I'm so excited right now... I just talked to suspension techniques and they said they'll be releasing their drop forks again SOON!! no date is set, but they are in the pipeline for re-release. I'm def in line for a set!! any1 interested, give these folks a call and help push the date forward ok maybe not TOP secret, but exciting nonetheless I know I've seen a few folks on h-t ask for a set, and I've been wanting them for about 2-3 years now... so I'm just passing on info that their tech line just gave me.

 

what is this drop fork you speak of? sounds interesting.

 

edit: nevermind, i am thinking of something completely different. disregard.

 

well, back in 98-99 ish I remember there being a Civic sedan just like mine, but with a 5 INCH drop on 18 inch wheels. it was owned by suspension techniques and it used to be in all their ads drifting and stuff like that. so I looked into HOW they managed to not rub 18s, drop it 5 inches, and still make it driveable enough to drift. so I found, they used 1.5 inch drop forks (so the thing that attaches to the bottom of your front shocks to the lower control arm is 1.5 inch shorter than stock), and that's how they did it!! Well, I LOVE it... you keep susp travel but you lower the center of gravity, AND I think... I THINK!!! you still get to keep decent susp geometry. But you susp gurus will have to correct me if I'm wrong. (btw I now realize this should be in the Susp forum, but I was really excited haha) Anyways, when i was ready to add 1.5 inches of drop to my car in additon to the 2.5 I already had at the time, I found they were pulled off the market and were being redesigned. A few weeks ago I was reviewing old SCC mags and saw the ad I loved so much, so today I called ST and asked what happened to their drop forks.

 

So this would allow you to lower the car alot but still retain full shock travel. Koni has just released some shorty shocks for this, and ground control has some upper shock mounts that are higher as well. I wonder how they deal with the bottom of the damper touching the axel boot.

 

So let me get this straight. They lowered a Honda five inches. The put 18" wheels on it. They "drifted" it apparently. Somehow they think they are going to keep a shock from riding on the bump stops and also keep good suspension geometry AND not rub those 18" wheels? I'll bite...

Why is this not in A&C? I wouldn't even put it in suspension. They probably took it off the market for good reason.

please PLEASE someone slap me if I'm incorrect on this one.

 

it's not in A&C cuz I have no pics... I just wanted to share this tidbit with other ppl who appreciate susp travel.

well, I know... 18s and drifting but bottom line is it was 1998/1999 and that was the thing to do to sell parts. as (at the time) an 18 yr old I thought it was the cat's meow. Thing is, right now I can't quite visualize how this will affect geometry and what'll change. I need to go take my wheels off and imagine the new shorter peice in there. I'm more of a visual kinda guy, I can't run the susp through it's paces in my head w/o looking at it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr Hammond &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
please PLEASE someone slap me if I'm incorrect on this one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

IIRC the reason why they stoped making them is because they had several units fail, and got into some trouble with it so they stoped producing them. But this was ALONG time ago so my memory isn't 100% sure.


BTW any one else notice he said DRIFTING? i didn't think that hit america befor 2 years ago MAX, and on a FF? WITH 18'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS???????? errrrr im with Hammond im lost.

 

I'm not lost. There won't be enough suspension travel to use this product for those of us to frequent this forum. In other words, it really doesn't belong is the RR/AX forum.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

IIRC the reason why they stoped making them is because they had several units fail, and got into some trouble with it so they stoped producing them. But this was ALONG time ago so my memory isn't 100% sure.


BTW any one else notice he said DRIFTING? i didn't think that hit america befor 2 years ago MAX, and on a FF? WITH 18'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS???????? errrrr im with Hammond im lost.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Correct and correct.

I think CRX Lee knows about them...he may even have a set in his garage if I remember correctly....

 

This kind of feature is in several of the JDM bling coilovers. Instead of shortening the forks you shorten the shock body instead. I don't know about all cars but at least on my Integra the limiting factor in how low I can go is the clearance between the tie-rod and the frame. I had my car lowered too much at one point where the tie-rod was hitting the frame before any other clearance issues came up.

 

the tie rod? they must do something different on the tegs. on an EG, you'll hit the uca on the shock tower. i'm lowered 2.5" and it's only another 1.5" until the uca hits the tower. there is no way they dropped the car 5". even if they cleared the suspension bits, that 25"+ tall tire/wheel package would have rubbed on the inner fender seam at around 2.5" of drop.

nate

 

tie rod?

I agree, its the UCA on the shock tower... then my 225's that rub in 5 different places.

I've BFH'd the shock tower and all over my wheel well. I wish we could run flared fenders

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sackdz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've BFH'd the shock tower and all over my wheel well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well that explains alot

 

ooooo! Yes! I can finnaly run my chrome dubs on my H1 car! Man...I heard those things will let you get up to 180 on the straight, and they free up like 40 hp and give you 20mpg better gas mileage......chrome bitch, check out my chrome!
I'm going to put my system in too, so I have some thump while I am racing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jisu009 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think CRX Lee knows about them...he may even have a set in his garage if I remember correctly....</TD></TR></TABLE>
I have one of the original sets as I got them from a friend who was an engineer at ST. Before he left the company, he said something along the lines of "maybe you shouldn't use them" as there were concerns of some casting flow problems making weak points. I heard rumours of them failing but never anything confirmed really. They sit on my shelf new in the box.

So I have a set in perfect shape that I would like to try to use if there was some way that I could have some expectation that they would not fail catastrophically at speed. It follows the exact same line of reasoning as do some shorter bodied shocks (but not those that actually lose real shock stroke like a lot of JDM kits do) and like the pushing the bottom of your shocks farther down inside your stock wishbones.

