Upgrading shocks and springs (possible dumb question)

Not to my knowledge. Why would you want lowering struts & springs, anyhow?

KYB offers all the struts you'll ever need for a Gen1. About $300 a set at Rockauto. Rockauto also sells loaded struts if your springs are sagging or broken. BTW, Autozone will loan out a really nice Coil Spring compressor. Works really well.

 

Different strokes, I guess. The way the car is engineered, it seems to have a pretty low COG, with less than optimum tire air pressure (for fuel consumption) it handles pretty well. KYB shocks are pretty stiff to minimize body roll. Lowering the car would make it bottom out on speed bumps, wouldn't it? Sounds like you need a Miata-maybe turbocharged?

 

If you start to do a bunch of suspension stuff, new control arms w/ ball joints, tie rod ends, and hubs will get you a lot more performance than lowered springs. Swaybar end links, too. You may want aftermarket wheels and wider tires, as well.

I did a complete front end job on a Taurus wagon, except the hubs. Still had a noticeable thud going over speed bums or faults in our crummy Tucson roads. Hubs are cheap--mine are coming friday, I hope.

I would suspect that this isn't the place to ask about performance suspension. Find a speed shop and ask them where to go for performance suspension work. I sorta know about this stuff because I used to autocross a 88 Fiero Formula. (A love/hate relationship.)

You could get a set of springs (wrecking yard or Ebay) and cut out one winding of the coil--not the tapered end. That would lower your car by a bit, you don't have much to work with. I would worry about the struts accommodating a shortened spring, which is why I'd do it on some spare springs. That's what the guys on the Taurus Club forum do. Just don't cut the tapered end.

 

I'd definitely go with the KYBs. I've tried the cheap ones, never again. KYB is the OEM supplier.