I was thinking about getting a set of Skunk2 Drag coilovers for my car. Right now it has regular OEM shocks on it.

I was wondering if it would really matter what shocks I run.

The immediate answer would be yes, but after thinking about it, if they have a 10kg/mm spring rate in the front, and 18kg/mm in the rear, does the shock even come into play? All the shock does is dampen the spring. If the spring is so stiff it barely flexes, does a shock make a difference?

 

i believe the shocks are pretty important -- most of the single adjustable shocks on the market adjust the rebound which is the upward (or outward) motion of the shock so the shock is definately important on the front of the car (tighten the rebound to limit the quickness of the front of the car lifting) and on the rear you need a shock that is able to handle the upgraded spring rate -- basically if you are just riding on the spring the car just bounces -- the shocks job is to dampen the forces to smooth the ride

we ran into a huge problem back when we ran ground controls with koni yellows - because the ride height of the car was so high the shock as basically fully extended at rest because of the way the ground controls are adjusted to get the most height out of them -- well, when we launched the car was basically just riding on the spring and the shock was unable to effective dampen thus causing the rear end of the car to bounce around a lot

most people have fixed this problem by running true aftermarket coilovers where you can preload the spring and the height adjustment of the coilover doesn't change the amount of dampening the shock is able to obtain

also, i heard from a wise man that the main job of the spring is to just support the weight of the vehicle and you want the shock to do the majority of the work, although this idea does change a bit for a FWD vehicle because you want a stiffer rear spring than necessary in order to limit weight transfer as much as possible

moral of the story, i believe the shocks you run are just as important if not more important than the spring rates

 

I understand that the shock dampens the springs compressions. But, at a certain point, the spring would become so stiff that the shock is, in essence, useless.

Example: if you removed the spring altogether and put in a solid piece of metal, the shock becomes useless because the metal doesn't move.

Is the Skunk2 coilover so stiff that it doesn't really compress enough to allow the shock to act on it?

 

how stiff are you trying to go?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MrJParks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how stiff are you trying to go? </TD></TR></TABLE>

[PeterGriffinLaugh]hehehehehehehehehehehehe[/PeterGriffinLaugh]

The spring rates are listed above.

 

i just removed a set like that from my car to upgrade. I was running Skunk2 Drag launch coilovers on some possibly blown 99 model rear shocks and i was getting 1.6 60 foots pretty damn consistently. Ill sell the coilovers asap,

 

It would seem to be dangerous because the rear end of the car is just riding on the spring. But who makes a shock that will support a 1000lb spring rate?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Alchemist &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It would seem to be dangerous because the rear end of the car is just riding on the spring. But who makes a shock that will support a 1000lb spring rate?</TD></TR></TABLE>

ideally i think to support a 1000 lb spring rate the best way possible you would be looking at a custom valved shock

but the off the shelf koni yellows do a pretty dang good job

 

That's what I'm thinking. Custom valving would be needed to truly support it.

It still seems to me though that this spring is SO stiff that I wouldn't notice a difference. If You had a lighter spring and hit a bump, you'd bounce with blown shocks. The spring would recoil and compress again and again.

With these springs though, I think the compress and recoil cycles would be extremely fast to almost non-existent.

 

i'd imagine you wouldnt seen too many issues on a nice, smooth track... but i wouldnt run it on a crappy highway... a buddy of mine had issues running "regular" coilovers on blown shocks (LIGHT car) on the highway... the *** of the car would get airborn and throw the car all over. truely dangers/unbearable

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tippyman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I understand that the shock dampens the springs compressions. But, at a certain point, the spring would become so stiff that the shock is, in essence, useless.

Example: if you removed the spring altogether and put in a solid piece of metal, the shock becomes useless because the metal doesn't move.

Is the Skunk2 coilover so stiff that it doesn't really compress enough to allow the shock to act on it?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I don't think there is a spring out there that strong or else what would be the point of having it.