I’ve done some reading/searching but most info is kinda dated, so here we are;
What’s your experience with which brand of lowering springs for the L700? Good/bad/ugly, any info is much appreciated 
Cheers!
My experience is that most people ruin their car lowering them. Seldom does anyone consider spring rate and the damping (shocks). Attempts to replicate stance/slam looks are usually at the expense of good handling, traction and ride.
Lowering a car with std struts/shocks reduces bump travel, often such that they ride mostly on the bump stops. A shorter strut/shock should be used to balance out the percentage of bump/drop.
Brand means little if the car ends up with the wrong rate. A front wheel drive needs all the grip it can get sitting equally on the front tires. As such, the font needs a lower/softer rate than the rear - by a long way. Best bet, even on a quick road fwd, is to keep the standard front rate. The rear though can be double/tripled or in some cases quadrupled. L700 from memory in the front is about 140ft/lb. The rear is a bit more, but one must consider they are not acting 1:1. A wild guess is 200ft/lb in the rear. Keep near 160ft/lb for front in lowered spring and start at 350-400ft/lb in the rear. If you don’t believe this then at least install new rear and see how it drives. Then do the front and see if it handles better or worse with whatever spring you’ve bought (best would be to see if the manufacturer will give you rates - many won’t - but you can measure them yourself and use an online calc). For custom springs I have used King Springs (Gold Coast Australian or Fulkner Springs Westergate UK). Spring need to allow the tires to follow the road and the front need most grip so soft front lets that happen and a stiff rear helps transfer load to the front (best to do this with springs rather than stiff sway bars).
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Thanks for the valuable input Mr_Gormsby! Some nice numbers to have for future reference.
Considering my application though, i’m not looking for the absolute best min-max setup. A ball-park would be nice, the car’s just my daily go-getter and I want it to look good and handle decently. For spirited driving I’ve got an RX8 with a propperly laid out suspension package down to a T. That said, I certainly won’t blow ur advice to the wind - just tempering it a little to fit my purpose.
Most spring kits i’ve seen so far follow the principle you laid out - marginally stiffer up front, double or triple rates in the rear. What I do read a lot though is too much of a drop becoming problematic on the stock shocks, essentially putting them too close to full bump to still be driveable / have any usefull stroke left. What’s ur idea on this? Will 30, 35 or 40mm do this?
Thanks again!
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You’ll need to do some measuring. 40mm at a guess will have it hitting on the bump stops on B roads. I put the car together on stands with the springs removed on one side and jack the suspension up and down with trolley jacks and measure the difference between full drop, desired ride height and full compression. My L200 ended up 75mm lower with custom short struts and diff rear dampers.
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Been driving since march on ta technix lowering springs and kyb excel g dampers, almost everyday for the last 2 months as my daily is broken.
I live in a village and drive to work on b roads with somewhat bad surface, google “buzet hillclimb” to see the type of roads.
What I can tell you from on road experience is that they are a good balance, not firm, they give a sporty feel and coupled with low profile tires have almost eliminated swaying when entering curves. It is NOT a race car just a bit more fun than before 
Brands in the Netherlands I have good experiences with: VMAXX and Cobra. Intrax and AST make some as well. I’m not a big fan of the Intrax springs, I don’t have any experiences with AST.
Cobra springs would be my pick, although they are a bit more expensive. VMAXX is fine, decent value for money!
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I’ve used some basic brandless lowering springs although not on a L7 but on a sirion. Max I would go is min 30mil wich looks nice but still only makes you scrape on really steep bumps. If you’ve got the time I would suggest you calculate what springs you want/need and buy them separately instead of a standard lowering kit. The fronts I use are still the lowering springs but my rear springs are from a Suzuki Alto and they are way better than those that came with the kit. It is a bit of a search but you’ll get way better results but it won’t cost you more. The kit was 100 euro while the Suzuki springs were 44. There are some calculators online which you can use to determine what spring you need.
Although the comfort has lowered, I really like the driveability of my car. Way better grip and allot less sagging when transporting stuff/people.
Thanks for the input,
When you say your rear springs are from an Alto, do you mean they’re OEM springs of a certain year/model or aftermarket springs?
There are OEM springs from what I believe was a alto from 96. But I could be mistaken. Just look for the right with and height. Calculate the strength of the spring and what you need and find a spring that matches.
Ok so I managed to the the specs of the stock springs by throwing the measurements of new springs from a webshop into Spring Force Calculator Online - Over 40,000 Springs in Stock.
Next step would be to input a shorter total spring length and increase the coil thickness for a stiffer spring?
After I have those numbers, how would one go about finding what vehicle has springs that match?
Yep that’s how I calculated it. But beware of the sag the spring gets when under load. If you measure the height of your own spring when installed and the car on the ground and measure it when it’s out of the car. Combine that with the stiffness of the OEM spring. That gives you a rough idea, although a stiffer spring wil sag less and less the stiffer it gets.
The way I searched for my spring is by searching for a car that might has the spring you need depending on what spring you are searching for. I searched for about twice as stiff as OEM. Measure how stiff that spring is with the online details and hope that it fits. Just measure the current springs and make sure that the inside diameter is the same as OEM.
Have you thought about getting way stiffer springs in the back as for more grip in the front?
It takes some calculating and measuring but I still think it was worthwhile. And you can say it was build not bought 