Hey guys, I've been doing a few time attack HPDE track events this year and though I am very happy with how my PIC Select R3 12K Front 14K rear coilovers handle, I feel I have a bit too much oversteer for my own good.

The car is a 1997 civic DX with no sway bars or camber kits. When we got it aligned, it had 1.8 negative camber in the front and 2.5 in the rear. I was running Yokohama A032R tires that were brand new at the beginning of the season and my tire pressures were around 34 front 32 rear hot.

The toe settings are around 0 out back and within OEM spec up front.

The tail wants to come out quite a bit when the car rotates and if I lift mid curve it spins everytime. It is fast but a bit too lively for my skills right now.

Would you guys recommend sway bars first and if so what type? I will not be changing the coilovers for next year or the spring rates so would like to tune using other means.

 

Can you smooth out your driving so that you don't have to lift? That would be the cheapest fix. I would suggest at some point getting front and rear swaybars on there - great tuning tools, and cheap as well - but I'm not sure if 97 DX's had provisions for front swaybars, maybe someone else knows.

 

What about changing the rear spring rate to something a little softer?

 

a front sway bar will help pull some oversteer away, even though it's not an SI, i'm pretty sure there are companies out there that sell sway bars

 

thought ST made sways for these. just a front bar would help. plan B would be going slightly lighter on the spring.

of course driving style and the track you're on is part of this.

like everyone else my vote is to either A: add a front bar or B: lighten the rear rate

 

Its the transition between understeer at the limit to snap oversteer after just slightly lifting that is a bit scary.

The DX did not have provisions for a front bar but that can be easily resolved by changing out the front lower LCA's to SI or SIR ones to have either choice of bar.

My inside rear wheel does have a tendency to lift in fairly high speed corners. In low speed corners the setup feels perfect when you start going into the higher speed corners around 100km/h or more then the back also wants to wash out a bit.

The car is also completely gutted so I have very little weight in the back.

I installed those spring rates after PIC recommended they would be the best ones for a dedicated track car.

 

if the car feels snappy to you lighter rates all around will increase your feel at the wheel and calm it down a bit. i also think that if you ran bars you can get away with something a good deal lighter and not only get better times but have a car that's easier to drive. with your tire something in the 10k range might be a good place to start. another thing you could try before is backing off rebound valving

 

info on how to put a front sway bar in any 96-00 civic can be found here:
http://omgili.com/jmp/t1o2C2H78UcPRf...nuSzxiOY3Kg7kk

 

do you guys think adding just a front and rear sway bar and not changing the rates could bring a little understeer back into the picture or you guys really feel the rear rates are too high?

 

Are you giving the car & suspension enough time to settle when braking? If you don't, thats a good way to have the rear end get loose.

As for spinning mid turn... Grow a pair and don't lift :p lol...