The following is a fact, low cars look cool.  When designers draw their concepts the cars generally sit low, with wheels filling the arches.  Whilst some may look down on it we modify our cars to be more aesthetically pleasing to us and we are in general moving them more towards the designers original vision.



The funny thing is this, once someone starts doing something there is an urge to push it further.  From speed records to drag racing, from hot rods to bosozoku if someone has done something then someone will inevitably want to do that thing more.



When someone first lowered a car from that moment onwards it became inevitable that someone would want to get it lower and lower and lower, until we reach the point we are at now where minitrucks are removing sills in order to lay it lower.

The thing is now there are two schools of thought, hardslam and everyone else.  Those that love hardslam say that a car is only properly lowered if it is sat on a set of springs.  There really is something insanely cool, and a little deranged, about a car that permanently sits at a height where small bumps in the road shake the whole car and cause sparking from those parts unfortunate enough to be the closest to the road.



In the retro world hardslam is the norm, either through shortened springs or coilovers.  There are changes coming though, as more and more people are moving beyond the accepted 'normal' retro cars, VWs, Fords and the like into cars that don't have off the shelf coil over kits, people are turning to air ride.


By using tricks learned from low riders people are getting their cars sill scrapingly low and everyday useable.  The modern Euro and US VAG scene have been using air ride for a while and it has bled over into the old watercooled VW scene, which has in turn influenced the wider retro scene.



It is even a reasonable proposition for cars designed to go fast, remove the springs, use an external compressor for your bags (like air jacks do) and you've got yourself a reasonably light weight almost infinitely adjustable suspension set up.  Something to consider at least.