Okay, I more recently came to the realization that a Civic's rear trailing link suspension is really designed to purposfully under-steer. This is because civics are, of course, designed as mild mannered econo cars that anyone can drive, and since understeer is easier to correct than oversteer, Honda's choice was simple. What I have found (and I'm sure most of you in this forum already know) is because the compensator arm is located inboard of the trailing arm, when the suspension is compressed, the tire is forced to "toe in" due to the compensator following it's nautral arc. Additionaly, when any given rear corner is unloaded, it is forced to "toe out" also causing under-steer. This is exactly the oposite effect you would desire in a performance application (or at least thats what I have come to understand). If the tires toe were able to slightly follow a turn, I would think handleing would be much improved. This effect could be accomplished by relocating the compensator arm to the opposite side of the trailing link.

My question is does anybody think it would be bennificial enough to relocate the copensator, that it would offset the cost & trouble of having it done. I do understand this would require a lot of work, but this is just the hypothetical stage of development.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=606414

 

I may be wrong, and this might not be information you're looking for, but if you're looking to just get more rotation out of the car, why not play with big rear swaybars/small front swaybars and/or spring rates? Seems like that'd be a much cheaper way to get the desired result, even if it's sort of cheating.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=606414</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks man, this really shed some light on suspension tech for me. I like the idea of relocating the compensator chassis mounting point lower to make zero it out on lowered suspension. I think if you used an offset bushing in this spot, you get the desired effect, but I don't know much about offset bushings yet (search, search, search). Any additional insight would help me out...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I may be wrong, and this might not be information you're looking for, but if you're looking to just get more rotation out of the car, why not play with big rear swaybars/small front swaybars and/or spring rates? Seems like that'd be a much cheaper way to get the desired result, even if it's sort of cheating. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I completely agree with your statment. I just had extra time on my hands at work today, and my imagination started running away on me...