American suspension tuner Fortune Auto has just released an interesting lowering spring system that will work on cars with adaptive dampers, namely the U.S.-spec Honda Civic Type R and Toyota Supra. I got a closer look at the SEMA show this week.
Lowering springs are primarily a cosmetic mod. There may be some handling performance gains gleaned from lowering a car’s center of gravity and increasing spring rates, but that’s going to vary a lot from kit to kit.
Fortune Auto’s Variable Height Lowering Spring (VHLS) kits do more than just lower a vehicle, though. The setup allows you to adjust your ride height at each corner without losing the different settings (sport, comfort, ect.) of your stock dampers.
The main difference between the VHLS and a more traditional lowering spring is that Fortune Auto’s kit comes with an adjustable perch, so you can screw it in or out to set a desired ride height before installing. The company’s reps told me you can pretty much alter it between stock height and about a 1.5-inch drop while keeping the factory dampers.
This clip explains the item pretty clearly:
The more complex cars get, the harder they become to modify. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but this is a pretty neat solution for people who want to drop their CTR or new Supra a little without ditching the high-quality factory adaptive dampers or spending big money on coilovers.
You can order VHLS now for the current (A90) Toyota Supra, current (FL5) Honda Civic Type R, and previous (FK8) CTR too. It’s about $1,000 for Civics and $850 for Supras before shipping as of this writing.