I’m doing this blog post before I make a YouTube video this time. A lot of my posts these days seem pretty lazy to me. I just pop up a video and blurt out a few thoughts after the fact. Back in the good old days (when I didn’t make videos) I feel like my posts were a bit more thoughtful. That’s what I’m going for here.
When I had my Corvette I remember one of the things that really bothered me was the wheel gap.It was such a big deal to me that I contemplated spending about $3K on drop spindles (not including any installation costs). You can drop a corvette up to a 1/2″ on the car’s stock lowering bolts but knew I wanted to go at least an inch. Of course that didn’t matter because I ended up selling the car long before I got around to any mods like that.
Quite a wheel gap you have there!
When I got my 991 the wheel gap wasn’t large enough to demand my attention. I had lots of other things to do first…
Stock wheel gap here isn’t too bad. It’s hard to believe my car used to look like this 🤔
Fast forward a year or so and dropping the car was on my radar. After doing some research I settled on GMG’s lowering springs and ordered a set. I debated about whether or not to install them for nearly a year. My primary concerns were threefold: 1) How would the springs would affect the ride? 2) I felt stressed out about rubbing the front of the car when I drove over dips and uneven roads* (I have had other lowered cars and have done my fair share of nose grinding). 3) Would the stock wheels look okay on a lowered chassis (the centerlock offsets place the wheels a few mm inside of the fenders).
*This is a big deal on the 991 Turbo series because it has a retracting front spoiler. If you rubbed the underside of the car’s nose you’d actually be grinding the spoiler on the ground.
Eventually I decided to just go for it. I hoped the retractable front spoiler design would allow the car to have the clearance it needed. And who cares about ride quality when your car could look a little nastier. Plus if things didn’t looks right it would be a great excuse to get a new set of wheels. Can I get an “Amen”?
The guys @ Ken Garff were nice enough to take a few pictures of the install for me along the way. Don’t forget- when you have these installed you need to realign the car!
I dropped it off at my dealer on Monday and picked it up on my birthday a few days later. The install went well and when they did the alignment everything was within spec. I couldn’t believe how much of a visual difference the drop made (it ended up being abut an inch). Somehow it changed the car’s whole stance. The reaction at the dealer seemed very positive- several people there expressed how much they liked the modified look.
This is the ride height difference. The bottom of the wheels here are lined up with each other and you can see the gap difference which ended up being about an inch.
My concerns haven’t played out at all (yet?). I don’t really notice a difference in ride quality. It might be slightly stiffer but it’s extremely minimal. No undercarriage rubbing so far (although I still have a few places I haven’t gone yet that worry me). As for the stock wheels- they look good! Would they look better pushed out a hair? Perhaps… but I’m not even going there right now. So for I’m really pleased with this upgrade. Or maybe it’s a downgrade. Recommended 👍
Below is the video I eventually compiled:
From the video: Turns out that some dips are pretty tough to get through. All in all, 99% of the places I drive have been fine (I even went out and did some late night testing of areas where I know I’ll be driving the car).
