Ok after a lot of debating Im going to get the koni-ground control for my 98 ITR. But i am a little confused on what spring rate to get so, i need a little help. i am going to put the car pretty low to the ground put not slammed. Will be manly DD the car, also will be using it for some road course driving. so my question is what spring rate will some of you recommend with still maintaining a nice ride.

 

either 350 and 350 or 350 and 450. 450 being in the rear.

 

hang on, let's think this out

what tires are you using? i don't mean size either i mean tread compound

what type of driving do you want to do?

a heavy rear bias like 100lbs or more can be effective in autocross but it's not always fast on the street or on certain tracks.

anyway, we need more info to come up with any real rate suggestions. answer the above 2 questions as well as what "pretty low" means

a good street setup with a real street tire like the yoke ad08 would be around 500/450

on tracks you will adjust the rear spring between 450 and roughly 550, so if you race you need to buy more springs

if you will only autocross 450/550 or 500/550 is a good setup {this is why buying 450,500, and 550 all in 8s is smart, look at all the combos you can make}

if you run **** tires, this means yoke s drives or harder you can lighten up the rates a bit to the 350ish range and still have a responsive car. 400/350 is a decent street rate with s drives

i highly suggest 500/450 with 8" springs all around {could do 7s in the rear if you really wanted to} and yokohama ad08's for a fast street setup. it performs neutral with the itr rear bar and a skilled hand. set the rebound in the front to about half and the rear just off of full stiff. weight balance the car 1/16th higher on the drivers side and set the rear toe around .05 in on each side and the front .03 out each side. get the ride height between roughly a loose one finger or tight two finger gap measuring multiple frame points to make sure the drivers side is 1/16th higher than where you set the passenger. that setup can pull 1.15g on snaps with no trouble and a sustained 1g on the street with no heat in the tires.

as for tires, here's the run down

kumho xs - cheap and grips, is shitty in rain
yoke ad08 - rivals xs in the dry and kills it in the rain

the others like the re11 and star spec aren't bad at all, it's just neither does anything better than the ad08 and they cost the same. the only one i haven't tried personally is the star spec.

the ad08 imo is the best of the bunch.

 

If the car will be "pretty low to the ground put not slammed" I would re-think this. Koni Yellows, while great shocks, off-the-shelf do not like to be ran too low. They can handle lowering, sure. But, if you want to run on the border of low/slammed, then you should look at getting the shocks shortened.

Point being, suspension travel is not an evil word. Lower the car moderately and enjoy the superior ride and handling. Bouncing off the bumpstops is the last thing that you want to do.

 

I agree that koni yellows don't do so well when theyre set "pretty low". You're wasting your money by putting a really nice shock out of its operating range.

This will be worse with 450-500lb springs. That's a bit much for ots koni yellows anyway. Add in the "pretty low" part, and the car will ride like junk.

It's hard to pin down a good spring rate for someone you dont know. Everyone has different driving styles and needs. Plus, comfort is a very subjective term. What "rides great" for me might not be so great for you.

Car setups also differ a lot.

I would suggest trying something middle of the road, like 400/400 or 400/350 or 350/300 and doing a bit of trial and error.

 

i do agree with both of the above posts. the only part i hesitate about is using lighter springs in a really low car. it's not hard to put oil pans in the ground with lighter rates.

however, if you're going to ride flush or tucked, as they pointed out this isn't the best setup for you. something of the skunk pro-c style shock body would be better since it can screw down without effecting travel.

if you want your car to just rail my above post works wonderful with a skilled hand.

comfort is also something that can't be used in the same sentence as riding really low

 

ok I will be running a toyo proxy tire. Will be using it for regular driving and some spirt driving through the mountains. I say road course Because I would like to start bringing to the track.

 

Your car is epically perfect the way it is, if its a 98 type r that is. Don't betray her!

 

the R888? toyo does not make another good tire.

it's basically a more expensive version of the nitto nt01

if this isn't the toyo tire you're using you need different tires, the rest of their lineup is junk from a performance standpoint

 

R888 is a good tire, however it doesn't respond well after 3-4 heat cycle, i would go with the RA1 is as good or better. IMO.

 

The only reason why I'm running these tires is that I got a hell of a deal on another set of itr wheels and they came with them. So all I need is a suggestion on spring rates that will make the car ride good a Handel.

 

Georg Handel, the german composer from the 1700's?

 

Hahaha mybad. I ment for the car to ride good and good handling.

 

You're not going to like the answer, but OEM ITR springs and Koni Yellow shocks (set on the lowest perch) is a great compromise of handling and ride.

Otherwise, it's like asking for a triple cheeseburger that tastes good and has zero calories in it.

Especially if you plan on lowering past 2". Ain't going to happen.

 

basically

you really need to choose between comfort and transition speed

if you choose comfort this works

and, if you're running hard as a rock tires like proxes 4's or some other all season you don't even need a lot of spring since you won't have the available traction to really take advantage of them.