Slamming old-school Zs - how do they do it?

[Powerslide]

Vdubbers do it, BMWs in europe do it, and of course plenty of tuners in japan do it.

Well maybe its because im not JDM enough, but I cant figure out for the life of me how the hell those japanese tuners get their rides so slammed.

The ride in question for me is the 1983 280zx. Basically I wanted to throw some wide-dish 15 or 16" rims on it, stretch the rubber, and slam it. Problem is, I have no idea how they get the slammage done. Asking questions at Nissan forums usually gets me pointed in the direction of plenty of spring/shock combos, but none of them offer even close to as much slammage as those japanese tuners are getting.

Here are some examples:




Maybe I'd want to go with a slightly thicker tire than the first one, but overall you get the idea. The last one is by far my favourite, and once i find out how its done I want to go a very similar look



so - hows it done? This car is not going to be made for track, its going to be a street cruiser. Thinking 225hp max.

[Lomac]

I can't speak for the Z-crowd but I know that in the VW and BMW world, they're either running coilovers run down all the way or using airbags, which is then combined with a small rim, typically 13's or 14's at the most.

It also sucks balls for daily driving.

[Powerslide]

yeah i think the key seems to be the small rim size, small tire size, and coilover setup.
Those cars with reg. size rims and tires would probably look just like your average dropped car
you're right though, they look sweet but probably drive like ass
still, i'd be down!

[Leopold Stotch]

iirc from reading NorthWestNissans, that you'd have to swap in a different cars subframe because they don't make any coilovers for the older z's not even the Z31.

i think for the most part though, those guys in japan are on airbags that aren't custom made.


something that i had to sorta think about when i wanted to slam my car. is that to prevent rubbing you'd have to have much stiffer suspension which would for me.

hope that helps