I am looking for front and rear springs for my 1995 Honda Del Sol. I do not want coilovers, I want standard springs linear rate the less lowering the better. With a front spring rate of 300 lbs/inch and a rear spring rate of 375 or 400 lbs/inch. Can you help direct me? All I keep finding are coilover applications and springs with greater front rates then rear rates which will continue to keep my car in oversteer handling.

Docmanakos@aol.com

 

Not totally positive, but check out the Eibach drag launch springs, they may be what you are looking for. Since they are drag springs I beleive the spring rate in the rear will be more than the front.

 

I just don't understand why most of these spring manufacturer's are so ridiculous with giving out spring rate information. I attempted to contact them in an effort to get spring rate information on their different springs. My call went without receiving an appropriate answer on spring rates. But there springs are progressive not linear. Thanks for trying to help me.......


Modified by docmanakos at 4:52 PM 8/3/2005

 

Unless you get something custom made, you will probably not find what you are looking for.

 

As vtecvoodoo mentioned, without going to custom springs then you will not find any high rate, non-lowering springs with a factory spring seat tail. There just aren't enough customers out there that want those kinds of numbers to have any justification for a manufacturer to make and stock them. Your choice is going to be either custom or go with a coil-over set-up like the GC system with a faily long spring and set the car up to stock height. That is going to be about it.

As for spring manufacturer's not handing out spring rate info, that is a very tough position for them and a constant internal struggle. On one hand, they want to please the customer and give him the information that he wants. A seriously big issue is that the vast majority of people who ask for spring rates really don't know what to properly do or evaluate this info correctly, even if he thinks that he does know. These days everybody and his brother wants to talk about spring rates but there are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings that you just know that the number you quote might be misused and you could lose a potential customer that these products would be very good for.

Many of the spring rates that we use in Koni suspension kits are lower than some numbers from competitors or that get commonly quoted around. However it is quite true that it is easy to hide a lower quality damper behind a high spring rate and simply not let the car move as much. A car with better dampers can often be a better all around vehicle with less spring rate and be more successful for more poeple in the long run. Also the target use of the kit may be one thing (good street perforamcne ride and handling) but the customer may be thinking of using it for something else (racing, etc.) . So when I do have a number that I can quote them, I almost immediately have to be ready to defend against "But Brand X is higher" or worse if they say nothing but evaluate that it is automatically inferior simply if it is lower. You can't simply say "Are you sure you really know what you should be evaluating with this?" even though you know there is a great chance it will be misinterpreted.

Finally, manufacturers and tuners put a lot of work into their spring rates and other design issues like progressive rates, dead coils, etc. As soon as it is boiled down to "What is the rate?" then all other aspects get ignored completely and they should not be as well as you just have the feeling that most not well informed people will just think the within reason that higher is better. Also when we do quote spring rates, it is making internal information public that any number of lower end, knock off spring companies will happily use. This is highly rampant in this industry. Although it is not a huge secret, a competitor should at least have to buy a set of the product and test it to get your idea.

Although the request for spring rates may be well intentioned, it is very, very likely to be a Lose/Lose/Lose proposition for the company. It can be poorly evaluated, ignore other important parts plus it can be used as ammunition against you by competitors or anyone who wants to spin it their own way. We struggle with it in our own kits and I know many spring only companies do as well. Hopefully this will explain why most companies are hesitant to provide this info even though they have a very good product and want to provide very good customer service.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by docmanakos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> All I keep finding are coilover applications and springs with greater front rates then rear rates which will continue to keep my car in oversteer handling.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So why not just get the Ground Controls and get custom spring rates! Give them a call and they will ship the kit with the rates you want, by using Eibach race springs.

http://www.ground-control.com

You wont find just springs to fit on your shocks that aren't a sleeve coilover system, with those rates.

 

My first concern is spring rate ratio of front to back being in the 3:4 ratio range. The exact spring rates are not so important. I determine those rates (300.400) by the suggestion of others who have used them on the street and for autocrossing and their agreement that those are the best compromise for both types of driving.
But I'm not interested in changing springs and not having a definite increase in handling with my already installed Koni yellows. With the Koni's I have the ability to adjust for ride height somewhat, not alot but somewhat, so spring ride height is a lesser concern to the first two. I prefer they be linear but I will take progressive if I have to...So there you have what I am interested in and in what order.. My other choice was to cut a pair of front springs and see if I could heat and bend the top to cone off, so I can get it to fit the perch correctly. I have the option of getting Integra R springs rated at approximately 250 front and 250 back but that is not much of an improvement to do all that work of replacing spring as far as I'm concern..


I greatly appreciate all your suggestions, hopefully with this additional information someone can come up with the suggestion that would really fit my needs.

 

holy freakn **** batman you just had 2 people who are big in the suspension industry tell you what your best option is and you completly ignored there post.


Cuting and heating springs is stupid and dangerous.

 

the front springs on my eibach pro kits are linear. actually, so are OEM springs. front springs CAN be switched to the rear. so i might guess YOU can find some combination of either some aftermarket or oem FRONT spring with a higher spring rate and use it in the front AND rear. and then you can settle any ride height issues with your konis.

but no one is going to spoon feed you which combination to buy, gather, trade, barter to get the right combo that is going to make you happy. by that time, you could have just bought a set of ground controls with the exact spring rates you wanted, and they just happen to be linear...

 

<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">holy freakn **** batman you just had 2 people who are big in the suspension industry tell you what your best option is and you completly ignored there post.


Cuting and heating springs is stupid and dangerous.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agree 100%. Don't be a dumbass. Get yourself some Ground Controls. If you don't have the cash for them, save up until you do. You WILL eventually end up with Ground Controls and Konis anyway since they are the best so why waste your time and money dicking around with junk that won't work in the mean time?

Off topic: Vtecvoodoo, the ground Controls are finally on the S2000 and we will be autocrossing it for the first time this Sunday. So far, the 400f/350r set up has been outstanding! The car is so much better balanced than it was with the KG/MM springs. I have a lot to learn about tuning this new set up but I am certain it will be far better than what I had before. Thanks for the excellent advice and the hook up!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GChambers &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Off topic: Vtecvoodoo, the ground Controls are finally on the S2000 and we will be autocrossing it for the first time this Sunday. So far, the 400f/350r set up has been outstanding! The car is so much better balanced than it was with the KG/MM springs. I have a lot to learn about tuning this new set up but I am certain it will be far better than what I had before. Thanks for the excellent advice and the hook up!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Glad you are happy. Same setup on mine and same results

 

The switching of front with back springs is an avenue I have been investigating. But it's not fun when you get done changing springs and you put the car down on the ground to bear weight and find that your back end does not settle one inch and is four inches higher then the front. Then you put the car back up on the lift and change all the springs back to what you originally had. I just don't understand why they don't have the options for spring rates in non coilover. From what I see anyone with an interest in Honda racing agree that the back needs major firming. So why aren't the manufacturers responding? I have a 1979 corvette and a 1970 TR6 and can purchase back springs at certain rates and fronts at different rates to set up whatever combination I want. I understand I'm asking questions that are not answerable from this forum. I'm just kinda disappointed with the situation. I was actually considering the H&R springs for the Integra which have an even front and back rating. But they might not lower me as much and give me a higher rating as compared to the Del Sol version.