Kinda short post for today. More of a contemplative question for everyone to think of over the weekend. How’s that sound? Let’s have some fun here. 
Infected Perspective
If I told you to think of how low a car is before you consider it crazy, what is that?
Is the car bagged, so that it just about sits on the ground when there’s no air in the suspension?
Or is it a car that you think is lowered but actually turns out to be stock?
Well, I suppose that depends on what you drive….
If you drive a lowered car, something on bags probably beats you if you’ve still got real suspension components.
If you drive a truck or SUV, our S2000 looks lowered. Even though she actually isn’t.
How Low is Low?
My Miata is definitely lowered, thanks to some lovely Flyin’ Miata suspension bits. She was even taller than other Miatas previous to this, something about the ’97 NA’s made them the tallest of the first gens, can’t remember why exactly.
Anyhow, she’s lowered, but I hardly consider her to be a low car… Not compared to some of the cars I’ve seen! Does that mean she’s not low? Well, I suppose not. But I no longer think of her as a very low car. To me, she’s normal. (But she’s also not that small to me, so part of it is just that I drive her nearly every day and she is my norm.)
So, in your personal taste, what do you consider low to be?
And do you have to be crazy low to look good? Can you be too low? I’ve got a million ways I could pitch questions about this, lol. So have at it, please. 
Exhibits A & B
Exhibit A -- She's low, but is she low enough to be called low?
Exhibit B -- Now she's low... But is this just low, or insanely low?
No related posts.
To add to the confusion, I submit that there’s a difference between “lowered” and “low” my car (if you check my blog) is lowered, but the S14 pictured above is definitely “low”–at least by comparison.
To me, low is any sized drop. However, there is also slammed. Matt Power’s S14 is slammed, not lowered. Rolling around slammed looks amazing, but it is impractical and negatively affects suspension travel and ends up creating a lot of headaches. I’m running Tein coilovers on my car and I set them up to be low, but not slammed. Having lowered my car, it looks better without that ugly wheel gap, but I also have the peace of mind by being able to drive anywhere and not having to worry about scraping, rubbing, taking detours from bad roads, or ripping my cv boots/damaging other suspension components. Also, because I’m not slammed, it means I can attack those corners with some speed. Can’t really do that when you’re slammed.
In comparison to my car, even yours is low. I have a 2″ drop, but still have 6.5″ of ground clearance at the lowest point. (Scion xD) If a car is on lowering springs I think it can be labeled lowered, because it is…
I guess the difference comes when you talk about being lowered vs. being slammed. Matt Powers is slammed (insert any appropriate synonym if you wish, I just went with slammed lol)
I could go on but I guess..I don’t want to sound redundant. haha just my thoughts though!
What’s the lip-to-hub measurement on your NA?
Sharka is at 11″ all the way around. That gives decent tire tuck under the fenders. Maybe a half inch worth of tuck. But I still don’t feel that’s very low. My wife’s NB (Bucky) is around 12.5″ ride height. That one looks VERY tall compared to Sharka. But both of the cars make a stock Miata look freakishly raised.
The low guys are in the slammed thread on CR. The rest of us are just lowered. 9-10″ of ride height, lip-to-hub. That’s where low is in my opinion. But maybe that’s just cause I live in New Mexico in the heart of lowriderland. Seems like every 4th modified truck I see makes Sharka look pretty high.
As for how low you have to be to look good, well… that depends on the car, I think. Some cars (S2000s for example) look very good at the stock ride height. Some (the NC) just look wrong at the stock ride height, like they were worked on by an incompetent suspension tech.
Wow, great feedback guys, thanks!
Slammed — now there’s a word I don’t use often, but yeah, definitely applicable in this case.
Slammed is a word that nobody will ever use in defining my cars, either, because I kinda like keeping my exhaust bits in place and relatively nice-looking. For the Miata’s lovely ride height, my husband managed to slam the cat into the ground and kill it. (So he got the pleasure of taking off the old, rattling cat & replacing it with her shiny new high-flow FM one.) I can only imagine what he would’ve done if she had been lower.
