Styling Lowering - GP Sporting

[danieladamson]

Hello all,

I'm very new to all of this, so apologies if I'm doing this the wrong way or asking questions you are sick of hearing.

However, I have recently purchased a Red GP Sporting T-Jet, 2008 model (58 plate so with nicer interior, darkened headlights and newer alloys), and at the minute it is completely factory standard.

I plan only very minor mods to make the car look exactly as I want, namely rear tints, possibly abarth rear lights, and lowering.

I have had a good look through a load of threads on the Eibach Sportline springs, and am still not decided. I don't want these springs so that I can rag the car around at max performance with greater handling, if I'm being purely honest I want lowering done primarily for cosmetic purposes. I am slightly concerned by a lot of the pictures I see, in which the car looks TOO low, in light of this I have a few questions I would really appreciate somebody knowledgeable and willing to answer:

1. On average, how much LOWER do the sportline springs make the Sporting? I understand it is normally around 50mm, but the Sporting already has a drop of around 20mm, so a further drop of around 30mm, can somebody clarify this for me?
2. With relation to this, and as I mentioned, I really don't want the car to be TOO low, so that its scraping on every other bump or uneven road surface, and are there generally issues with this if you use these springs for lowering?
3. Due to car sharing, I often have 4 people including myself in the GP, how would the springs cope with this?
4. If I do go ahead with the lowering, will I then need to get tracking or any other checks carried out on the car?

If poeple could answer these with as much advice as possible I would really appreciate it, and feel free to add any other info you think may be relevant.
Much appreciated,

Dan
New member to the GP Sporting family!

 

[andy87]

If they're the ones I've found it says up to 40-45 front and 30mm rear for the 1.4, 1.3 and 1.9 TJET models.
Eibach do 4 different options though, so it depends what you want.

I'm using Euro Car Parts to look at the parts info, as I'm thinking of getting the Apex lowering springs, which drops my car around 35mm - or a set of Eibach to drop it 45mm.

 

[danieladamson]

Thanks for the reply.
I've just had a closer look at my car, and from what I can see I really wouldn't want to get the front lowered by that amount, the front wheels seem to sit perfectly in the arches, but still think the back seems high. About 80mm gap between tyre and arch!
Is this normal, and what would people recommend?

 

[GymJunkie]

Thanks for the reply.
I've just had a closer look at my car, and from what I can see I really wouldn't want to get the front lowered by that amount, the front wheels seem to sit perfectly in the arches, but still think the back seems high. About 80mm gap between tyre and arch!
Is this normal, and what would people recommend?

You could always get coilovers, that way you could customise the rideheight to what you want

 

[GavinAshford]

I'm not sure how much help it is but I believe the general consensus of Eibach/Abarth springs are (from what research I've done) as follows:

highest

• stock t-jet - 20mm lower than non-sporting

• abarth 155 stock - 10mm lower then stock t-jet

• eibach pro - 10-15mm lower front than stock t-jet, 30mm lower rear than abarth 155 stock

• abarth esseesse - 15-20mm lower than abarth 155 stock

• eibach sportline - 30-35mm lower front than stock t-jet, 30-35mm lower rear than abarth 155 stock

lowest

Equally I believe the 'comfort' level follows the same order, from most 'comfortable' to the least - maybe with the final 2 swapped around to put the esseesse springs least comfortable.

The eibach's are regarded as a better spring than the abarth's (reduce roll more = better handling), but a second hand set of abarth springs are much lighter on the wallet.

I have experience in having both sets of eibach's, sportline and now pro's. As well as a short time running sportlines and then pro fronts with a set rear abarth's 155 stock springs. In my opinion the pro's are the best for handling, no surprise, and do maintain some comfort. But for the price you can pick up the abarth 155 stock springs for second hand (£30+p&p when I enquired) the rears do a fairly good job or reducing roll, though I cannot comment fully as I never had the abarth's on the front, though they did give a more comfortable ride on the rear than the pro's I have on now (and the sportline's before). However the abarth rears did still leave a fairly large rear arch gap.


Edit: and then you've got the whole coilover option as GymJunkie says...

 

[danieladamson]

I'm not sure how much help it is but I believe the general consensus of Eibach/Abarth springs are (from what research I've done) as follows:

highest

• stock t-jet - 20mm lower than non-sporting

• abarth 155 stock - 10mm lower then stock t-jet

• eibach pro - 10-15mm lower front than stock t-jet, 30mm lower rear than abarth 155 stock

• abarth esseesse - 15-20mm lower than abarth 155 stock

• eibach sportline - 30-35mm lower front than stock t-jet, 30-35mm lower rear than abarth 155 stock

lowest

Equally I believe the 'comfort' level follows the same order, from most 'comfortable' to the least - maybe with the final 2 swapped around to put the esseesse springs least comfortable.

