Lowering the 458

hey there,

Lowered mine using factory springs, maximum I could lower was exactly 23 mm front, and 22 mm back. As mentioned in other posts, factory is not always accurate on all 4 sides, and many arrive with slightly different heights, so the range may be 19-24 mm depending on how high your came.
absolutely no difference is ride quality, i have never hit bottom, even riding over larger speed bumps etc. i think it looks perfect with 20" wheels, if you are going with larger wheels, you may want to consider changing springs. keep in mind, what looks ideal is the right proportion of tire sidewall and wheel gap between the fender. if you have larger wheels with lower profile tires, the gap needs to be less proportional.

hope that was helpful

 

Question to those that have lowered there car.
What does the rear bottom rocker measure & front rocker measure to the edges from the ground?

 

But why do Euro cars always look a bit lower? Do they come cranked down from Ferrari? Or are they using a different spring set up?

 

the same can be said for Porsches. They get the lower ROW (rest of world) ride height springs when US cars are coming in an inch higher. Porsche techs said that the US bumper laws required the higher heights to meet the impact areas on other cars on the road.

 

Yep that's my understanding as well but I'm curious if the suspension parts are different in this case or the same parts with a couple of dials down.

 

They are different they would have to be if the car is 20-25mm's lower in euro than the US I noticed with out the helper spring the novitecs are 20-25 mm's shorter than the stock springs I need some measurement on your guys lower car I think mine maybe a tad to low anyone touching there nose I have a shoe on it so it makes it worst

 

So it would be better to replace the US spec parts for Euro spec parts... Seemingly better compatibility...?

SV

 

This topic comes up its fair share. I am one of the first I know of to lower my car. Almost 2 and 1/2 years later, several track events, long drives and my steeper than normal driveway I have had NO issues! The car does ride a little stiffer in normal mode and I find myself using the 'bumpy' button with my wife in the car. I cannot give a lot of feedback on before and after because my car was done at Ferrari dealer when it landed so lowered is all I know.

Using my previous lowered F cars as a baseline... the 458 is a much smoother ride.

I just posted this pic on the model thread. Noticed how low the factory model sits!

Cheers,

Rb
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From what I have been told... the entire world gets the same springs.

Rb

 

Great feedback Rob! Do you recall what mm you went with? I lowered my F430 by adjusting and it's been fine. I lowered my 599 with springs and its definitely stiffer on the road. Hoping the 458 behaves like the F430 in terms of post height adjustment.

 

Prices are changing on Novitec parts in the next day or two. I can honor current prices until I get the new price lists. If you are thinking about any Novitec parts you should order now to save some money!

I have a few sets of Novitec springs in stock and can ship them out to you tomorrow.

 

lowered a full 2 inches in front and 1.5 in back adjusting stock springs, put novitec 20mm back and 15mm front spacers and bmc carbon racing air filter and capristo exhaust bypass system > amazing ride !!

 

Your car looks perfect at the 20 mm lowered height.

When your dealer lowered your car did they have to do an alignment, I would think this would need to be done?

My dealer is asking $1500 to do an alignment and lower the car, does this sound reasonable?

 

My 458 with the front lift will be built next month, and I would really like to know which one of the above posters is correct!

 

If you have the factory lift suspension you cannot do any adjustment to lower it. You will need to buy the Novitec springs.

 

There is a bunch of stuff on these threads that makes the adjustment of these lower spring perches sound more complex than it is.

Changing the position of the lower spring perch has no effect on the compression of the spring when the car is sitting - it also has no effect on the spring rate. All that is happening is that the position of the lower control arm attachment point to the spring is changed. All that is compressing the spring is the weight of the vehicle - no matter where the perch is adjusted... up to the point that the suspension bottoms out, there is no effect on spring rate.

The risk of lowering the car using this adjustment (or any method) is that you are losing suspension travel of the same amount - if you had enough threads on the adjustment, you could literally go to the point that there is no travel at all. Since the force provided by a spring is proportional to the displacement, the force required to hit the bump stop is proportional to the travel - the less travel required, the less force required to bottom out. At some point, the travel/force to hit the stop is so small that stiffer spring need to be used to prevent that from happening.

IMO people under estimate the effect of these adjustments a bit - the total travel at that point in the suspension is probably less than 4 inches (someone can measure how much of the shock rod is available on the stock if they want) lowering the car by an 1 inch will probably use up .75 inch of the available travel - so the spring force preventing bottoming out will decrease substantially - say 20%+.

Since so many people have done it without any trouble, there seems to be enough margin built in to handle it - when the talk is of drops of 1.5 or 2", then the loss of force at the travel limit becomes really large and IMO the chances of suspension damage due to potholes goes way up unless much stiffer springs are used.

I am skeptical of the resulting tuning of this vehicle with non-OEM spring rates - the MR suspension system is tuned for the characteristics of the OE springs (as is the shock valving)- so a simple spring swap seems like a pretty crude adjustment to make just for aesthetics - although again it is evidently fine for many folks.
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Huge Improvement!

 

The previous post that states that you cannot lower a 458 with the front lifter w/o changing the springs is incorrect. I have personnally seen cars with the factory front lifters that have been lowered. No issue whatsoever. The amount of adjustment is reduced because the front lifter takes up space (sits on top of the lower spring perch).

 

thanks, here is new pic with the front lowered another 1/8 of an inch, not going any lower!
also put 20mm novitec spacers in the back and 15mm in the front and a bmc carbon racing air
filter and a capristo exhaust bypass system, result: making an ethereal drive even more amazing!
ps i was worried about the tyres rubbing on the body of the car since it is lowered to the max and has spacers
but no issues even with a 220lbs passenger lol
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I have the factory lift system. Therefor it could not be lowered as much as I wanted. Only 1 cm in the front. The rear could be lowered enough.

I know somebody who has the car lowered with the factory suspension, they had no problems and it looks amazing. This is the car: Ferrari 458 Italia - 2012-12-09 - Autogespot

Novitec came with the awnser for me. The dealer fitted the Novitec-coils and adjusted the car exactly how I wanted. The only problem is that when driving with the stock wheels (I have the genuine 'FF-style' wheels), you need a set of spacers. I now only have spacers for the rear (20mm).

When it got delivered home I fitted the Novitec NF4's, I love the looks! The wheels in combination with the lowering are amazing and don't need spacers at all.
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Jason, I hope I am wrong, but considering how many people disagree with you on this subject, it sure sounds like you are trying to move more product off your shelves by saying there is ZERO room for adjustment. While you may not be able to slam a lift equipped car, 1-2 cm sounds like a possibility.....which is all I need.

 

I can't say enough about the Novitec springs the dealer installed a shoe on the front which I touch every so often I suggest your rockers be level for a clean even ride when I first installed the novitecs the front rocker was .5" lower which needed to be corrected if you go to low there are rubber bumpers on the top of the front wheel well at the fender bumper seam if you put your hand you can feel it at that seam I've seen other cars wear that down with the tire chipping at it

 

I am only saying what I have been told, not trying to push product.

 

430-Scuderia. . .you gotta post some more pictures of your car! That little teaser simply doesn't do it justice. Love the wheels (what I can see of them) and love the color!

 

;-) Sorry for the crappy phone pictures. When the weather is better I will ask somebody to take a few decent photos.
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