For what it’s worth, I only think the Miata is taller than she is because I sit fairly high in the car. I love my pad for my Corbeau seat, but OMG. If I drive without it, 1) it’s uncomfortable to sit on springs, icky, 2) I feel soooooooooo low it’s whacky. Even sitting in the passenger seat makes me realize how tiny the car is compared to everything else, when normally I’m sitting higher enough to make a pretty big difference.
Adam — Lemme get back to you on her measurement, I’ll do it tomorrow when the light returns to this part of the world.
You car is def. lowered, just like my Legacy is.
Matt’s S14 def. SLAMMED!, but even SLAMMED cars can corner. You just need it to be stiff or slide the rear
Cars that look good even stock height? The S2000 and most Bimmers look GOOD even at stock height.
it’s relative to the overall design of the car, the wheel to fender gap, etc. my sti’s bumper had decent ground clearance, but the subframe was an inch off the ground so it looked low-ish, but was really “slammed.” the miata on the other hand has good underbody ground clearance (except for the diff), but the lip is only a few inches off the ground. so it looks slammed but is really just “low.”
Well, I like how your Miata looks right now. Perfect!
Thanks!
first, that avatar is amazing meg. the 240 is really not as low as its perceived. due to the kit the car looks lower, however its too low, the suspension is taking a hit from reduced travel. i do not understand the whole slammed thing. it looks good however you might as well buy ebay coilovers and let someone else purchase those 2k dollar coilovers that will use them for what they were designed for. with our c-west kit our car looks low(about3-4in between splitter and ground) however we have plenty of suspension travel and the ability to drive the car on and off the track. but it still sits low enough that it looks good.
this was a great topic.
Thanks! I know I’d rather go for the proper coilovers that do their job rather than cheapies, because I do plan on using them… But the Miata doesn’t really need coilovers at this point either, so good springs & shocks do us just fine. My RPS13 already came with coilovers, so I’m not keen on replacing them, I can spend the money better elsewhere. (They’re the Megan Racing track set, so I’ll put them to use someday here anyhow.)
Low is slow…unless you’re running CSP. Those guys would lay frame if it’d make them any faster!
I do run CSP, lol. But I’m to the point with the Miata where I’m nearing the crossroads — she’ll either be great for autocross and not so great on the track, or awesome on the track and sacrifice some autocross performance.
I’m going track-style.
I’m actually going to be seeing how many RedLine events I can get to… I may just run her as a Time Attack car. (The idea had never hit me before!) I’ll still do autocrossing when I feel like messing around and having some fun, but I’ll end up in a class that I probably won’t be very competitive in. Turbo Miatas don’t do as well as they could out there. (But I won’t have to worry about that for a good few years anyhow, because the kit’s not cheap ha.)
To be super competitive in CSP, your car would be practically useless for anything else. For example, it’d be practically gutted, so safety and sound would be an issue, the rollbar would be gone, and you’d be probably trailering it every week. My advice, just keep the car the way it is. You’re straddling the dual-usage line, and that’s a good place to be unless you really want to compete at a national level. At that point, don’t plan on ever driving the car on the street again.
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that… And, to be honest, I’d rather be track-competitive than autocross-competitive. Just what I like better, plus having a great track car can easily cross over into a great street car, with a few sacrifices and all that. (Harder suspensions, some people would call my harness a sacrifice, etc.)
And better tires. Kuhmo AST’s? Say it ain’t so!
Shhhhh! Yeah, definitely need better tires… ASX’s at the very least, but maybe I can get her some SPT’s as well. Or, after we move, something nice & crazy since I won’t be driving all over oblivion.
If you want to get seriously into Time Attack, you’re going to be going the same direction as CSP just with different parts (like a cage, for example). I say keep it casual–it’ll cost you less and be perhaps more fun.
Not serious, if I wanted to be serious I’m gonna pimp myself out to a team… Lol. That and they had mentioned initiating a program to get more women involved in racing, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for more info on that. (They haven’t released anything yet to my knowledge.)
First and foremost my Miata is my daily driver, but she’s a pretty good weekend racer at this point and it’s about all I could ask for now.
As long as you keep to the “weekend racer” level of prep, I think you’ll be happier in the long run. It kind of disappoints me to see folks build these all-out monsters and then sell them after a year because they just get bored. When modding the car is all you do, that can happen. Just make sure it’s safe, make sure it runs, and enjoy it!