The eibach's are regarded as a better spring than the abarth's (reduce roll more = better handling), but a second hand set of abarth springs are much lighter on the wallet.

I have experience in having both sets of eibach's, sportline and now pro's. As well as a short time running sportlines and then pro fronts with a set rear abarth's 155 stock springs. In my opinion the pro's are the best for handling, no surprise, and do maintain some comfort. But for the price you can pick up the abarth 155 stock springs for second hand (£30+p&p when I enquired) the rears do a fairly good job or reducing roll, though I cannot comment fully as I never had the abarth's on the front, though they did give a more comfortable ride on the rear than the pro's I have on now (and the sportline's before). However the abarth rears did still leave a fairly large rear arch gap.


Edit: and then you've got the whole coilover option as GymJunkie says...

Thanks for this reply mate, really useful.
So from what you're saying, the Eibach Pro's would give approximately a 20mm drop at the front, and 40mm drop at the back, over the standard GP Sporting?
I think that sounds like the best option for me, as I said I don't want the car to be too low which I worry might be the case with the Sportline, its more for purely cosmetic purposes, while still retaining full practicality, and any improvement in handling is a bonus.
My only slight concern is that generally, from the threads I have read, you can hardly notice a difference with the Pro's. Can anybody who has a Pro kit fitted, preferably with 17 inch alloys, tell me what it looks like at the back? As I mentioned, I'm not looking for the tyre to be kissing the arch, I just want it to look like it actually fits!
As a student, I definitely couldn't afford coilovers but thanks for the suggestion GymJunkie!

 

[martwho]

Hello mate, take a look at my motor:
https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/270766-martins-t-jet.html
I have the Sportlines fitted and I was totally the same as you, I did not want it to look slammed, I too just wanted to close the wheel arch gap a little. I am really pleased with the result and as you can see you I can still easily slide my hand under the wheel arch above the tyre. ( oh and the cornering is great!
Went camping last week and drove over 500 miles without a scrape and did the journey both ways with 4 in the car and a boot full of luggage!

 

[Booth]

Hello mate, take a look at my motor:
https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/270766-martins-t-jet.html
I have the Sportlines fitted and I was totally the same as you, I did not want it to look slammed, I too just wanted to close the wheel arch gap a little. I am really pleased with the result and as you can see you I can still easily slide my hand under the wheel arch above the tyre. ( oh and the cornering is great!
Went camping last week and drove over 500 miles without a scrape and did the journey both ways with 4 in the car and a boot full of luggage!

If you want a ride height like Marts, there are some sportlines for sale in the classifieds.

 

[GavinAshford]

Thanks for this reply mate, really useful.
So from what you're saying, the Eibach Pro's would give approximately a 20mm drop at the front, and 40mm drop at the back, over the standard GP Sporting?
I think that sounds like the best option for me, as I said I don't want the car to be too low which I worry might be the case with the Sportline, its more for purely cosmetic purposes, while still retaining full practicality, and any improvement in handling is a bonus.
My only slight concern is that generally, from the threads I have read, you can hardly notice a difference with the Pro's. Can anybody who has a Pro kit fitted, preferably with 17 inch alloys, tell me what it looks like at the back? As I mentioned, I'm not looking for the tyre to be kissing the arch, I just want it to look like it actually fits!
As a student, I definitely couldn't afford coilovers but thanks for the suggestion GymJunkie!

Yeah, that's pretty much correct, it might be slightly less at the rear, I really cant remember how much gap there was as a stock t-jet (nearly 2 years ago).

Once I get my boot unloaded, as I've got a load of heavy crap in there at the moment, I'll get you a photo, and another of when I had it on sportlines too. I also saw the pro's in photos on here and thought they were pretty high at the back, but mine seem to almost match the 30mm specified rear drop of the sportlines.

Where abouts are you in the country?

Edit: puntobooth, if they're just for the 1.4 then they wont be for the t-jet (it needs the m-jet/t-jet versions) if you post the part number printed on the fronts its easy to tell which they are for.

 

[danieladamson]

Hello mate, take a look at my motor:
I have the Sportlines fitted and I was totally the same as you, I did not want it to look slammed, I too just wanted to close the wheel arch gap a little. I am really pleased with the result and as you can see you I can still easily slide my hand under the wheel arch above the tyre. ( oh and the cornering is great!
Went camping last week and drove over 500 miles without a scrape and did the journey both ways with 4 in the car and a boot full of luggage!

Hi mate, thanks for the response.
From that photo, your GP looks pretty much identical to how I want mine, nicely done!
Really good to know that you were able to do a long journey with it fully loaded too.
You would recommend sportlines then?

Yeah, that's pretty much correct, it might be slightly less at the rear, I really cant remember how much gap there was as a stock t-jet (nearly 2 years ago).

