High spring rates

[cheades]

I know after 2 years of 440/660 my interior now has some squeaks and rattles that it never used to have.

[nando]

truer words have never been spoken. one of the reasons im parting my car out is because it was so stiff. it murdered everything. should have never driven it on the street

how stiff is "so stiff"? for us underedumacated poorer folks. ;)

[T3rd Ferguson]

And...

I'll add a word of caution.

When you really start increasing spring rates (and stabilizer bar stiffness as well) shit really starts to break.

This stuff has it's place on the track but on the street...

truer words have never been spoken. one of the reasons im parting my car out is because it was so stiff. it murdered everything. should have never driven it on the street

[Elliot]

At that point I was running on hankooks RS 2. now i have a new set of toyo's r888.

[DCColegrove]

And...

I'll add a word of caution.

When you really start increasing spring rates (and stabilizer bar stiffness as well) shit really starts to break.

This stuff has it's place on the track but on the street...

[DSP74]

A good friend of my (tuner and driver of the element tuning time attack STI) saw the car on a road course and he didn't like the weight transfer on the car. Too soft spring rates. I replaced the shock with ...... cosmo coil overs 440 front/ 560 rear. Now the car feels a lot better and more predictable. I improved my times a lot to the point that I am currently chasing a 2007 civic Si. My car weights 2600lbs

There is only one problem here....You aren't reducing weight transfer by adding stiffer springs....The only measureable way to reduce weight transfer is to lighten the car, widen the car, and lower the C/G. Some people forget this and think ANY roll is bad.....
It could be due to several factors such as simply how the car feels to you, why you got faster. Or less dynamic geometry changes...Most likely you were faster due to better camber control.........

When working with a car that is purely production based you make use of what you have. And therefore it needn't be overly complicated......We aren't redesigning the wheel here......IMO.

[Jean]

I am going to add my 2 cents here. I started with HR oe sport, bilstein and 19mm ST rear sway bar. The car felt good but was too loose on the back. then I added the front sway (22mm) and it was very neutral. A good friend of my (tuner and driver of the element tuning time attack STI) saw the car on a road course and he didn't like the weight transfer on the car. Too soft spring rates. I replaced the shock with ...... cosmo coil overs 440 front/ 560 rear. Now the car feels a lot better and more predictable. I improved my times a lot to the point that I am currently chasing a 2007 civic Si. all in all I would suggest rate of 350 to 450 for the front and 450-600 on the rear. About the sway bars I haven't tried the removal or the stock rear but it seems it will help since most of the time I am lifting the inner rear tire in a couple of the sharp turns in our local track.
My car weights 2600lbs with me in and a full tank of fuel.

Thanks, I am not going softer with the rates though since I've had 500front/650rear already. Are you on street tires or dot-r tires?

[Elliot]

I am going to add my 2 cents here. I started with HR oe sport, bilstein and 19mm ST rear sway bar. The car felt good but was too loose on the back. then I added the front sway (22mm) and it was very neutral. A good friend of my (tuner and driver of the element tuning time attack STI) saw the car on a road course and he didn't like the weight transfer on the car. Too soft spring rates. I replaced the shock with ...... cosmo coil overs 440 front/ 560 rear. Now the car feels a lot better and more predictable. I improved my times a lot to the point that I am currently chasing a 2007 civic Si. all in all I would suggest rate of 350 to 450 for the front and 450-600 on the rear. About the sway bars I haven't tried the removal or the stock rear but it seems it will help since most of the time I am lifting the inner rear tire in a couple of the sharp turns in our local track.
My car weights 2600lbs with me in and a full tank of fuel.

[SA E30]

Have you test fitted this wheel/tire combo, what offset ?

I am researching my wheel/tire options as well and would love to fit tires wider than 225s on a 15 or 16" rim.

How are the fenders?

It's an et38 17x8 AC Schnitzer, after doing some looking about I can only find a 235 in South Africa in 17" but the tread width is 240 so not 2 bad.

The fenders are going to be flared, with something like the Ireland Engineering Flares, but not they are wider way wider... so I can hopefully get even wider rims.

As I have friends at Nissan Motorsport SA, and from next year they are going to run 265 35 18, and I can get the castoffs, but the tread width is 280, so I would be looking at running them in the rear the front will more than likely still be a 240 40 18

Also the car is going low as possible with custom made Control arms, and Bump Steer/ Roll Centre mods...

If only my damn engineer would hurry up with my rear suspension, so I can get it back into rolling chassis form.

[Jean]

I'm going 800lbs front and 650lbs rear, on some custom made local race shocks/ or custom valved Koni DA's , the rear is a coilover setup.

For now std roll bar,with adustable links and no rear bar... but I will prob upgrade to a H&R front bar at a slightly later stage

On 17" 245 40 17 R Comps, and aroudn 1000kg

Have you test fitted this wheel/tire combo, what offset ?

I am researching my wheel/tire options as well and would love to fit tires wider than 225s on a 15 or 16" rim.

How are the fenders?

[Jean]

I am going to give 700front/900rear a shot and go from there, shocks will be valved for the spring rates.

[AlarmedBread]

I am running 500/850 (440/382 wheel rates) with stock swaybars, the car feels good and isn't terribly stiff, it is a little loose for autox, but feels great on the road course. Still a little loose, but very manageable. Most of the looseness is caused by driver error anyway.

I need to experiment with the rear swaybar and possibly a bit softer rear spring rate for autox. I'm using rs2's so maybe that is playing a roll in power delivery issues at low speeds. Overall I feel this setup is a great starting point and look forward to refining both myself and the car as time goes on. Now it's cheap and easy to change out springs etc. as needed. :)

[joshh]

What I was trying to say was a set up that works for one guy may not be the set up you need to be a champion.
You could set up your car the same exact way a National Champ would and you may discover that it doesn't work for you.

[SA E30]

I'm going 800lbs front and 650lbs rear, on some custom made local race shocks/ or custom valved Koni DA's , the rear is a coilover setup.

For now std roll bar,with adustable links and no rear bar... but I will prob upgrade to a H&R front bar at a slightly later stage

On 17" 245 40 17 R Comps, and aroudn 1000kg

[Jean]

Exactly, it's the whole combination of things: driver, sways, shocks, camber, springs, tires (sidewall) size etc.

I just want to get the front as close as possible on the first try, and rear as you said is easy to swap.