Is there a way to improve the handling of an EL without lowering it? i'd like to maintain the ride height but improve it's response in the twisty stuff.

Any thoughts??

Up-spec the Anti-roll bars, stiffer aftermarket springs, Notholane. Dunno thats what i would say.
Lowering does reduce height of the center of gravity, thereby making it less prone to body roll, but there are other ways...

You can get stiffer standard height springs too, as well as sway bars.

BenJ

Start with a fresh set of gas shocks.

Fatter tires as well. If you have 205s you can easy get 215s or even 225s.

email whiteline and tell them that. they will sort you out with a good set of shockies (not monroe gts or anything like that) and some heavy duty swaybars.

i've got that on mine, handles like a dream. i also lowered it, the springs make a difference too obviously, but the shocks and bars will make a bigger impact. (thats my understanding of it anyway)

but you should lower it... looks way better!!

Bilstein Sport or Koni Sport shocks make a massive difference in pretty much every aspect of suspension performance while leaving everything else the same.

A lot of people focus on body roll, too much i think. Body roll actually has only a small role to play in handling. But anyway, there are two main elements to body roll, i'll call them 'static' and 'dynamic'.

Static body roll is simply the cornering G-force acting on the Centre of Gravity. This is how far the body will roll if you drive in a circle of the same diameter at the same speed. Shock absorbers have essentially no effect on this. It is experienced the most in long sweeping corners. Static body roll can causes problems when there isn't enough bump travel left to absorb road bumps, and of course if the driver's body isn't braced well enough. Otherwise it doesn't much affect the handling of the car.

Dynamic body roll is caused mainly by steering input and also by changes in road camber. To keep it simple, the firmer the shock absorbers, the less body roll there will be in dynamic situations. More specifically, the more damping there is at low piston speeds (bilstein - digressive), the less dynamic roll there will be.

now im confused. You know your stuff.

Quality shocks and uprated bushes all round will yield dramatic improvement over standard without lowering.

As in the previous post, the shocks contribute a lot. Good new bushes will mount all suspension components exactly where they're supposed to be and will keep those components there. Nolothane are supposed to be pretty hard...another option (which is still uprated) would be to replace with SuperPro (from Fulcrum), as they're more intermediate.

This will get the most out of the car's handling. Then could do swaybars to finish. Good luck!

Cars with stiff lowered coils and stiff swaybars and s**t/worn/underdone shocks are the cars that make people unhappy and get sold cheap.

H/D coils and H/D swaybars need good shocks more than std coils and swaybars. In which case make sure the shocks are right first, you need to anyway, and then decide about the rest (although when you get the shocks you may need to know whether you will be lowering it later or not, experience helps).