4200 Spyder Lowering

I wasn't prepared to lay out £1500 or so for the FD springs so I sourced these H&R's from Germany. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Used H&R before...Decent product and as you say much cheaper than FD.....

Interesting photos when fitted and let us know how they work

All my birthdays have come at once.......

Well they're on - one of those jobs you wish you hadn't started. Apart from an upper wishbone ball joint reluctant to open, reasonably straightforward. Needed to use a pickle fork as there's very little room to mount a ball joint breaker and this resulted in my splitting the rubber boot. A £150 error! Used a professional set of spring compressors which helped a great deal.

They'll need to settle over the next few miles but the car exhibits markedly less squat and dive and in sport mode, still gives a smoothish ride. Will decide when the FD Xmas sale comes on whether or not to add the stiffer anti-roll bars.

The Hills spacers help fill the track out nicely with no rubbing on bumps and corners.





Sorry again about the inverted images........how do I stop this???

How is the body roll?

Really like the look especially with the spacers... I don't mind the standard ride height, it almost makes sense riding slightly higher in Surrey some of our main roads are like off roading... might look into the spacers at some point

Hows the body roll...Impressive I would say...Its turned it upside down...

Good job looks much better...

That's it for now - allowed springs to settle and then readjusted ride height to 665mm arch to ground.



It was pointed out to me that the tyres, although carrying loads of tread, are over 12 years old so a new set of Michelins are due this week.

Well done, aesthetically, that's a real improvement. The rear spacers look more than 15mm to my eyes unless I am mis-reading your packet?
Good work

StuartW said:

Well done, aesthetically, that's a real improvement. The rear spacers look more than 15mm to my eyes unless I am mis-reading your packet?
Good work

Click to expand...

Nope, 15mm from Hill Engineering - excellent people to deal with.

Very good, the end result looks good

Did you have any issues with things being seized underneath?


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The car has done less than 17k miles and probably only 3k of that in the last 12 years or so. Thus underneath is very clean, plus I liberally dosed things with XCP lubricant and rust protector - vastly superior to WD40.
There is a very good post on here as to how to remove the shocks to allow spring replacement. Rears are straightforward but the fronts not so. The front upper wishbone ball joints we're sods! Standard joint breakers have very narrow jaws and I had to persevere for ages to get the opener mounted securely to pop open the joint. Having done that, the upper wishbone lifts up to allow access to remove the spring.
One side came open but the other refused to behave. I ended up using a wide jaw pickling fork which managed to split the rubber boot and damage the sealing ring. A £150 mistake but at least I could continue.
I measured the existing ride heights and fitted the H & R springs with the same seat height settings. However, this did not give the lowered height I was expecting. I gave it a couple of weeks of intermittent driving to allow the springs to settle and then recalculated.
Not wanting to completely remove the shocks purely to drop the height, I tried simply turning the lower seat collar using a C spanner. Didn't move beyond taking up the slack in the lower bush. This is when the fun began.....trying to take the load off the lower seat. Rears are not a problem as there is sufficient room to apply a pair of worm drive spring compressors and remove the pressure on the lower collar. However, the fronts......there is simply no room to apply the spring compressors without splitting the upper wishbone joint again. Everything was already lubed from my first foray so there were no seizures to contend with.
Ultimately a satisfactory outcome, albeit after numerous cuts, bruises and squashes! I admire those of you who managed to reduce the spring seats without using spring compressors - you must have arms like Popeye's.
If you are only lowering the ride height by dropping the collars and retaining the standard springs, then you only need to split the joint. So only the upper ball joint nut to potentially seize but use plenty of lubricant, buy a wide jaw ball joint splitter and you should be fine.

Hey Caldy what do you think of the H&R springs now they have been on for over a year? You drove all the way to Italy and back with the lowering springs and FD Sway bars/ARB's must have been fun in the mountains(?).. I'm interested in knowing how I improves the cars nervousness mid corner and powering out of the apex

I'm thinking of upgrading my suspension one way or another. If I can get my SPORTS mode working then I'm thinking of doing the same set up as you and fitting the springs leading up to next summer... if not then KW coilovers in a few years

I'm no 'road tester' and its been a while since I fitted them but the overall package is a vast improvement. I also fitted new Michelin Pilot Sport 4's in 265 x 35 and 235x 40 which are obviously influencing my impressions.

I didn't carry out the mods 'one by one' so I cannot rate them in terms of their individual contribution, however the vagueness and floatiness experienced when cornering has been eliminated. The car remains virtually level at all times, feeling planted and almost eager to be powered out of any corner. A thicker rimmed steering wheel allows me to feel more connected to the front end. There is no dive under braking, nor squat under acceleration. I drive in Sport virtually all of the time and although the ride is more harsh than standard, it is perfectly bearable, even all the way to Italy and back.

Appearance wise the lowering has a huge impact as the arches are now filled and the car appears far more purposeful. It handles speed bumps without issue but doesn't like acutely angled driveways/roadways, at times scraping the undertray. I have a modified tubular exhaust, replacing the squashed section where it passes under under the steering rack and is therefore lower than standard, but that has never scraped under suspension compression, and only once over a protruding manhole cover that I failed to notice in the dark.

The forum's experts advised ARB's before springs and I wouldn't disagree but certainly together they allow the car to emulate the character of a sports car rather than that of a tourer. With the FD winter sale now on, you're timing the mods just right - I'm seriously considering the Drive by Wire.

As they say, if you're ever in Newcastle give me a call and you can have a drive.

Very good write up thank you mate.

I was reading maserati life last night and got the impression the ARBs are phase 2 after springs/coilovers... so I will do the H&R springs first and wait for the next FD sale

If I had a CC the DBW would be high on my list. I have the ECM and I'm happy with it but I had to send it back for testing because it was causing a CEL... their last report is pointing at an install error on the wiring harness so I'm going to have to pay FD carriage to send it back with the sale on I'm very tempted to buy something at the same time but the other half does not agree with my man maths as I am supposed to be saving for a wedding!