How low do you actually drive?

Hey guys,
 
Yeah I am a noob but I have read through a bunch of threads now and tried some searches and couldn't find my answer.
 
I don't know anyone in real life into the VIP style or with a VIP style car, so my question to you all with bags is:  How low do you actually drive on roads?
 
I have discovered that youtube videos of VIP cars are much more interesting and beautiful for me to watch than looking at pictures alone- something about seeing the cars moving really sets this look off well.
 
Anyways, in some of the videos the drivers are driving ridiculously low- like even a small branch in the road would ruin a front bumper.  
 
Do you only drive this low if there is no traffic around you?  I mean, if you are in a line of cars and the guy in front of you drives over something and you have half a second to react and there are cars in both lanes next to you... you're just gonna end up running into whatever is in the road right?
 
I am sorry if this question seems retarded but I just don't understand how they drive all the way dropped?

if they choose to drive super low on bags or coils and something scrapes the bumper. they are already prepared for this and chalk it up to the game of being low, man up, and respray when they feel like it.

That's Japan.  Just about no one out here in the states is really doing that (to those extreme levels).  Lot of people front too.  They only drive low for videos and pics but thats a whole different topic lol.

But yea, driving low is what it is all about.  Thats when you have the biggest impact, when you are in motion.  Nothing sexier than seeing a big body gliding down the road like a street sweeper.

x2 about respraying your bumper.  Just add it to the cost of maintenance of owning a VIP car

I've been told a few times that Japan's roads are billiard table smooth everywhere as well.

widebody_Q pretty much said it all.
 
Alot of the videos/pics you see on youtube are of cars in Japan where they're riding unbelieveably low. Also note that you asked about bags and about 98% of the cars you see rollin stoopid low at least in japan are on coils. Bags in the end are jus way to soft to ride like that. In order to roll that low you need a suspension that's as stiff as possible and isn't gonna move all over the place on you. 
 
Another misconception is that in Japan, most of the really dope cars you are seening in pics and vids are owned by shop owners and/or people who have access to every part, tool, paint booth needed. So a repaint job is nuthing for them. Won't cost them 4-5K to paint cause their doing it them selves or knows somebody close that can do it. Same can be said for any part they break, they either can lift their car up and fix whatever needed at a much easier rate than we can. Over here in the states, we have to deal w/ shipping cost, 4-5K paint jobs, wait time for shipping, custom charges, etc. and parts for us aren't always that available. If you ever see how many body/paint shop their are over there, or even auto parts stores there, they sell THOUSANDS of wheels and parts of ALL kinds for the price that would blow your mind!
 
In a way I think this gives the US alot of props for alot of the nicer builds we have out here because of this "handicap" we sorta have and manage to still pull off some bomb ass builds. :biggthumpup: 
 
Back on topic though, as far as in the US and riding low on bags, I know Chrispy rides pretty low on a regular and I'm not the lowest but always drive like I have one of those dumped rides in japan. I would love to be able to roll like a few members on here who are slammed on coils but I jus can't get away from the luxury of having air to help me out when I get stuck somewhere. It's saved me ALOT!!!!!! of headaches and I'm sure ALOT of $$$$ in broken parts.
W/ that being said, the only real way to drive that low is to know your roads you drive and drive slow when needed. I drive my car EVERYDAY and I can tell you where every tiny bump, pothole and dip, etc. in the road is. There's a few members who have ridin behind me and can attests that I'm all over the road trying to avoid obstacles. You'd think I'm driving drunk. HA! It's all part of the game though. Sure people behind and around you will get mad if you take a minute to get in a parking lot, or you're all over the road, but people need to learn patients and look at it as, you rather F*** up your car or avoid it as possible........
 
My personal problem now, is watching these videos of these cars gliding across the ground and thinking I can do that too. What you don't hear in videos and pics are those cars scraping and rubbing all the time but they do and since I know this, I have it set in my mind that if I'm not rubbing then I'm not low enough 
:pat::shrug: crazy but it's true. Rubbing and scrapping only sounds worse than the damage really is. 
 
In short the 2 main statements that have always stayed true in this scene are:
 
"YOu gotta pay to play"
&
"Charge it to the game"

As low as possible, I got adjustable suspension to navigate obstacles..pure and simple.

And contrary to popular belief, not all roads in Japan are like glass, some are straight hell.

[QUOTE=elpresidente;345226]
And contrary to popular belief, not all roads in Japan are like glass, some are straight hell.[/QUOTE]
 
:biggthumpup:
 
 
I've heard this as well
 
I think San Diego actually has some of the best roads for driving low..........well compared to riverside & LA LOL!! No shots fired.

I'm on air but I try to hit the switches as few times as possible! Until yesterday for work purposes I had not touched the switches since the FCKYOURCREW cruise where I learned the real meaning of ride height! On the few occassions I have used my switches I usually set my ride height in my garage and just ride like that for as long as possible! Not to mention the 2 foothigh speed bumps I have to crawl over to get out of my block!

Like everybody else said you need to be committed to the game! No picture or video will ever show you how VIPs truly ride! You need to see this shyt in person!

With my current setup and thanks to all of the guys from the cruise if I don't hear my exhaust dragging every couple of feet then I'm not low enough! I need to grow some balls and stop worrying about my oil pan so much!

Double pot :shrug:

I don't have a lowered car yet, but my homie has a handful and all of them are dumped. When i drive his cars, they are pretty slammed. He's the type of guy that won't give a fuck, he digs the lifestyle, so he's slammed on coilovers, scraping everywhere he goes. Last week i had a cruise and cracked a transmission cause it was so low, but to him it was no biggie "bound to happen" got it fixed and move on.

When i drive the car, it's to the point where i can only focus on driving cause it's so low, it's a mission but there's nothing better to it. Just as Pancakes said, your straight dipping in the car, avoiding every pothole at all cost, riding into the grooves of the lane, you look like your drunk driving swerving all over, the smell of tiring burning cause your so low that your rubbing. It's all in the lifestyle.

**
We got a LS thats getting body work done, but it's gonna be sitting on some 19x13 on coilovers, we'll see how that plays out.

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;345227]:biggthumpup:
 
 
I've heard this as well
 
I think San Diego actually has some of the best roads for driving low..........well compared to riverside & LA LOL!! No shots fired.[/QUOTE]

hahaha san diego's pretty bad -- i got totally owned trying to get around la jolla for 3 months straight. fml.

That's cause you don't know your streets son!!! 
AND! La jolla and Downtown are the worst streets in SD
Funny though cause La Jolla is where all the million dollar homes are LOL:pat:

i drive so low that my upper control arm hits.... LOL

I dont  drive that low .. doing personally about  25000[B] miles[/B] a year  i am all for pay to play but buying new tires 4 times  a  year is not exaclty what i had in mind .. :pat: ..  since the best vip car is a daily =)

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;345218] I drive my car EVERYDAY and I can tell you where every tiny bump, pothole and dip, etc. in the road is. There's a few members who have ridin behind me and can attests that I'm all over the road trying to avoid obstacles. You'd think I'm driving drunk. HA! [/QUOTE]

true fckin story. all i see is this fools 10k headlights aiming all over the road cuz hes trying to drift his shit or something. haha. i drive low, but not right now since im back on stocks. but yeah, being on bags, the way i think about it is ... they're only made to go over speed bumps/driveways and most parts of downtown. and wheel gap is never acceptable rollin. :biggthumpup:

[QUOTE=elpresidente;345226]

And contrary to popular belief, not all roads in Japan are like glass, some are straight hell.[/QUOTE]

X3

For those of us who've been there many times, we know this is true. The freeways I've been on are like billiard smooth compared to say the 405 or worse, 110/605 or 710 in LA, but the local roads can be very sucky.

Hard to tell from my sig and my car's not the lowest, but my center silencer muffler is beat to hell and the seams are coming apart from scraping. That whole section will be cut out soon though.

