From what I have read it seems that the Japanese prefer to have a higher rate spring up front and the lower rate in the rear with a huge sway bar. While Americans prefer the higher in the rear with lower in the front.

It seems with the Japanese setup, or the high rates up front the car would be very prone to understeering. If that is so, why do all the Japanese suspension setups off the shelf come with a higher rate up front?

Why would there be such a significant difference in setup? What are the pros and cons of either of these?

 

I truly believe it is purely driving style. Their driving style over there is a lil more aggressive and they like to have more of a controlled oversteer setup. It all really comes down to experience and what you like. Some people like lots of oversteer and vice versa.

 

check out crx lee's write up

 

Staggered tire setups on a FWD car is a much more common practice in Japan.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EeeJayEight &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">check out crx lee's write up</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks!

Here is the link for others:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1193156

 

i was looking at a picture of the suspension of a JDM (tawinese actually) and realized that they do some wacky stuff with alignments. Im talking about complete toe out in the rear, and stuff like that.


I had the chance to to alot of testing (over 7 hours worth) with "JDM" setup. I was not the driver, but there were two others driving, and after 7 hours, lots of gass, tires, ect... it is not as fast. The car could turn lap time close to what it does with the U.S. but the drivers were not happy with the setup.

To me logicly it doesn't make sense (the JDM setup).

Also im under the impression that the "jdm" companies that run in the USA do not run the "JDM" setup.

 

<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">i was looking at a picture of the suspension of a JDM (tawinese actually) and realized that they do some wacky stuff with alignments. Im talking about complete toe out in the rear, and stuff like that.


I had the chance to to alot of testing (over 7 hours worth) with "JDM" setup. I was not the driver, but there were two others driving, and after 7 hours, lots of gass, tires, ect... it is not as fast. The car could turn lap time close to what it does with the U.S. but the drivers were not happy with the setup.

To me logicly it doesn't make sense (the JDM setup).

Also im under the impression that the "jdm" companies that run in the USA do not run the "JDM" setup.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whoa that kind of alignment would kill tires in an instant.....

 

I had a chance to talk with a Gymkahana driver from Japan about tire/suspension setup and he was surprised that I ran equal width tires front and rear. For him it was very common to run skinnier tires in the rear and adjust the suspension accordingly.

This year I switched to running different tire compounds f/r (same width) and the oversteer was drastically increased. I'm finding that I have to re-adjust everything to get the car drivable (running rear stiff bias). Running staggered tire sizes would give me more overster than would be controllable with my rear stiff setup.

The biggest problem with looking at any given car setup is understanding the any rule restrictions and tire availability that the car setup has to work around.