I can't speak for 18s and huge drops but they idea so have some merit in killing dead length if you can replace it with available working length. Always better to have extra suspension stroke and not need it than need it and not have it.

I would be interested to see if they are really going to come back on the market and if they were changed from the ones that I have. My freind no longer works there so I have no contacts there currently.

 

Well Lee, if its worth anything, I've been using a set for 2 years now on my 89 hatch autocross car. No signs of failure, and the car is a daily driver as well. I ran 50 events on them since I started using them and put about 30-40,000 miles on them. And I bought them used, with no real knowledge about their use beforehand.

225/45-15 Hoosiers, AD shocks with anywhere from 500-650 lb springs, and most of the events were run on combed, rough concrete (50+ year old runway).

 

It doesnt seem to me that the drop fork idea is as good of an idea as a shortened stroke shock. With the drop fork, you retain the same damper travel as stock, but move the wheel closer to the fender/inner fender/top. It seems to me that one would run out of travel in the wheel well before hitting the bump stop, whereas with the shortened stroke shock, the bump stop would be contacted before wheel travel runs out in the wheel well.

Im not sure if this came out right...kind of hard to explain.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I have one of the original sets as I got them from a friend who was an engineer at ST. Before he left the company, he said something along the lines of "maybe you shouldn't use them" as there were concerns of some casting flow problems making weak points. I heard rumours of them failing but never anything confirmed really. They sit on my shelf new in the box.

So I have a set in perfect shape that I would like to try to use if there was some way that I could have some expectation that they would not fail catastrophically at speed. It follows the exact same line of reasoning as do some shorter bodied shocks (but not those that actually lose real shock stroke like a lot of JDM kits do) and like the pushing the bottom of your shocks farther down inside your stock wishbones.

I can't speak for 18s and huge drops but they idea so have some merit in killing dead length if you can replace it with available working length. Always better to have extra suspension stroke and not need it than need it and not have it.

I would be interested to see if they are really going to come back on the market and if they were changed from the ones that I have. My freind no longer works there so I have no contacts there currently.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thank GOD for a sign of intelligence here!! The point I was making here is if the drop forks left enough room in the wheelwell with such a huge drop to run 18s (215/35/18) and still drive the car hard enough to get it sideways for a photoshoot, then there has got to be some value to these parts to use in racing.

slammed_93_hatch: Drifting hit USA 2 years ago??? maybe as far as you know Ppl have been putting their cars sideways before your daddy ever discovered his *****. May not have been labelled 'dorifto' back then and maybe it wasn't sTunN/\ JDm so that's why you didn't heard about it.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C5 EH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> ooooo! Yes! I can finnaly run my chrome dubs on my H1 car! Man...I heard those things will let you get up to 180 on the straight, and they free up like 40 hp and give you 20mpg better gas mileage......chrome bitch, check out my chrome!
I'm going to put my system in too, so I have some thump while I am racing. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for your useless comment

 

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

slammed_93_hatch: Drifting hit USA 2 years ago??? maybe as far as you know Ppl have been putting their cars sideways before your daddy ever discovered his *****. May not have been labelled 'dorifto' back then and maybe it wasn't sTunN/\ JDm so that's why you didn't heard about it.: </TD></TR></TABLE>


what you said made no sense at all. and still drifting an FF car with 18's and that low. i know how they drift FF cars, or the concept at least. and that just doesn't fit the bill.

you

 

it's irrelevant.. obviously I'm not running 18s... I run 16s cuz that's what I absolutely need

peep for urself



so plz let's just drop it... bottom line is, big *** tires + big *** drop SHOULD cause trouble, but appers not to in this case. therefore, exciting stuff and it's worth a try. unless you don't like extra travel

 

are you talking about this car?
http://www.roadcatalogs.com/st....html

5in drop?....mabey 3in
18s?.......yes
rubbing.....probably

I would imagine that there are no fender liners on that car and if there were, they would definetly rub if the suspension was loaded and the wheels were turned
(but mabey the cars running on 1000lb springs, who knows)

I also dont see how S.T. will sell these forkes cheaper than bling bling ground-control upper mounts ($75-100?)

ill give them a for extra bump travel though

 

Did I just fall into the bling bling thread? I was expecting something good about setup for track use (aka "Road Racing / Autocross") & got this ---

shake yo $$ maker boiiiizzzzzzz

BudMan - moving to another thread

 

i ahve them, front and back
work great.
I run 1000lb/950lb and never had a problem with them.
I have both the front drop forks and rear lower control arms.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Autoxjoe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are you talking about this car?
http://www.roadcatalogs.com/st....html

5in drop?....mabey 3in
18s?.......yes
rubbing.....probably

ill give them a for extra bump travel though</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah yeah yeah that's the car. I'm sure I have pics of it sideways from an ad somewhere, but I don't feel like searching through 5 years of import mags just for that one shot. thing is... there was no tire smoke in the pics to indicate any kinda rubbing that's the thing, when I read 5 inch drop it burned into my memory cuz back then in 99 I had a 2.5 inch drop and I couldn't imagine another 2.5 inches whacked off my clearance.

budman, 'tis not a bling thread man... I just want useful feedback about the product really. but apparently everyone here is too closed minded to consider the possibility of a good product that they haven't heard of ! cuz if they haven't heard of it, it must be rice or it must be bling. I disagree in this case. I think the product could have merit, esp if they come out with it in aluminium to shave like a lb or two off that unsprung weight.