Hey all ive set up my konis/gcs and what I really want out of them is performance, not so much looks. My car is an em1, and Im planning to autocross it. Right now I have zero fender gap, but even with front extended tophats, my suspension travel is about 1/4 inch!


At what point does too much drop = bad handling characteristics?
As stated my car is currently 0 fender gap, but lacking suspension travel in the front. I may do fork mod to alleviate it though.


Thanks

 

When you run out of suspension travel....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by riceforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey all ive set up my konis/gcs and what I really want out of them is performance, not so much looks. My car is an em1, and Im planning to autocross it. Right now I have zero fender gap, but even with front extended tophats, my suspension travel is about 1/4 inch!


At what point does too much drop = bad handling characteristics?
As stated my car is currently 0 fender gap, but lacking suspension travel in the front. I may do fork mod to alleviate it though.


Thanks
</TD></TR></TABLE>

u should really start gettign seat time.. all this setup talk... ur gonna go out and be real slow.. i would worry about driving first ... .but to answer your question... u neeed suspension travel...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by riceforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">At what point does too much drop = Bad handling?</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you're allowed to post in the ZLAMMED thread.

 

As mentioned, you need suspension travel. You also need your upper ball joints to not hit your inner fenders and pop out of the UCAs. You may want to think about stiffer springs AND raising the car a little. You can get away with near 0 fender gap if you're running 800-ish # front springs and a front swaybar, otherwise, you're going to need more travel. A lot of the racers cut our bumpstops about in half to gain that extra ~3/4" of travel.

 

Whats the minimum amount of travel I should be looking for? Right now Ive got about 1 1/3 inches. 0 fender gap.

I really cant take my car to the limit to test its handling capabilites, because I havent aligned it yet. So im trying to avoid spending extra $ if possible.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by riceforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whats the minimum amount of travel I should be looking for? Right now Ive got about 1 1/3 inches. 0 fender gap.

I really cant take my car to the limit to test its handling capabilites, because I havent aligned it yet. So im trying to avoid spending extra $ if possible. </TD></TR></TABLE>

The minimum about of travel at each end of the car is usually a personal preference decision that takes into account how high of a suspension frequency you can handle. The lower you go, all else being equal, the higher the frequency and damping rates need to be to keep your suspension from bottoming.

That being said, there are other factors that dictate how your car will handle in a lowered state. Your car was designed from the factory to work very well at the static ride height as delivered. When you lower a car, especially with old school Honda suspension, here's what happens if you do not run aftermarket alignment correction kits. Camber and the camber curve increases, roll centers become lower, toe curves are more variable - i.e. for every 1/8" of suspension movement, the toe changes much more than it did stock (this leads to roll and bump steer) and this situation can not be fixed without relocating suspension pickup points.

For the street, most Hondas do not like to be lowered to the point where the tire is at the fender level. Even most Honda/Acura racecars have a one finger or so gap to work properly and that is at spring rates that do not pass the girlfriend test.

 

Having just started racing my civic i am also having a difficult time setting ride height and suspension settings.

Maybe those who have raced or are racing can share with us the settings??

Since i didnt know what to set the ride height to i just left 2 finger width gaps front and back and ran my first race.. i didnt like the settings at all and like Johnny Mac mentioned my racer friends mentioned that by lowering the car you mess up the factory intended settings.