Before I explain my situation just want to be clear that I am a complete novice at this and this is only my second car, I also reside in U.K.

I am in the process of purchasing a Jaguar x type, reason ala exepat love his car.

I want to make some modifications but due to my limited budget I need some advice.

I want to lower the car as much as possible but cannot afford air bag suspension. I need to be able to clear speed bumps as this would be my everyday car. The coilovers and springs I have seen do not give enough drop to the car I am looking for something that would hopefully give about 3-4 inches drop.

Any advice and suggestions on springs or coilovers that can do this would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea where to look.

Also if I use 18-19 inch tires combined with lowering the car will that give it a better lowered and even look? I assume bigger tires will give it a little lift.

I personally would love to imitate exepats x type (exterior wise) but have a big lack of knowledge and finance, therefore would love to get as close to it as possible in terms of lowering.

Any advice and suggestions greatly appreciated, my sincere apologies if I done or said anything inappropriate.

 

Navi, see my post in the UK section. In short, the springs you will find are almost all limited to 1.4" in drop. To go beyond that, you are looking at something custom, aka, lots of money or lots and lots of your time.

 

Thanks for your reply, its been a big help.

The only option would be air bag kit which I know nothing about.

I have seen a kit for 1k GBP, any idea which kit is best suited and in terms of ride quality and maintenance are there any problems with a air bag kit?

Thanks

 

You will never get near as low as exepat's car without bags. I probably have the lowest x type on here that isn't bagged and I'm about 2 inches or more higher than him and I can bet I have spent more on my suspension than him. I built my suspension more like a race car though so I wasn't going for the same kind of suspension setup he has. Find his thread and bag it like he did or you'll just be throwing money at springs that will NEVER get close to being that low. Frankly he has done all the hard work of figuring out how to bag an x type the proper way, so the only way to get results close to his are to do what he did. Do NOT cheap out on suspension. If you can't afford a proper bag setup like his, just save and save until you can.

 

Can I ask what type of suspensions / lowering kit did you use and how much did it drop the car i.e. 35mm or more?

I am considering an airbag kit now but as you said I don't want to buy a cheap thing which might fail I would rather save up and get it that way but will take quite a while, the only concerns with an airbag kit I have are regarding the maintenance, how long will I be able to maintain it and ofcourse the ride quality.

Thank you for your info.

 

There is a link to my suspension build in my signature, long story short I have custom built control arms in the rear to get it as low as it is. I have kw coilovers, which are the only coilovers sold for the x type, and the rears are NOT height adjustable. to get that adjustability I had custom arms made. I also have a LOT of work into rolling and making room in the fender wells, all 4 of them, to get as low as I am with my wide tires. I have literally spent more just on my suspension build than I spent to buy the whole car, and probably 60 to 80% of the parts are sourced from other cars and trial and error to get them to fit. I still haven't even finished my suspension build. I do NOT recommend doing what I did to ANYONE that just wants a low x type. I wanted a built suspension for track days, my car being so low is just a product of achieving my handling goals. exexpat has built the best bagged x type out there and if you want a x like his, copy his build. My build is more for the mentally disturbed haha.

 

Btw the kw coilovers are the lowest "springs" you can buy even though the rear is not height adjustable, I think its like 1.4 or 1.5 inches lower on the rear, which is only about .2 or so inches lower than the lowest set of "lowering springs". The front is height adjustable but you are limited to how low you can go by the tires and wheels you use, and if you want to do fender work, or pay for the work to be done. Keep in mind that the KW coilovers cost about 1200 bucks US, lowering springs from H&R or something cost about 400.

 

Thank you.

What would be the lowest set of lowering springs? any link would be much appreciated.

I was thinking if i go for the lowest lowering springs, get 19 inch tires maybe 20 inch, will that decrease the gap between the wheel arch and the wheel and give a more lowered look.

I am trying to figure out what exactly is exepats drive height for his x type, i've seen the pictures on this forum but not sure if its the same height as coilovers or lowering springs or maybe even more lower than that.

But right now i'm thinking a set of lowering springs, 19 inch wheels, may give the illusion of a much lowered car and improve the appearance when stationary and even when driving.

Thanks

 

You can also have custom coil springs made at whatever height and spring rate you want. I am probabaly going this route on the boosted X with custom bent sway bars and adjustable links. Either that or copying Justink's suspension because that crap is sick. Very well done!

 

If I remember correctly the height he drives his car around is about 2 inches lower than my car sits, which is about 2 inches lower than the rear with the KW rear springs. 20s would be too much with the KWs, and you can NOT drive with the front coilovers at the lowest point, its just too low because the threads go pretty low. I'm not even at the lowest point in the front and I am really low, but I run 18s. I couldn't even run my 19s anymore ha. I'll dig up a pic of my car with the KWs and my 19s since its from when the only mod I had to the suspension was the KWs. Keep in mind that even at this point I had to roll the fenders in the front, but that is also because I was running 19x9.5s with 245/35/19s. If I were you, I'd go with like a 19x8 or 8.5 and a 225/35/19, but even then I can't say for sure it won't rub.

 

Thanks ha ha, just keep in mind that my way was not cheap, at all, haha. I actually have a set of custom springs for the front, along with some really nice caster/camber plates for a focus but I can't use either with the Jag KWs so eventually, once I get some custom rear springs, I'm going to get a full set of Koni yellow adjustable shocks front and rear, with Ground Control coilover sleeves for the front. So they will be just like the KWs but with stiffer springs and adjustable compression and rebound. Then I'll finally be done with the suspension.

 

OH and here is a pic with my car at the same height as in the pic with the gold 19s but on my 18s, wait, actually I did lower the front a bit after switching to the 18s.