A L I A S

ok so recently there's been a few small threads where people bring up xx suspension saying its fantastic and the next person says its garbage. people have also recently been throwing around names like Strange this QA1 that. i currently have the omni drag coilovers, which are 18k (1000lb) rear and iirc 10k (560lb) front full race traction bar and all fresh oem bushings. (sphericals and tubular arms are nowhere near within my budget) are these still the ideal spring rates or has technology progressed and people found out better spring rates? strange nor qa1 even offer 1000 lb springs or honda bolt pattern shocks on their websites so what am i missing? I would like for people to chime in with their suspension setups, what kind of 60 fts they cut, and what they would change about their suspension.

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

2000 Civic Coupe

Strange Engineering Double Adjustable Coilovers.
Hypercoil Springs - based spring rate on weight of the car when scaling
750 pound spring rate for front and 375 for rears - 2250 pounds
Kaizenspeed Rear Trailing Arm kit.
Makk Trans Brace
Kingping FLCA's and Kingpin Compliance Bearings - Swapped my EK subframe out for EG so I could run those.
Full Race Traction Bar - Removed

Guys I know running basically the exact same setup are 1.4x's and low 1.5x's 60 foot times. I haven't had a chance to run my car yet because there is no point to run during our 115 degree summers.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

AZ, are you sure? 750f/375r? I thought drag racing wanted stiffer rears on a FWD application.

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

Totally sure, people would run really stiff rears to compensate weight transfer, if you have a well built coilover strut you don't need to run super stiff springs for the rear.
Strange Engineering says the same thing and recommends putting your car on scales. Spring rate is based on the weight front and rear.

Locash recommends the same thing and runs spring rates for his car the way. If you have a good coilover strut like Strange offers you can adjust extension and compression which allows you to adjust your suspension so you don't have to compensate with super stiff springs

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Coolio bandito. I'll have to look into that some more. Just to chime in:

350F/500R Progress CS II coilovers
Innovative traction bar
1989 Hatch- 2300 lbs~

Pretty cheapo set up.

EGhatchNJ

iTrader: (1)

This guy gets it. People are finally understanding how to set these cars up. Those super stuff springs in the rear are just a band aid and it has it's limits.

10sec4door

Great timing for this thread. I was looking at strange and blox drag pro. The blox are on back order everywhere and the cheapest I've seen the strange with coils for 1400. I haven't heard of qa1s for Hondas going to look them up too. If anybody wants to sell their strange lmk

luck4rmkc

iTrader: (2)

Stiff spring rates may be a "band aid" fix for poor shock valving but I am cutting high 1.5xx 60fts on a suspension that costs half as much as strange. If I had the money to blow I would love to try strange but for now my $700 blox drags seem to be getting the job done fairly well. Just thought I would give my experience since I know there are plenty of people who don't want to shell out the money for high dollar coilover setups.

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

For sure you can still get it done with other products. I honestly think the best bang for your buck is rims and slicks.

All I had on my car before I did all my suspension upgrades were a set of 8 years old H&R street coilovers, Full Race Traction Bar and Skunk 2 camber kit.

I had Stock rear trailing arms with torn bushing, 100% stock FLCAs, stock compliance bushings, basically all stock bushings on the car. I borrowed a friends set of 13x10 Welds with 24.5 x 9.5 M&H's and ran consistant
1.63's that night. Two weeks later I used my Exospeeds with M&H 24.5x8.5 slicks and my best 60ft. was 1.73.

So just by using a bigger slick and wider rim with a stock suspension on 8 year old soft and worn H&R coils I was running 1.63 and a .10th faster than my Exospeeds.

Not to mention I was looking at my logs and was getting about 12-13 PSI off launch which was causing a bit too much wheel slip in first so by adjusting that I may have been running high 1.5's.

However I upgraded my entire suspension to get into the 1.4's and it was not only to better my 60ft. but I dropped over 100 pounds off the car by doing all of the suspension work. I also did it just in case future wise I wanted to make more power and replacing junk factory bushing etc. is also another factor. For me it boils down to why have a great car, good fuel system, well built motor but run a **** stock suspension. A good race car is not just about power or a huge turbo but everything plays a crucial role in making your car faster and better.

luck4rmkc

iTrader: (2)

Well said! And I envy your setup a lot! Would love to have mine setup just like yours I just can't fathom spending that kind of coin right now for such a gnarly setup that may only cut less than a tenth off my 60'!

