Era 2054

[JPit]

I’ve had my ERA for almost a year now and have put roughly 700 miles on the car. As summer comes to an end I want to start preparing some winter projects for the car.
First on the list is the way the 17in wheels look. I don’t like the way they fill out the wheel wells and I would prefer knock offs instead of the bolt on rims. The car is definitely sitting too high in the front as per the ERA manual. The chassis is set at about 5 1/4in all around which is about ½ an inch too high in the front. The mammoth tires (front 275/40, rear 335/35) also makes the steering feel a bit heavy for around town driving.
I would like to take the suspension down at least ½ in the front to 4.75in, possibly even a little more before I change the wheels. I would like to see how the17in wheels fill out the wells before I make the decision to replace them with 15in wheels. What height do most of you guys have your FIA’s set too, and how much ground clearance do you have with your under car exhaust. Right now my exhaust only sits 3in off the ground at the lowest point and I’m afraid if I take the suspension down I might run into (literally) speed bump and curb issues. I might need to do some exhaust work and tuck the pipes in a little closer, but I am sure that will require some additional heat shielding.
If I do go the whole distance and switch to 15in knock offs how big a job and how much do you think the whole process will cost? Right now the car drives perfectly (with the exception of the heavy steering) so I am a little concerned to mess with a good thing. I would hate to spend a decent penny and end up with a car that doesn’t drive as well. Aesthetics and street driving are my primary objectives because I doubt I will ever track the car.
I also have one other nit picking issue and that is with the flex in the dashboard. When I am parking and have to apply brute force to turn the steering wheel the dash (where the steering column is attached) flexes about ¼ inch. Translated out to the end of the steering column where the steering wheel is and it causes about a ½ move in the steering wheel whether up or down. I was wondering if anyone else had any issues with the strength of their dash boards (race dash) and how they resolved it. Overall this really isn’t a big issue, but I still want to make the car as perfect as I can.
I uploaded the pictures to an album on my site, but can't get them to post here (why is it so difficult) if anyone wants to take a look. I'll try again tomorrow to attach the pictures to the post.