Hmmmmmm - - - - - -
Looks like I've opened a can of worms here! Here's my experience, and it's not based on some baseless prejudice, but real-world experience.
I've had the distinctly unpleasant experience of attending the funerals of four of my students over the past several years, all killed in altered-suspension vehicles, three of them lowered. Each time, it was a loss-of-control, single-vehicle accident. One lowered pickup hydroplaned during a thunderstorm, putting the truck and its occupants into a 3-foot diameter tree. Result, one killed, two injured. One of the survivors is a quadraplegic. Next- - -loss-of-control accident, also a lowered pickup. Passenger died when his neck was broken by contact with the seat belt. He had the seat reclined, and apparently hung himself on the shoulder belt. He was a good, straight-A student, with plans to open his own body shop. Next- - -high-speed chase, involving a stolen lowrider, driven by one of my students, with 2 of his friends onboard. He lost control in a curve, and rolled the truck into a tree. Driver decapitated, passengers killed on impact. Next- - - -a student was killed on his way to school, in a vehicle I had refused to allow him to lower in the school shop. He had a friend torch-heat the springs, and died one week later while attempting to avoid a stopped vehicle ahead of him at a stoplight. He ran head-on into an 18-wheeler in the oncoming lane. Witnesses to the wreck said he made several attempts to control the skid, and got further out of shape with every steering correction. I work in a public school automotive shop, and I will not put myself, and my employer at risk of multi-million-dollar lawsuits by midifying suspension systems, or even allowing altered-suspension vehicles in my shop. For those of you considering suspension modifications professionally, be aware that you're assuming liability for any and all damage done by the vehicle for the remainder of the time it's on the road. My brother is a very successful attorney, and he could take a shop to the cleaners in a liability suit involving an accident with a modified vehicle. Maybe some of you are willing to assume the risk, but I'm not about to put myself, or my employer, in that kind of jepoardy.
The round-track cars I fabricate are intended to do only one thing, go fast, and turn left. We do that under extremely strict safety and construction rules, with equipment that has been developed for the purpose. We also have safety and medical crews on-site, prepared to react instantly to a mishap. How long will someone on the street have to wait for assistance, especially if an accident happens at night, on a stretch of road that's not well-traveled? The risk isn't worth the reward. Nobody looks cool in a casket, regardless of how nice his lowered truck looked before he wrecked it.
Jerry
