Hey honda-tech whats going on . I plan on doing some autocross next year with my 94 civic hatch . I will be dailying this car but ride comfort dosent really bother me . Ive never done it before so im new to it . My current setup is basic , its tokico blues with neuspeed green springs , nutthin to autocross with . I came across YONAKA 1 piece suspension witch runs for like 500 $ and also PROGRESS 1 pieces that are like 580 $ . The YONAKA spring rates are 670f 360r . The PROGRESS suspensions are optional 250 , 350 , 500 . ]

Now would you guys recommend me getting the YONAKAS with a 24mm progress rear sway to stiffen the rear end up or just getting the PROGRESS 1 pieces 350f 500r with the 24mm progress sway ?

would 350 up front be too soft for autocross ?

any advice will be cool , really trying to get into autocross

 

Before dirty19 gets here this is basically what he will say; don't get any of those. Run the car as is.

Unless you have a fair bit of experience, in which case you wouldn't be here and wouldn't be asking about those shocks.

 

I'll openly admit that I have VERY minimal experience with autox, but one of the few things I am decently familar with is track racing. Take it how you will, but run the car how it is. Find out how far you can push it on the suspension you have and get more familar with the car the way it is. Buying a laundry list of parts then going out to autox for your first time will land you in an advanced class with no chance of being competitive, unless you are a very experienced driver already.

Idealy the best way to go about it would be having an entirely stock car to start with, but the chances of finding a stock honda owned by a honda-tech member are slim and none. Running a stock car will land you in more of an entry level class where you will be much more competitive and you will really get to feel the car for what it is and make changes based upon what you deem necessary, not what you want off the bat or what you read about online.

This may give you a good idea or it may confuse you to no end, but here we go anyway. Concerning your decision on spring rates...on a 2000lb track ***** crx I have 450lb springs in the front and 650lb springs in the rear. A stock front sway bar and somewhere in the neighboorhood of a 34mm custom rear sway bar. Softer dampening in the front stiffer in the rear. It rotates extremely well, but if your not an experienced driver it will easily over rotate and spin out.

My point in telling you all this is as follows... you can throw money at another suspension setup, but it will really do you no good. Looking at your options you'll end up with something slightly better than what you have, but no where near a full track setup. If you went with a full track setup from the get go the car would probably be to much for you to handle(thats my opinon, don't take it the wrong way). My advice is this: get very good at driving what you have now, make sure its mechanically sound before autoxing it. If safety is the reason behind the suspension upgrade then thats a whole nother story, if not go with what you have. Get as good as you think you can get with it, then upgrade to a real setup based upon what you think after putting some real seat time in, not a halfway half-assed setup right off the bat.

I'm not to big on doing **** half way. It seems there's never enough time to do something right the first time, but always enough time to do it right a second time.

Good luck with the autox, I can say that aside from driving a dedicated track car on a closed track, autox is the most fun you can legally have with your pants on.

 

Ya all beat me to it and well said.
Good Job guys.

 

And go figure...I know 70% of what I know about autox from reading your posts. Lol, Amazing what one can learn when they just lurk for awhile.

 

ok well that does me no good because people are always giving new people to autocross basic spring rates to start off with , to tell you the truth im not tying to go into this with suspension that wont help .

 

Then drive what you have until you have reason and ability to improve with a new suspension setup.

General setups given by competitors are not something I would generally put to much weight on as a totally new person

 

Lurk read, read some more.. when you dont think you have read enough.. read some more. Google subjects using honda-tech in the search.
Everything you ever wanted to know about a RR AutoX car is in here to a large degree.

Here we go... for the umteenth gazillionth time
Using someone elses set up does you no good.
You have to learn to drive the car and find your driving style.
Instruction helps alot in the learning process too.
Auto X isnt about driving around cones.
Its how you drive around them and how smoothly you do it that counts.

There is no "one set up works for all"
This is a trial and error thing. There will be good money spent and there unfortunately will be some bad money spent.
When you make changes make them slow, test and see how the car reacts.
Not all "go fast" parts work positively. Some can actually affect it negatively.

Seat time is king over go fast parts.
The suspension that will help you now is bone stock.

 

thats what i been doing for the last couple days is searching on google and on honda-tech autox forum and seeing what people use . I guess it makes sense to use what I got to get a feel for everything and see how it is . when going to a event how do they decide whaty class you go into ?

 

Which is pretty much why I put what some might call a disclaimer at the top. Just giving him an example of what works for me on a light, short wheel based crx. The more anyone is exposed to different setups that work on diffferent cars the better they will be able to determine what will work for them after getting some seat time.

Again, my opinon. Typically not right, but seems to work for some. Lol

 

yes so I guess I`m going to go into the autocross with the suspension setup I got , do you guys recommend at lest a rear sway bar or anything with the suspension i got now ?

 

ok so any new person that gets into this kinda of racing starts with the cones correct ? i dont have a clue how it goes . im new to this like i said so if you can explain to me how this works would be cool man ,

 

Good info guys.

First thing you need to do?
Go back and read the FAQ at the top of the forum.
This will give you a good clue.
Then attend an event, and watch.
Talk to the drivers, flag men, hell talk to everyone.
See how the events are run.
Then you get ready.
No parts... just run what you have stock.
Changing out parts as it was said in the other posts we have had this week "will only put you in another class that you will undoubtedly be non competitive".

 

^^
What he said

You need to read the rule book for your respective sanctioning body for autocross to see what class you fall in. If all you have is some shocks/springs, you already threw yourself into a class where people will have A LOT more modifications and more experience and you will think to yourself "Damn my car is slow" and not think "Damn I am slow".

What is the list of modifications you have done to the car already?

For the longest time I ran in classes I shouldn't have won if the right people showed up prepped for the class. My local autocross has an AMT class, which is pretty much TSM but they divided it into AMT, BMT, CMT classes. Anyways, I was running my STi in on stock shocks/springs, a larger rear sway bar, and a STU Cobb tune and still stomped people in the class. Then I took off the Cobb tune to run STU at SCCA events and still stomped people. I finished OK in the index in AMT, better in STU since my car was more respective to the mods I had.

People go into autocross with all this fancy suspension, sway bars, racing seats, cold air intakes, then when they realize they're put in a class with STI's and EVOs and have no chance at winning, they never come back.

The point where I am going... my index times could have been a hell of a lot better if I didn't change anything on my car and just ran it in a stock class. I would of had very similar times between a stock car and my swaybar/stage2 car.

 

not always. i personally have been time attacking for about 2.5 yrs but have never autocrossed. the autox in my area is closer than the track but the track is cheaper, the people doing it are much cooler, i get alot more track time out of it and the classes are by power/weight ratio not by what other crap that you have done.