Shortest Front Strut I can use

[HarryPotter]

Besides billy sports, what are the other non bmw or non e30 based struts that will fit in the front and be much shorter than the stock ones.

I know there are some in the camero shock thread, but I can't look through all that.

[Mr. Tasty]

mr2 rears are 4 inches shorter than stock
fronts are 2 inches shorter.

[HarryPotter]

Don't both of em require some type of milling of the top of the strut and a special bearing?

[Mr. Tasty]

the shaft that the strut mounts to is 15mm. E30's have a 14mm OD, so you will need to remove 1mm of material from the shaft. Other than that, pretty much bolt on, not including the sectioning of the strut housing or adding a spacer to the bottom of the strut.

[DER E30]

What about iX shocks?

[nando]

you don't need shorter rear shocks. you'll bottom out the trailing arms and completely bind the coils before you get that low.

ix fronts are several inches shorter. you can get koni race inserts which are 2" shorter than that. but I doubt you would need them that short on a RWD car - you compromise droop travel.

[djjerme]

You can use the G60 Shocks in front. Body length is almost about the same as iX fronts, and these are what GC starts with for their E30 setup, then revalves them.

I have used both for my home made coilovers in the race car.

Though, these should really only be used if you have sectioned and rewelded the front strut housing. If you cut it down short enough that you don't need spacers in the housing, you can get really, really low. Even with spacers/G60 struts and 6" front springs, I am able to drop my car below what is legal in PRO3. I think the absolute bottom ended up being 2.5" off the ground measured just behind the front wheel at the bottom corner of the body..

For rears, I used Koni Fox body mustang shocks.

That is the setup currently on the car and in my sig.

[nando]

corrado inserts are a little shorter than the ix right? I'd think ix konis would make more sense. I ran some VW inserts for a while, they fit OK but the strut nuts were a little larger and more of a pain to put together, plus I had to run a spacer.

[djjerme]

Even with the iX, you will need to run a spacer. I have a set sitting on my bench at home.. The VW inserts worked fine with my existing camber plates (which are the same that I used for the iX inserts.)

But yes, they are a smidge shorter.

And by smidge, I mean it was three or four fender washers vs. two for the iX. It really just depends on what you have or have not done with the strut housing.

The thing to watch out for is bottoming out the shock. And that depends a lot on the rest of your suspension. With my race car, there is not a whole lot of travel (unless something goes horribly wrong) so I can run a shorter shock body/rod and spring. On my street car, I wouldn't because of Portland's love affair with speed bumps and severe lack of street maintenance.

Remember, all the shock is really supposed to do is dampen oscillation of the suspension after initial compression or rebound. Ride height, and stiffness of the initial compression or rebound is supposed to be reliant on your spring height (compressed and static), force required to compress it (lbs for many in the states) and you sway bars...

Shocks seem to be one of those things that get blamed for a lot of things they don't or shouldn't be affecting.. Of course, what works in theory is not always real life. ;)