First off I want to say this is going to be a "stance" post. So if that bothers you please don't bother reading on. I want this to be a forum that people can discuss their ideas and opinions about different suspension setups.

Ok, since my 7 has been down a while now it has given me some time to think about what kind of build I want to do. First I was thinking "oh I'll drift it brah" but some sense has been knocked into me by friends saying that is a classic and they only get more rare as the years go on. I know there's a decent amount of them out there but I still don't feel like making it all nice and then smashing it into a wall.

With that being said, I figured I'd go with a nice, comfortable, and driveable show car/stance build while still keeping the 'shakotan' style I've always wanted. My first idea was coilovers, makes sense right. Especially with the new stance coils that just recently came out. But it got me thinking, what if they don't go low enough for me, what if I don't like the ride, what if I don't want to bang frame every hundred feet on these crappy roads around me.

So the only solution is bags. I never thought of this before because I was always a coilover fanboy and thought people with bags were wussy's and didn't know how to lower a car properly. Well my mind has been changed over the years as I matured.

I started looking up universal bags and found the air lift performance kits and they look promising, seeing as a bunch of classic euro guys use them with amazing results. They also aren't a far cry from a coilover setup, it would be about $3,000 usd give or take some for the whole air setup. They would also be installed pretty much like the stance coils or any other custom coilover out there for the fb.

The only thing that I can't wrap my head around is the negative effects it would have with the rear watts. I know our car's rearend doesn't like be lowered at all, let alone laying on the floor.

I obviously have a lot of measuring and sorting of things before I can consider buying air suspension. This was something that I never really thought possible. But the more I think about and do research, the easier it seems. If you guys have any insight or opinions about this please share!

 

This seems like a very interesting build. are you planning on driving it alot slammed? If you are, I would think you would want to ditch the watts link or make an adjustable type deal.

 

I don't plan on driving it completely slammed all the time. I do want to be able to drive it decently low when I want to but the ability to go closer to stock height is a must for the roads around me.

So, I suppose it won't be too big of a deal. Maybe I'll just reinforce it with that bracket from mazdatrix. The only thing I'm worried about is how low I can make the car before it just wants to break apart. Maybe I'll take out my rear shocks and springs just to test it out and see how low it can actually go lmao.

I haven't seen any bagged fb's just some that are really low static. I'll test out some things over my winter break.

And since I won't be able to camber the rear I will just get some wider rear wheels and have the fender sit on top of the wheel. Maybe a fender between tire and lip kinda thing

 

Air bags are actually not a bad choice if you are not concerned about all out cornering (racetrack) performance. Being able to get over curbs, driveways, and speed bumps is always a plus. There are several concerns when lowering the rear. Space for the drive shaft is one, angled upper arms and an off center watts link are others. Don't give up, it can be done. It will take some thought and modification if you want to go much beyond an inch or two though. If you plan to use wider tires (which pretty much everyone does) the insides of the wheel wells will also become a problem when going real low. A proper four or three link with an adjustable centered watts link and floor pan/shock mount modifications should get you where you want to go.

What you want isn't easy, but it is doable with enough determination and money.

 

The T3 adjustable rear arms should fix any pinion angle problems, I believe. As for driveshaft clearance I've seen two fb's in particular on custom coils that are not even an inch off the ground front and back and I don't believe they modified the tunnel at all. I can always get some friends to help me fab up a solution for the watts. I was also thinking about custom setups to make the rear shocks sit higher in the hatch so the body can be lower without the sacrifice of strut travel. I just see a lot of time ahead of me under the car with a measuring tape

 

ditch the watts and add a panhard bar. problem solved