Quote:
Originally Posted by ex o
I'll let someone else handle the question about the sway bars. My inclination is that the M3/M4 sway bars are well suited for the job.
As far as needing coilovers to fit wider tires... who told you that malarkey? If anything some coilover kits will actually rub the tire if you go with a wider wheel/tire. The best way to fit a wider tire is to get a more aggressive offset on the wheels. And there are plenty of threads that go over that topic.
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I'll post this in here since it's easier to post a link that someone else as spent the time to explain how something works sometimes rather than type it all out myself:
http://speed.academy/how-swaybars-work/
Very good information in that article.
As far as coilovers vs wheel/tire size. You are SORTA correct, how correct you are depends on the car we are talking about and options it came with. For these cars it is possible to gain a little bit of space (but not a ton) other Strut based cars can gain a ton of space.
As a rule most factory strut based cars come with a spring perch that starts ABOVE the tire, this means that the spring does not have any impact on your backspacing. Switching to coilovers can many time bring the spring down to the same height and so you'd then lose backspacing. Sometimes if your spring doesn't come into play messing with things MORE space can be gained as some aftermarket dampers are smaller in physical diameter than OEM so you gain just a tad more backspacing as a result of changing the dampers.
In a case that doesn't apply here but does on many other strut based cars...when you have camber adjustments at both the top of the strut (camber plate) and at the bottom usually via a slotted top bolt (eccentric bolt) you can add as much camber as possible via the top of the strut then pull it back out at the bottom resulting is a similar alignment but with a ton of added backspacing (you basically be putting the suspension at a greater angle).
Offset is the location of the mounting surface of the wheel. If your goal is nothing other than to get a bigger tire without permanently modifying the car then the options like I mentioned which all have to do with aftermarket suspension could allow for sometimes as much 1 inch larger wheel. Weather or not you should do this or it's the best option for you is a whole other discussion.