I drive bro status in the truck=) so I run over alot of shit its really nice I tell you, But my previous low cars  were all coils not bags ( s13) now Vegas roads are not the greastest in the world so I would jsut have to re-route where I was goin to get to point B. Point of the story like WidebodyQ said and pancakes its about dedication if your scared about scrapin your bumpers or sparking frame then this is not for you, Like always if your on bags you can always jsut hit the switch which is really nice :biggthumpup:

I don't see a point in driving high and slamming the car at meets. VIP cars look the best when they're in motion. There's nothing else like it. That's why I daily my car. Broken bumpers, rock chips, tires, it's just maintenance to me. Doesn't mean I don't try to save money though. I buy cheap tires, rock a replica kit because I go through bumpers every year, etc. If it wasn't a daily I would have coilovers for sure.

pretty damn low. half tire in the front and a lil tucked rim in the rear

I'm on bags and I close the gap all around and tuck some of the tire in the front, my rears rub due to the meaty ass tire on there. It isn't super slammed but it's low enough and still gives the car a near stock comfortable ride. Comfort is more important to me, I did the dumped stiff when I had a civic and replacing oil pans and jb welding your tranny case is no fun lol. As far as paint, I scratch the hell out of the bumper often, the worse one is the first one and after that you stop caring and just get it resprayed once a year.  Recently I realized coilovers is the way to go.

Tucking half a sidewall on all four corners. About a pinky's width between lip and fender. A tad more on the front but my front fitment is a bit more aggressive too so it works.
EDiT: My drive height is in my sig.

I´m from Estonia, Europe.
I´m on bags, because I want to drive as low as possible, and sometimes raise the car when I need.
I drive as low in the front so I could turn and as low in the rear, so you dont see tyres at all. My exhaust is raised, but I still scrape sometimes. I´m that low, that I cant drive over the speedbump without raising the car. Still, I try not to use switches for raising, only for pancaking :biggthumpup:
I would have gone japan style and put only coils, but road are not that good here and I always wanted bags (ride low, park lower :dance:)
btw, its my second low car, so I have already learned what streets are good and what are not, road holes are in the memory long time ago=)

if i dont rub, scrape, and hit control arms; i just keep lowering it until i hear all three.  and muffler drag of course.

i do daily the car but my commute isnt far at all. my murrieta shop is like 5 miles away, no freeway. and my temecula shop is about 9 miles away with some pretty smooth freeway driving.  even though the miles dont go up that fast i still have to see my tire guy every 2 months. my appointments are prebooked, and he calls me to confirm them or if i can last another week or 2. im not joking

Here in Miami the streets are that bad, so i am slammed. 

I am Completely Tucking my rear tires with a little poke (HELLAFLUSH), and the front tucking half tire, (STANCE in progress this weekend project)

[QUOTE=vip tint+glass;345928]if i dont rub, scrape, and hit control arms; i just keep lowering it until i hear all three.  and muffler drag of course.

i do daily the car but my commute isnt far at all. my murrieta shop is like 5 miles away, no freeway. and my temecula shop is about 9 miles away with some pretty smooth freeway driving.  even though the miles dont go up that fast i still have to see my tire guy every 2 months. my appointments are prebooked, and he calls me to confirm them or if i can last another week or 2. im not joking[/QUOTE]

norman, how much camber + toe you got on the gs? (this is charles, btw -- we met at that sushi joint in riverside that one time)

i believe camber is around 5.5 at ride height. toe is in spec. idk y i cant get tires to last longer. i asked chrispy and his car is like mine. i always got a thick ass layer of rubber all over the rear end of my car.

i drive so my wheels tuck..no tire gap for me

[QUOTE=vip tint+glass;345960]i believe camber is around 5.5 at ride height. toe is in spec. idk y i cant get tires to last longer. i asked chrispy and his car is like mine. i always got a thick ass layer of rubber all over the rear end of my car.[/QUOTE]

damn, that's crazy. i run more camber than you do, but i can get tires to last 12k with a flip in the middle. is it cause i'm running 18's? or is it because of the nissan rear suspension design? hmm...

