Lowering Your Viva

Here the bottomline on lowering your car.

Many think that the keys to good handling are super-low profile tires, stiff springs, rock-hard shocks, wrist-thick "sway" bars, and slammed-to-the-ground suspensions. "Many" are mistaken. Done haphazardly, these "improvements" can make a car SLOWER around a racetrack and punishing on the street.

Radical Lowering
Let's start with radical lowering. It's easy to take the suspension out of its optimal operating range, which means the tires aren't level with the road during braking and cornering. Do we need to say that this hurts grip? Also, an over-lowered suspension will likely toe in or out as the wheels move over bumps and during cornering. This is called bump-steer. If bump-steer happens in the rear, it feels like you're driving a hook-and-ladder fire truck with an uncooperative trailer driver. In the front, it feels as if the steering has a mind of its own.


Even worse is when the over-lowered suspension hits the limit of its travel during a hard corner. The suspension literally bangs into its bump stop. The spring rate at that corner goes toward infinity and the grip goes toward zero. If this happens to the rear suspension in a hard corner, the car will snap sideways. If the front hits its bump stop, the car will take off on a tangent as if you were swinging a rock on a string and suddenly let go. Either way, it's totally unpredictable for the driver. One of the worst things for a driver is a suspension that just barely taps the bump-stops every now and then—the car acts like it's demonically possessed and the poor driver can't figure out why.

Show or Go?
Racers lower their cars to reduce the center of gravity, which can improve cornering. But then they raise suspension-mounting points and install completely redesigned components, so the suspension remains in its designed operating range. For the street, slammed suspensions are strictly for show, not go.

Total Package
If you're determined to lower your suspension, buy a complete kit from an established tuner. Talk to someone who's installed the package. Stiffening suspension springs or anti-roll bars (often incorrectly called sway bars) REDUCE grip on that end of the car. The correct technique is to use as soft a spring/bar package as will do the job.

History Of The Perodua Kancil

The first Perodua compact car is Perodua Kancil


The Perodua Kancil (also known as the Perodua Nippa in the United Kingdom, and the Daihatsu Ceria in Indonesia) is a city car manufactured by Malaysian automobile manufacturer Perodua since 1994. The Kancil is named after the mousedeer (chevrotain) native to Malaysia.

Overview

The Kancil was Perodua's first car after its founding in 1993. It is a small five-door hatchback vehicle on a monocoque framework that could seat five people. The Kancil and its predecessors are actually a modified Daihatsu Mira through badge engineering. Badge engineering is prevalent in Malaysia's automotive industry since it began in 1985 with carmaker Proton. Subsequent Kancils were only rejuvenated cosmetically as Perodua maintained the monocoque structure and tweaked with its engines.

Reception and production

Following its release in 1994, the Kancil became an instant success in Malaysia. The Kancil is popular with beginner drivers and is commonly used in Malaysian driving schools. It was also preferable for its fuel efficiency and easier for parking due to its size. In December 1995, Perodua produced its 50,000th Kancil. By January 1997, 100,000 Kancils had been manufactured, and by 1999 250,000 had been built.

The Kancil was sold in the United Kingdom as the Perodua Nippa before it replace by Perodua Kelisa, and rebadge in Indonesia between 2000 and 2006 as the Daihatsu Ceria.

Facelifts and replacement

The original Kancil underwent two minor facelifts. In 1997, the car's grille and bumpers were better integrated to support to a larger grille and rounded indicator lights. In 2000, the car was given another slight facelift consisting of body-coloured side mouldings, a new grille and reprofiled front bumper with larger indicators.

The Kancil received more extensive restyling in 2002, featuring rounder headlights, taillights and bumpers; its rear license plate was also repositioned onto its hatch from the bumper below. Its interior features a flushed dashboard with the combination instrumentation panel placed in the middle similar to that of the Toyota Yaris. However, it is still mechanically identical to its predecessor, except for the EZi automatic transmission option which is given a fuel-injected powerplant.

Although the Perodua Viva, a new model based on the new Daihatsu Mira, was widely considered a legitimate replacement for the long-running Kancil, Perodua had decided to continue selling the old Kancil and replaced the Perodua Kelisa instead on May 11, 2007.

Models

The Kancil currently was sold in three variants:
Kancil 660EX- 659 cc three-cylinder carbureted in-line engine, 29 hp (22.1 kW), five-speed manual transmission, black bumpers and door rub strips. RM 22,055.
Kancil 850EX- 847 cc three-cylinder carbureted in-line engine, 36 hp (25.5 kW), five-speed manual transmission, body-color bumpers and rub strips. RM 27,227.
Kancil 850EZi- 847 cc three-cylinder fuel-injected in-line engine, 49 hp (34.7 kW), three-speed automatic transmission, body color bumpers and rub strips. RM 32,039.