I've been actively following my local autocross scene for sometime, but my car with blown shocks and absolutely no other suspension mods has leaned me to never participate.

It's come time for me to order some stuff, and I've pretty much been swayed towards Koni yellows and GC coilover sleeves with custom rates.

For a 1994 Civic hatch (techniclaly EH2) with a jdm b16a, are there any proven rates that I would be pretty safe with going with?

A friend of mine with a '97 ITR has 350/400 GC's and says they work fantastic. Would I be safe with pretty much the same thing?

And just for reference, I don't plan on having the car "slammmmmed" but I do like it sitting low.



Sits like this right now, and I don't plan on going any lower, so hopefully that won't hurt me too much?

 

I think you friends rate would be good for you as well as long as you like the way his rides

I run 350/450 in my ITR b/c I like the tail end happy

 

If you want it that low you should buy the gc tophats also.

 

DANG, thats low as ****! Youll never get away with an autocross with anything near that height.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by My95SlvrBlt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">DANG, thats low as ****! Youll never get away with an autocross with anything near that height.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed, I had my 00 GSR (same suspension as the 92-95 Civics) that low on 400/400 springs, and was sitting on the bumpstops even with the GC upper mounts. There's just no way to get decent rotation when your bumpstops are bringing the front spring rates up.

I'm now sitting at around 6" from the jackpoints, which leaves about a 3 finger gap if you want to measure that way, and still only have 1" or so of front shock travel before the bumpstops with Koni Yellows. Not sure if the shocks are just too large or what, but that seems to be the best height for me so far. You can always force the shocks lower in the front forks to create some additional travel instead of buying the upper mounts, if you want.

In regards to spring rates. 350/400 would probably be a good start for auto-x with a nice rear swaybar. Will still be perfectly streetable too, with good shocks.

 

Thats way too low, I had my car at roughly 2 finger gap (lowered about 1") with 400lbs/in front, 500 lbs in rear and it rubbed up front. If you want to keep that height you'll need much higher rates and the GC extended top hats. You'll need to have the car a lot higher to have adequate shock travel.

 

I have a 92 hatch with a b16a that I Autocross. Right now I have the Koni/GC setup with 375/450 spring rates. I like the setup a lot!


John

 

I'll probably have to raise the car up a bit for competitive use, but I would like to ride that low when just daily driving.

I might just go with a 350/400 set up and then maybe sometime in the future I could upgrade based on personal preference from what I have learned and experienced.

Thanks for the help everyone :D

 

I've actually been pretty successful with my 447f/335r Skunk2 coilover sleeves and kyb agx shocks during the autox season...however...when the time is right and funds are available...custom rate gc's and koni yella's are definately in order.

Daily driven...Autocrossed once a month at the same height.

 

I run 400F/450R, works wonders for me, I would suggest getting the springs the same length (fronts are normally longer) that way if you have 350/400 and want 400/450 later you only have to buy 2 springs instead of 4. And since they are coilovers you just adjust the sleeves to compensate for the shorter/longer springs.

 

We get this question all the time...what rates. The EG with a B-Series is a bit heavier in front, but I don't think it changes things that much with regard to setup. Whether you go with 350/400 or 400/450 depends on how agressive you want to be. I think you'll be surprised how comfortable the car rided on Konis, even with a 400/450 rate. If you are nervous about oversteer, then run 400/400. Nothing worse than letter your buddy take your car for a spin...literally. If you run a rear biased setup, then you have to be careful.

A 400/450 setup is well within what the Konis can handle in the real world. They could even go up to 500, but I wouldn't go beyond that. It's fairly common knowledge that the Sports are good to roughly 600 lbs/in, but on the street, that's a bit much in my opinion.

Chris

 

I autocross my EF about that low and you'll need 2 of:
1. shortened shocks
2. extended upper mounts
3. push the shock body down by removing the brake bracket

 

A B16A?? Looks like you will be classed SM. What type of cars are currently running SM in your region? Yes, I also agree with the rest of the guys, you won't get proper rotation at all with your car sitting so low. My old setup in STS with Konis/Skunks 400lb front and 380lb rear, I still had about a 2-3 finger gap all around and had decent rotation.

 

http://www.ground-control-stor...CA=71

I believe the suggested spring rates for the part #: 4530R are actually somewhere around 380# front & 430# rear for the 92-95 hatch.