13x10 with 9.5 wide slick does appear to be the best bang for the buck on the short track! I saw signicant gains from that switch!

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

I hear that brother, this past year I decided that I was going to do side work in order to pay for parts. I am a Business Analyst by day but I do paint work on the side here and there. My father in law also has what I call a hobby of buying cars from the auction, fixing them and then selling them to keep himself busy. He gives me $500 dollars commission for each car sold and 1000 for every car sold for his asking price.

I am proud to say my entire suspension was purchased by doing paint work and selling cars on the side.

The father in law just picked up another 9 cars and has 15 left so for me it is an incentive to sell LOL, more money for the car.

One good thing about all the suspension stuff is that motors, tranny's, clutches come and go but suspension stuff at the very least out lasts everything for the most part.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Like everything, time has produced better methods. The older methods are still functioning and people are still using them. It takes time to break 'bad habits'.

What kind of valving does it take to run spring rates based on weight distribution? I'd imagine a very strong shock up front would be required to keep the nose from popping up.

Can I just go to strange's website and read some R&D on this or what?

tepid1

You're not going to get any good info from Stranges website.

This is one of those things where you need to put up some money and see what works best for you. OR you can copy what most others do, which seems to be a common trend these days....

Tippyman

Welcome to the Honda game lol.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, I don't have a ton of money or knowledge to go around 'trying' things out.

EDIT: Just want to expand on this. I would love to spend endless hours with different spring rates and dampeners, trying to find the best combination. But unless I can 'borrow' the parts ad just buy what I settle on, there is no way I can afford that. So I just go by what 'works' for other people since I can neither prove nor deny it myself.

hondatech8798

iTrader: (2)

I'm in the same boat.. Also on another note my track in my local area is only open for 4 events a summer, and no re-scheduled events if it gets rained out

So not only a money factor for myself but also the time for trial and error experimenting

tepid1

There are some things that are just common sense too. This edging towards one of them.

BIGTUNA

Just call progressive.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

If this was common sense why has everyone been doing it wrong?

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

I would say that I am fortunate to be around a good group of guys that have a lot more funds then I. One guy being Locash, his car has run 8.2’s, TSR who not only has a 9.0 car himself but built my motor, Joe’s motors and a lot of other guys running very fast. These guys have the knowledge and the funds to try multiple different setups until they find the right one. These guys than give some valuable advice to guys like me who like others don’t own a shop, don’t have sponsors sending them a bunch of gifts or have the cash to try tons of different setups. The other good thing with these guys is they have no obligation or ties to any product, they aren’t selling me on a crap product just because it is a sponsor they have but because it is what they run on their own car.

Usually when I purchase things from Joe he sells them to me for his cost without marking them up at all, those are just smalls things that keep me going.

10sec4door

Well I decided going with strange eng. i was doing a lot of reading over the last couple days it was between this and blox but bloxwas on back order. I almost bought d2s but after doing some reading decided not to and I just dont buy skunk2 stuff so strange was my choice.

tepid1

Because it's cheap.

Doing it right costs money and time, which most Honda guys don't have.... hence owning a Honda. lol

The fast guys are doing it right, hence why they are fast.

Fact is, any time you bind the suspension you're hurting your potential results.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Makes sense.

That's very true.

Arguable on what is 'fast'.

I'll read up on this.

I would say the 'fastest Honda guys' are doing it right instead of 'fast guys'. But that's just me nit picking. A 12 second car is fast to me. I mean, the Diablo GTR ran 12.4 stock and that is the super car of my early boy hood dreams. Having a Honda as fast as a Diablo is fast to me.


Now those 8 and 9 second guys are just doing crazy things. This is an old-ish article, but still relevant I'd say.
http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/f...x/viewall.html
Running strange shocks. No specs on the springs from what I saw.

CDecker0218

This is true. My brother had 13x8 v2 wheels and 24x9x13MT slicks and then switched to the weld 13x10 wheel with 24x9.5x13 M&H slicks. on the v2 MT
s it was 1.7's. switched to the 13x10 and mid 1.6's with good hopes of low 1.6!

tepid1

Gotta remember this.... that's a shop car. It's a business and what they tell you is in the car and what is ACTUALLY in the car are two different things. For example, the picture of the rear suspension in the outlaw car is NOT strange. It looks like Omni. Maybe they had Strange in the front, who knows, but it's not always what someone says it is. Just keep that in mind.

In competition and business cheating/lying is not uncommon.