Once I get my boot unloaded, as I've got a load of heavy crap in there at the moment, I'll get you a photo, and another of when I had it on sportlines too. I also saw the pro's in photos on here and thought they were pretty high at the back, but mine seem to almost match the 30mm specified rear drop of the sportlines.

Where abouts are you in the country?

That would be really helpful, thanks.
I'm in Newcastle, tends to be a long way away from most people!

I'm going to post a couple of photos of the front + back wheels, as I'm still slightly concerned that lowering the front is going to be a bit awkward, as it currently seems to fit perfectly.
Thanks for the responses everybody, keep them coming!

 

[danieladamson]

Front wheel:

Rear wheel:

 

[GymJunkie]

have a loot at Dlightswitch's motors thread, hes in newcastle i think and is running on sportlines. I run sportlines but never have more than 2 people in the car so cant comment yet on fully loaded setup

 

[Booth]

How much did it cost people to fit sportlines?

 

[Tom JL]

How much did it cost people to fit sportlines?

£16 for some spring compressors and a few hours of my time

 

[GavinAshford]

Not useful I know but I'm the same as Tom JL, rears only take 20mins, fronts about 40mins each side with 'home tools'. You're probably looking at an hour to an hour half labour rate at a garage.

I'd never changed springs before doing mine, just need to have some common sense so not do anything stupid. I invested in a set of axle stands, spring compressors, metric socket set and torque wrench so that came to about £80-90, probably about the same as paying an independent but meant I've now got the tools and can use that as an excuse to do more things

 

[GavinAshford]

I'm afraid the photo of the pro's isn't very good quality as it was just on my mobile, i'll try get a better one at a similar angle as the sportlines tomorrow.

Both photos are with my spare 17" alloy and tyre in the boot wheel well, not sure how much fuel is in the tank in the sportline photo, but there's a quarter in the pro one. Also worth noting that the front wheels on the sportline photo are stock bridgestone re050's and the rears are toyo t1r's, but these have been swapped in the pro photo (all are 205/45/r17). the toyo's have a more rounded shoulder to the tyre than then bridgestone, which can make a slight difference to the visual effect of the wheel arch gap.

Click for large sizes.

Sportlines:


Pros:

 

[danieladamson]

I'm afraid the photo of the pro's isn't very good quality as it was just on my mobile, i'll try get a better one at a similar angle as the sportlines tomorrow.

Both photos are with my spare 17" alloy and tyre in the boot wheel well, not sure how much fuel is in the tank in the sportline photo, but there's a quarter in the pro one. Also worth noting that the front wheels on the sportline photo are stock bridgestone re050's and the rears are toyo t1r's, but these have been swapped in the pro photo (all are 205/45/r17). the toyo's have a more rounded shoulder to the tyre than then bridgestone, which can make a slight difference to the visual effect of the wheel arch gap.

Click for large sizes.

Sportlines:


Pros:

Thanks for those, very useful.
For me, I think the sportlines look too low at the front, while the pros seem to fit perfectly into both the front and rear arch. Anymore photos you have either from far or close up to each wheel would be really appreciated mate, thanks again!

 

[danieladamson]

Most of the website I have been on give the following guidelines

Pro: 25-30mm Front, 30mm Rear
Sportline: 40-45mm Front, 30mm Rear

Therefore, since the drop on the rear is the same and thats the one I'm a lot more concerned about (to me, the front wheel looks about as it should, check photos on first page), I'm again thinking that the Pro will be more suitable.

Could people confirm or challenge from experience whether the REAR drop on the Pros is about the same as the Sportlines, as I'm still concerned that people say you can notice no difference on the Pros to the Standard GPS, but if that only applies for the front wheel than that is fine by me!

 

[GavinAshford]

Rear drop on either is pretty much the same now that they've had 2 weeks to settle. the pro's maybe a touch higher, maybe 7-8mm.

I think I still prefer the drop of the sportlines, especially at the front - you say it looks too low, but I think its perfect.

I'm just enjoying the comfort these pro's have brought back into the car (compared with the sportlines), especially with the state the roads have got in around here.

I'll PM you a link to some photos I've found of the stock height and when it was sportline'd - I don't have any photos of it on pro's yet (other than the crappy phone photo above), but I'll get some in the next coming week if it'll help.

 

[danieladamson]

Anything you could send would be good help mate, I'll keep checking my inbox for your PM.
If its not too much hassle for you, photos of the Pro's would be really useful, but don't worry about it if you're busy
I would like to keep a good level of comfort in the car, there are often multiple people inside the car and I drive on some pretty rough country roads unfortunately. It's what you get for moving to the West Country!
If the drop at the back is similar, then definitely leaning towards the Pro kit...