coilovers and lowering springs?

I'm looking to buy some H&R springs for my lude but i was wondering if anybody knows how lowering springs ride compared to coilovers because my friend has a set of ground control coilovers on his eclipse and it rides like shit.

Depends on how much the H&R springs lower the car and how high the spring-rates are. Your friend that has the GC "coilovers"(in actuality, they are only springs with adjustable perches) probably is riding the on the stock shocks. The GC spring-rates are significantly higher than stock which the stock shocks are not valved to control that high of spring-rate. He probably has the springs set on the lowest perch setting as possible which he is riding on the bumpstops and makes the car ride extremely rough and bounces over bumps like a po-go stick. His car not only rides like shit, but it also handles like shit even though it feels fast.

There is no reason to go cheap on suspension upgrades unless all you want it a "cool" slammed look. In this case, just go ahead and buy GC "coilovers" and run them on stock shocks and be "cool" and have the racy feeling and look. Just don't expect this setup to make your car turn fast lap times or handle better.

Also, just to clerify once again that these "coilovers" you guys talk about are not coilovers. You car already has coilovers; a spring mounted on a perch connected to a shock/strut.

In the aftermarket, ther are two types of "coilovers". The ones that you are thinking of that have a spring with an adjustable perch for the height and the other ones. The other ones are made by Tein, JIC, Bilstein, Cusco, Ohlins, Zeal, etc. These coilovers come with shocks specifically valved and engineered for the spring-rates they come with and made to work together. Each company has units that range from full-out race setups to the street-base setups that are a step up from the typical spring and shock combo. These coilovers can have a variety of features such as, heigh adjustability, rebound damping adjustability, shock length adjustability, inverted shock design, aluminum monotube shock design, etc.

So what choices do you have?

Ricer Setup - Springs or Springs with adjustable perches over stock shocks.

Handling on a Budget Setup - Springs or Springs with adjustable perches over aftermarket shocks such as Koni, KYB AGX, etc.

The Best and Most Expensive - Coilovers that have springs and shocks that are engineered to work in unison.

My advice for you(and all the other people new to suspension and want to do it right) is to pick up High-Performance Handling Handbook by Don Alexander for very good and understandable information. This book will not tell you how to setup your car but it will give you the right knowledge to pick your own setup(given that you know enough about your own car). If the expensive coilovers are not what you have in mind, atleast do youself a favor and save up for a good set of springs(GC) and a good set of shocks(Koni, AGX, etc) and don't slam it.