[QUOTE=vip tint+glass;345960]i believe camber is around 5.5 at ride height. toe is in spec. idk y i cant get tires to last longer. i asked chrispy and his car is like mine. i always got a thick ass layer of rubber all over the rear end of my car.[/QUOTE]

I have the same layer of rubber. At least your car is black. Are you sure the toe is in spec? I'm gonna get some toe arms and see if that helps.

[YOUTUBE]ox-lfowevqA[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;345979][YOUTUBE]ox-lfowevqA[/YOUTUBE][/QUOTE]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Low is the only way to go =)

Driving low is soooo fun!!!!

[IMG]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j105/aristo1/me2.jpg[/IMG]

lower than yo momma ever seen in her lifetime?

[IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn136/nokcy21/33885_435680243173_707973173_5234185_4737892_n.jpg[/IMG],
 
[IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn136/nokcy21/33885_435680248173_707973173_5234186_1167071_n.jpg[/IMG],

[QUOTE=nokcy21;346125][IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn136/nokcy21/33885_435680243173_707973173_5234185_4737892_n.jpg[/IMG],
 
[IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn136/nokcy21/33885_435680248173_707973173_5234186_1167071_n.jpg[/IMG],[/QUOTE]

This is soooo dope! I gotta see this in person sometimes. Whenever I hit up Norcal!

Dara

In reference to the idea of dumping the car on the ground, driving low like coilovers and raising the car for certain situations with air suspension, wouldn't riding with a non-fully inflated air bag deteriorate the shock? I will be riding on adjustable coilovers and airbags but don't want to dump the car and ride 4x4 when I raise it. My concern is that if I will want to ride low but still have room to raise the car when I need to, isn't that like riding on a cut spring? Not only that, but wouldn't it also be like riding with a low spring rate? Which brings me to my next question, I am driving a Y33, does anybody know how much psi is equivalent to such and such spring rate?

there is no conversion for psi to spring rate since they are different types of measurments (volume vs. force or something like that, i researched it a while back). 
 
you are correct about riding w/  low psi in the bags. you always lose suspension travel and can bottom the dampers out depending on which setup you have.
 
sounds like cups are what you're loooking for. they retain the functional aspects of coilover suspension while giving you some of the adjustability air offers.

drive low, park lower ;)
 
[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs060.snc6/169010_184774754873769_135354213149157_606149_5560459_n.jpg[/img]

This low in snow so I don't snow plow...

[IMG]http://img01.carview.co.jp/minkara/blog/000/021/078/869/21078869/P1.jpg[/IMG]

...but lower when it's clear (see sig)

Pretty low... not "control arm hitting the strut tower low." however.

[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_rnj4PRHtx6M/SMXJnz1DXMI/AAAAAAAAHKQ/RPW00whpZ_c/s640/DSC06043.JPG[/img]

H&R coilovers: rears modified to get this low.

I drive so low I scrape my dome light.

well I'm static and so I'm one height all day you can see in my sig you can't fit your foot under my front bumper maybe a toe but thats pushing it I got stuck 2 times in diego for the auto fashion meet you can see 1 time in the video that dezznutzz posted but the lower the better but I will get air just to go to cali LOL I'm cool in vegas our roads are pretty good :biggthumpup:

[QUOTE=VI IX;365368]I drive so low I scrape my dome light.[/QUOTE]

LOLOLOL

i don't roll that low:

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1426/5157166138_c7d0d1eeb5_b.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5144496907_c5586a10da_b.jpg[/img]

i'm on 18's so your mileage may vary

See sig but i am static with coilovers. I would go lower but i rub haha.

this man has balls rofl,,,,, my crappy temp wheels make me drive till i hear exhaust hittin, my arms dont really hit enless its a big bump.
 
[QUOTE=VI IX;365368]I drive so low I scrape my dome light.[/QUOTE]

Not low enough for me....I have a fender to rim gap. Need to cut that down to less than a finger gap...although I do have about a finger and a half clearance from my inner barrel to the ground.

+1. i hate my coils, new stuff coming soon, hopefully.

not low enough because only my exhaust scrapes on speed bumps haha

wrd. tein sucks for getting low. trying to save up some cash and slang my teins for some bc's.