with its image. Its more tactile, tractable, recoverable and forgiving. It's better at driver controllability, safety and telegraphing feedback when cruising within speed limits in city driving or on a roadcourse at its limits. And those limits have increased dramatically, if not exponentially.

Knowing what I know now I would do it again tomorrow at thrice the price!

 

I would be careful, here un Chicago we have pot holes that will eat a lowered car.

 

Hm.. Sounds like I'm going to be lowering my car then. I haven't talked to my salesman yet (today is his day off), but how much does a typical dealer charge to do this?

Thanks a ton for the input!<p>Chris Lawrence
chris@nrsys.org
1987 Porsche 911 Carrera
1985.5 Porsche 944
2001 TTQC 225 Brilliant Black/Aviator Grey, all options (ordered May 1st, 2000)

 

I am also in the Chicagoland area, but I live out near Aurora (around Naperville area, if you don't know where Aurora is) and the roads tend to be okay out here. I drive my 911 in complete confidence, and just watch for the huge pot-holes / steep driveways and such. There are a couple of places that I just refuse to go to in my 911, such as the Red Lobster in the Fox Valley mall in Naperville, well, at least, I don't go in the main entrance, I go in the second back entrance due to the steep entrance off the road.

I play it safe, be careful, and watch out for these kinds of things, and have had no trouble. I figure if I have the thing lowered 2" in front and 3" in back as previously posted, I'll have it right around the same height as my 911, which is perfect for me. I'll just continue to keep an eye out. <p>Chris Lawrence
chris@nrsys.org
1987 Porsche 911 Carrera
1985.5 Porsche 944
2001 TTQC 225 Brilliant Black/Aviator Grey, all options (ordered May 1st, 2000)

 

it wont matter whether that wheel was attached to a lowered TT or a raised Suburban. And potholes dont feel any harder now. Conversely, they feel better-damped, less traumatic than they did before. And the added benefit of a lowered car being better-protected by virtue of its diminished suspension travel. And if its a properly engineered/tuned suspension it doesnt have to even be a harder ride over potholes.

Less travel means the wheels dont go as deep into a pothole as a car with LOTS of suspension travel while travelling over them at any speed. And huge 17 or 18" wheels also help that. My car has less than 3" of downward travel from its "at-rest" position. In contrast, my Acura has almost 8". Who's gonna lose "that" pothole battle?

 

Had to say it.

 

<p>180FWD/Wetterauer/Remus/Pipercross Filter/PIAA/17" BBS RXII/Audi Rack/GReddy turbo gauge/TAS blowoff valve