Thankfully, I do have many friends because of cars, it’s just always seemed to me that it’s harder to make friends, but I’ve never really been the type to have a lot of friends either. I just like knowing a bunch of people and being able to talk to them, though I do consider the people in the Miata club we belong to to be good friends.

Seems to go with the territory, I’m afraid. I used to be into bikes–old Harleys, old Brit and old bologna-slicers mostly–and I met a lot of good folks, but rarely did it ever approach what one might term a lasting relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I formed many acquaintances that seemed a lot like friendship, but they were always more “business” in nature. Had a lot of great rides and spent many quality hours BS-ing about bikes over beers while pretending to work on something, but it was still “business”. Once my interests shifted, or theirs did, to something else (like growing tired of BSAs and suddenly became enamored with Guzzis or etc) the relationship would effectively end. Since I’ve pretty much gotten out of the bike scene, I never hear from any of those guys and gals. It’s an odd thing.

I suppose the difference is, friends are in it because of you, hobby/interest acquaintances are there only for the shared hobby/interest.

Great stuff, BTW. For what it’s worth, I think you come across as a true car-nut. Gender need not apply. That’s a compliment. Keep enjoying what you enjoy and don’t worry about what kind of impression you give. None of us are really worth impressing anyway.

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.

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.

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.

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!