5-6" Drop with VW KYB's Converted to Coilovers?

[theastronaut]

I won't be running over 3* of camber, no issues with that amount. I can pull the front fenders out 3/8" by hand without spending much time trying, so I'm sure I can pull the them out enough to clear the wheels/tires even with the adapters. I read here that the rears can be pulled out around an inch so I should be able to get them to fit.

[TominMO]

Using the VW KYBs on the rear will automatically give you about a 2" drop, at the highest setting. You can go lower from there. Don't know if you will be able to use those wheels/adaptors, unless you plan on doing some alteration to the front and rear fenders. I don't think a couple degrees of camber in the front is gonna fix it; and radical camber will cause its own problems, and safety issues perhaps. Rather than screw around with adapters, just get wheels with the correct bolt pattern; solves the problem.

I am running the 165/55x14 Achilles ATR-K Economist tires on 6"-wide AR Estrellas, With these rear struts and stock springs. "Poor man's coilover" :-) I cut the front spring one coil to even out the ride. Looks great.

[theastronaut]

I'm new here and new to Festivas, just bought my first one about a month ago. It's an '88 L four speed with 127K miles.

I found the "Advanced Suspension Mods" thread and have read it through a couple times. Tons of great info there. I'm pretty sure I want to do MK2/3 front and MK1 rear KYB GR2 struts converted to coilovers to help the handling of the car. My last car was an '87 Chrysler Conquest TSi so I miss having a car that has that much grip.

My question is, how low do the converted GR2's go? I read that there is still room to go lower in the rear with a around a 3" drop... how low can they go? I'm looking to get the wheel's lip (14x5.5 Escort/Tempo slots) close to the lip of the fender. Not as crazy as the "hellaflush" look but closer to that than a 3-4" drop. The tires are 165/55r14 Achilles, they just arrived yesterday so I haven't had them mounted yet.

I've been looking into raised strut mounts to get a more drop if the converted KYB's don't have enough travel. Anyone done that before with a Festiva? Are there any other issues with dropping a Festiva 5-6"?


Here is the car, all stock at the moment. I did change out the shifter bushings as described in one of the threads here (shoulder bolts and nylon washers) and added a Civic short shifter. Big improvement in how it shifts!




The wheels. They're 14x5.5 from a late 80's Tempo or Escort. They are 4x108 so I had to get adapters.




They stick out about an inch. Shouldn't be a problem one I pull the fenders and add 2-3 degrees of camber.






And a side shot.




This is the look I'm wanting.