00BaseRacer

At what spring rate and sway bar size should I be worried about off acceleration oversteer? I have a '00 Prelude with GC/Koni struts and Kuhmo SPTs that I HPDE. Rear spring rate of 475 and front at 450. If I were to upgrade the stock rear sway bar to say a Suspension Techniques bar, should I be worried about backing out of the throttle in a corner and having the rearend come around like snap oversteer? If it is subtle so I can throttle steer than that is fine but I have read that too much bar can cause this problem. Should I purchase both front and rear bars so they are balanced? It has been sugested by many to only replace the rear to combat understeer. I feel my car is setup more neutral than understeer and worry that by only replacing the rear I could end up with more oversteer and I do not feel that I need that in my stage of learning. Thanks, Wes

rotten

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 00BaseRacer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">At what spring rate and sway bar size should I be worried about off acceleration oversteer? I have a '00 Prelude with GC/Koni struts and Kuhmo SPTs that I HPDE. Rear spring rate of 475 and front at 450. If I were to upgrade the stock rear sway bar to say a Suspension Techniques bar, should I be worried about backing out of the throttle in a corner and having the rearend come around like snap oversteer? If it is subtle so I can throttle steer than that is fine but I have read that too much bar can cause this problem. Should I purchase both front and rear bars so they are balanced? It has been sugested by many to only replace the rear to combat understeer. I feel my car is setup more neutral than understeer and worry that by only replacing the rear I could end up with more oversteer and I do not feel that I need that in my stage of learning. Thanks, Wes</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not sure what the motion ratios are on the Prelude vs. Civics/Integras, but I suspect that with those spring rates (running front sway bar?), you'd still have a fairly strong understeer tendancy.
What are the stock spring rates?

Lift-throttle oversteer would probably be more prevalant vs. stock, but still pretty managable.

577HondaPrelude

stock prelude rates are about 200lbs/ich on all 4 corners, and the motion ratios are: 0.64 front, and 0.76 rear.

You will not have snap oversteer with your set up. In fact the prelude is so front heavy it's hard to have anything other than push with it. Even with 1200lbs/ich rear rates, 25mm rear bar, 700lbs/ich front and zero front swaybar. As long as you dont' enter a turn too hot, brake and turn hard at the same time it will not snap oversteer. Get the new rear sway bar, you will be fine. In fact I bet after you get more seat time you will start to want more and more rear spring rate in your prelude.

Track rat

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 577HondaPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You will not have snap oversteer with your set up. In fact the prelude is so front heavy it's hard to have anything other than push with it. Even with 1200lbs/ich rear rates, 25mm rear bar, 700lbs/ich front and zero front swaybar. As long as you dont' enter a turn too hot, brake and turn hard at the same time it will not snap oversteer. Get the new rear sway bar, you will be fine. In fact I bet after you get more seat time you will start to want more and more rear spring rate in your prelude. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ditto. If you get "snap oversteer" your inputs are way too ham fisted, or you hit oil!

00BaseRacer

Thanks for the help. It eases my mind about purchasing a new sway bar for the rear. This is still my DD and I think I will have to wait awhile before upgrading to 1200lb rear springs . But I do think I could take 600lb springs on the street. I would have to have the Konis rebuilt though so that will have to wait awhile. Thanks, Wes

Track rat

I ran 400 front/500 rear on the street before I took my car 'full-race' and it was not bad at all.

RacerXI

In my civic, I had 450/550 front/rear rates and a 22mm comptech rear sway bar. My car was only ever tail happy when the adjustable rear bar was on full stiff. The ride on that setup was firm, but it wasn't bouncy. I was only on kyb agx's at the time also.