To start it off:

96 Accord Coupe ~2900 curb weight
- JDM H22A non-lsd tranny
- NSX calipers and 11.1" rotors
- stock sways f/r (will be upgraded to a ST 29mm front/ 20mm rear)


Now I currently have OTS Koni Yellows and OTS GC's. Their rates are approx 380/250 or so (rears i'm not 100% sure on I know they're around that).

I love to Autocross and I'm going to start getting into HPDE's and what not and would like to go with a stiffer setup. Problem is almost no one tracks an Accord on here and knows what they're talking about when it comes to spring rates.


From doing research I know it consists of looking at the rear weight of the car and then choosing suitable spring rates from there. I also read in several locations that on stock valved Koni's the max you want to go is 500.

SO, my question comes in would an upgrade to 450/500 seem like a good choice? The car is fairly neutral when it comes to turning so I figured the addition of the sway and the stiffer spring in the back would help in getting me around the twisties

The car also isn't slammed so that isn't really a concern of mine, it's about 5" clearance from the skirt to the ground all around so there's a decent gap between wheel > fender. I have a feeling that those running around slammed have to consider more when looking at spring rates.

Does anyone have any insight as to what route I should go? I looked on Ksport's site and their kinda generic coilover is 672/390 or something along those lines.

 

With your current spring rates, I find it hard to believe that the car is neutral. Is it neutral when you lift or is it neutral at low partial throttle? And if you add this larger FSB, it's going to get worse, especially because the ST setup has a huge FSB compared to the back. Not knowing too much about Accords in particular, here's what I'd do:

ST rear bar, stock front bar
450f/550r springs (Koni Yellows can go to 600 btw, especially on the rear)

And the whole slamming thing doesn't matter. My car is "slammed" by some standards (no wheel gap at all), but the real matter at hand is does your suspension or tire hit anything when loaded, if not, you're safe to be slammed. After all, it lowers the center of gravity of the car, which makes it want to roll less, and makes it handle better.

Good luck, let us know if there's any other topics of concern

 

It seems fairly neutral, I guess I haven't really driven too many cars that have hardcore over/understeer so it's tough for me to judge but it seems to not be unwilling to go into corners, but at the same time doesn't seem like it's corner happy. So with saying that I would say that low throttle it seems neutral to me.

Thanks for the opinion on the sways, I only know but so much on the matter of playing with your over/under and read up a large article on HondaSociety regarding it. Definitely saved me some money as they're about $200 each haha

And thanks for clarifying with the suspension, even when I was fairly slammed (tucking tire) I was doing AutoX with no UCA smacking against the chassis.

I appreciate it!

 

You really benefit from softer spring rates, mainly because you get the best traction out of the tire when you run softer springs. I wouldn't increase the spring rate unless you're running so low that you're using up all your travel or you are trying to lower the center of gravity which forces you to run a higher spring rate.

Technically a reduced CoG will help with reducing load transfer due to cornering and braking/acceleration. If you are trying to get the most out of your car, then you will want to lower it as much as you can.

But if you are just driving for fun and racing a daily driver you should not be so concerned with lowering the car and you should reduce body roll with big swaybars. Increasing the rebound damping on some Koni Yellows will also help alot with transient maneuvers, and make the car a lot easier to drive through slaloms.

 

I just changed my setup from 12k front 10k rear with a st rear bar only, to 12f 18r and put the stock front bar back on. I thought it would be much looser but its not. It is better out of the low speed sweepers but tough to drive fast in the fast bumpy turns

 

First I haven't been at this a long time, but i have been doing ALOT of research. When selecting spring rates you have to pick what you are going to be doing with the car first. Unless you are lucky enough to be able to change your spring rates depending on the day of the week. The whole slamming thing does matter. Ride height is a crutial part of spring/shock set up and selection. General rule of thumb the lower the car the stiffer the suspension to a point. As someone stated the softer the more traction to a point. Ginsu2k seems to be pretty much on the mark, although the spring rates play a part in body roll. You have to remember that everything is connected, springs/shocks/rollbars/tie bars. And the goal of suspension tuning is to optimize the contact patch on all 4 tires at all times, and not just creating a stage coach stiff ride. Somkin rubber stated that his car will skip through bumpy corners, too stiff of a set up, not optimizing the contact patch. My suggestion is to start in the middle of the road somewhere, and not to get something super stiff. Only lower the car a little bit and start driving it. This will make weight transfer more obvious and let you get used to driving at speed. Then lower the car until the suspension starts to bottom out. then it's time to upgrade!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GI8U2racing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">With your current spring rates, I find it hard to believe that the car is neutral. Is it neutral when you lift or is it neutral at low partial throttle? And if you add this larger FSB, it's going to get worse, especially because the ST setup has a huge FSB compared to the back. Not knowing too much about Accords in particular, here's what I'd do:

ST rear bar, stock front bar
450f/550r springs (Koni Yellows can go to 600 btw, especially on the rear)

And the whole slamming thing doesn't matter. My car is "slammed" by some standards (no wheel gap at all), but the real matter at hand is does your suspension or tire hit anything when loaded, if not, you're safe to be slammed. After all, it lowers the center of gravity of the car, which makes it want to roll less, and makes it handle better.

Good luck, let us know if there's any other topics of concern</TD></TR></TABLE>

Accords have wacky motion ratios (I found mine at .65 front and right around 1 rear) so it's not surprising he finds it sort of neutral if we ignore swaybar effects.