"Customized" Lowering Springs - 2015 Rwd R Coupe
 

Forgive me if this is redundant to many of you, but compared to other car makes, there is not a ton of information regarding combinations of lowering springs, wheel offset and tire sizes with respect to wheel/tire clearance issues, so I thought I'd share my experiences.

Previous owner of my car was kind enough to have the AP Velocity Springs installed along with some sweet HRE P104 wheels - 20 x 9.5 front et 41 and 20 x 11 rear et 22, both with stock tire sizes. Originally, he went with H&R Springs, but had issues with extreme rear tire wear and a tad bouncy ride. So he switched to Velocity AP Springs, which allowed for proper alignment in the rear and perfectly normal tire wear.

So upon buying the car, I had two problems:

1) I hated the "stretched" look of the stock front tires (255/35/20) on the 9.5 wheels, and couldn't help but notice my X girlfriends Hyundai Elantra had tires as wide in the front as I had in my jag. For a car as heavy as ours, this just can't be optimal. Not knowing exactly what would work, I switched to 265/30/20 for the front, which have almost another inch of tread on the ground, and look much better.

2) With the velocity springs - the drop is estimated at 4/5 of an inch, the ride is excellent, there is no rubbing or bottoming out, and the rears can be aligned so tire wear is not effected. HOWEVER, I felt visually the rear height was perfect, but the front still sat too high. Whereas the rear fender was about 1 inch over the tire, I had about 1.75" between the front tire and the bottom of the hood/fender. Sort of looked like the rear was lowered, but the front was not.

So here is where it gets interesting! Stuart at Velocity was kind enough to let me know that the F type springs can be cut. Yep, you can lop off as much as one full coil and they will still work. Figuring I had little to lose, I lopped off 1/2 a coil on each side, and shazam - the car sits about 1/2" lower, and looks so much better. Now I am NOT telling anyone to go grab a grinder and start whacking away at their springs. However, if you are experienced in mechanical things and find you need some fine tuning, you may want to consider this. I just wanted to let those folks know what was possible.

Finally, with respect to tires (and this is only for RWD) if you have my size wheels and offset, I think the best tire combo would be 295/30/20 rear and 275/30/20 front. Note that I have not tried the 275's in front, but my 265/30/20's do work and I THINK there may be room to go to the 275. Regardless, with PS4's in 265/30/20 and the proper spring height, body roll is almost non-existent and I feel I have made a meaningful enhancement to the look and handling of the car. Best of all, the spring butchery is the best kind of a mod - its free!

hey bud.... possible for you to add some pix.... before and after would be great.

Sure, without pics it may as well not have happened.

Here is an after the spring was cut:

Ohhh. You mean the car....

:icon_handball:

Here are a couple before and after. Sorry, just in the garage, but you get the idea.

Have you noticed a substantial incidence of scraping the front chin spoiler after lowering the front by 1/2"?
Doing this has obviously pitched the car forward a tad...

I think something was up with your VAP spring installation (early batch?, RWD vs AWD?). After the install the front was definitely had less gap than rear and your after cut looks like mine now without the cut. Unless mine are an anomaly.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...0e7ce3e03e.jpg

Fronts VAP AP Lowering Springs - AWD

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...40599d42ab.jpg

Rear VAP AP Lowering Springs - AWD

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...4014a9cf03.jpg

Both VAP AP Lowering Springs - AWD

Wow that looks reeaally low...

Might be a RWD problem. Stuart says the AWD model spring is 20 MM shorter which should equate to about that much drop. Your front looks really low.

Still, no matter which spring you are using, good to know you can "fine tune" if your particular application requires it.

So far scrapes are not much of an issue
 

Between switching from a 35 series to 30 series tire and the half inch additional drop on the springs, I'm .70" lower than I was, and I am just now hearing the disposable spoiler brush on some driveway ramps that would crush my M3 splitter.
I think the F type has surprising ground clearance stock, and as it sits now its still better clearance than most sports cars.

It didn't look THIS low until after adding the 10mm spacers to the front. But yes I have to be really careful driving over bumps and dips. I was in LA a couple weeks back and it was a nightmare. LA has massive dips at intersections and had to take many of them slow and diagonal and I am sure everyone was rolling their eyes. :icon_rolleyes:

It is great to know the Springs can be customized. I assume that wouldn't be the case for the OEMs?


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...efac51dfa.jpeg
Before the spacers, I guess it still looks pretty low. Hmm no idea. H&R must be crazy then

VelocityAP

I went for the height-adjustable KW spring kit and I'm happy with it. Lowered the front a little bit too much at first, but it was easily adjusted using the special key that comes with it. Wheels had to be re-aligned and I was good to go. I'll post pictures for those interested.
KW Variant 3 and more: Pure driving pleasure for Jaguar F-Type | KW Automotive Blog
I have the 17mm spacers on front and rear, but I'm questioning leaving them in the front. I did notice a certain amount of loss of steering feel with the spacers on. Would be interested in learning about other users' impression in that respect.

Pics of that would be great. Where did you order the kit from?

OMG your car looks sick! Perfect. I don't even like Green but it looks amazing on your F-Type.

Tire rack lists these at just under $3k, so not inexpensive. What caused the need for wheel realignment?

There you have it. Sorry for the late reply. This is the set I'm running: KW automotive UK Ltd - Gewindefahrwerke, Rennsportfahrwerke, Sportfedern - produktfinder

It's not the 3000$ version. Was about 1000$. I got it from Piecha Design but I guess you can buy it from many other shops. Hope it helps.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...052512fb61.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...506c206042.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7b59b70e50.jpg

ride height is fully adjustable. We went for a bit too low in the front at first (I experienced rubbing issues at heavy loading with the 17mm spacers on), so we tweaked it a bit and raised it by 1cm. Realignment was advised following the readjustment.

I too have a 15 r with velocity springs and would like the front a bit lower --- did you cot from the 1/2 inch from the thickest part of the spring ? Could I just cir 1/3 of a coil instead of 1/2 ??! Thanks , Frank