I have a R53 with a 15% pulley, Helix intake, Helix tuned, and 17" white OZ racing wheels. I want to lower it around 1.5" and have a new exhaust put in. It was suggested to me that I have a popular local shop custom fabricate pipes for my exhaust, but I need to know what are affordable decent catbacks and mufflers? And I need to know about decent lowering springs that wont give me problems lol. Any help guys? Thanks!

 

I went with the H&R sport lowering springs. I've had them on for about 10 months now. No problems. Very rough roads. Took a while for them to relax but they went to the exact height I was looking for. About 1.25" drop.

Cheap and easy to install.

 

Unless you plan on getting aftermarket shocks, its generally not a good idea to lower anything much more than an inch on the stock struts. Otherwise you'll go through them pretty quickly as they will ride too low in their travel and don't have appropriate valving for much stiffer springs. Personally, I went with H&R sports, they lower 1" in the front and 0.75" in the back. It got rid of most of the gap and the ride quality is comparable to stock. I also didn't want to shell out the money for aftermarket shocks.

Here is a picture for reference:



As far as catbacks go, its generally agreed upon that Milltek is one of the better systems for these cars. However, if you want something more affordable I'd recommend Invidia. Fit and quality is excellent for the price, sound is nice too. Once I got the old system off it was bolted up perfectly within 10-15min, literally.

 

Awesome, thanks for the help. I will look into it! That definitely makes sense. Thanks for the thorough response!

 

Are these the springs you purchased Andy?

http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mini...FQne4Aod9FUA_Q

 

Yep those are the ones. I purchased them here, $10 cheaper if it makes a difference.

http://www.eurosportdesign.com/p-798...t-springs.aspx

For what its worth, the ones I received were blue. Apparently H&R rotates the colour of their spring batches periodically, so if you buy some and they look different than the picture its nothing to worry about.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot!