Car: 1998 Acura Integra GSR 4dr, currently full-weight (so like 2700lbs?). Fully stock with 160k miles, has blown front shocks with Skunk2 lowering springs.

What do I plan to do with it? I'd like to set up a car I can feel comfortable with taking to HPDEs and Autocrosses in the local area. Its not really going to be a daily driver at all, so I'm not concerned about the ride (this thing is crashing on the bumpstops with every pothole as is). This car is going to be more of a "learner" track car for me, its not being built for any race classes.

What would be a good spring rate for Konis/GCs? Coming from a NA Miata I've been spoiled by the rotation/balance from that car so I was thinking 550F/650R.

Would that be too much? I would think I would need a bit more "spring" than other applications considering I have a heavier car. If it counts for a tire I'm aiming to run 200~ treadwear tires (Potenzas RE-11s or BFG Rivals) and for a swaybar, a 24mm bar (currently has stock GSR bar)

 

I'm on 400/400 rates with a 2000 GSR hatchback. Since you aren't daily driving it, you'll want higher rates than that, but 650 is probably more than the Konis can adequately damp. If you're fine with slightly under damped, that sounds like an aggressive, but acceptable, set of rates.

 

my suggestion, 500f/r, and get a bigger rear bar.

i've run 550f/r and it needed more rotation. pretty sure if i had type r rear bar in, it would have rotated a lot better. that setup was on a 94 4door gsr, with dunlop z1's

 

Any benefit to running a rear biased setup? I had the impression rear-bias regarding springrates let the car rotate a bit better, just as a bigger rear bar would. And yeah, turns out 600lbs is the limit for standard Yellows. So 500/600? I just feel like the weight of my car means I have to compensate for it vs people running lower rates on lighter cars.

I could also run no front swaybar and a 24mm rear maybe?

 

the way mine felt, the spring rates were fine. it pushed, in the corners, and im pretty sure if i had put on a type r rear bar, it would have rotated perfectly.

saying that, you can try 500f 600r. it should, in theory act as if you have a bigger bar in the rear, but it won't replace the fact that you might need a bigger bar for the rear.

 

500 all around or 500/600 would be fine, but either way you need a bigger rear bar. But, my first priority would be weight reduction. You say its not a daily, so do you have any other reasons not to remove most of the interior or AC? You can get that car well under 2500 lbs pretty easily.

 

I run 650 front 950 rear no front bar 32 mm rear bar hollow full stiff. Rebound set to 1/4 all the way around and damper on 3. These are Advanced design shocks

 

Just in case I want to go grocery shopping in it. Its not a commuter car but I do use it on weekends sometimes. I can't see myself doing any more serious weight reduction (especially removing A/C, ABS, and PS, kinda feel it might be too much of a pain in the *** to reverse if I decide to put the car back to stock for whatever reason even though that's like 93lbs there).

How would 500 F/R or 500 F/600 R work on the street by the way with spirited driving? I understand its not a street spring rate but if I were to take the car on a weekend drive (or even something like a trip to a road like you would find at Deals Gap) would I find myself at the bottom of a ditch? As I said, no real concern about ride, but predictability/confidence when I hit a bump mid-corner would be nice.

 

IMO 500/600 is a lot for the street but there are a lot of people on this forum who drive regularly on those rates. To me it's too stiff to be pleasant and streets are bumpy enough that there is no performance advantage (whatever that means on public roads). Where I have lived I would not go above 350 rear on public roads. Could you? Yes. Would I want to? No. But if you're setting the car up for autocross those are the rates you need. Maybe 500/500 with a beefy sway.

 

^This.

Could you drive 500/600, sure, and plenty of people do. Would it be comfortable? Not a bit lol

 

I didn't want to start a new thread, but how do PIC Select R3s compare to Koni Yellow OTS/GC with 9k/11k rates (about 500/600)

Do people still use them/are they still sold? Most of the threads I find about them are from 2010-2011, and the guy running the PICPerformance H-T account hasn't signed in a while.

Are 12k/14k (670/780) rates going to make the back end too lively if I hit a road imperfection mid-corner?

 

You should consider some weight reduction
I had a 96 db8 ..It weighed 2755 w/ me in it (what a cow, lol)
Anyway, the reason being that you plan to track it. Less weight equals less stress on the brakes and pads.
The car will also handle better. Imo

 

I am, I'll probably end up keeping ABS/PS though.

 

No, because you should be no where even close to the limits of cornering on the street, so road imperfections won't upset the car at all.

Besides that, without ARB information, how can anyone answer?

 

That's what I will be going with as a Daily street car. Get koni race and get the 600/700, or is it 700/800 setup
PIC is a 1 piece coilover as koni/gc is a spring/shock setup. Autocross racers will take Koni/GC over 1 piece coilovers any day. But everyone has different preference. I would lean more towards the 12k/14k. But its definitely not a gf happy suspension. You can also adjust the dampening and make it softer, which then makes it more suitable. Gotta play around with it, then you can figure out your limits. No one can give you a single answer for your questions.
Other autocross racers will go with 14k/12k setup and get thicker rear sways.

omitting power steering with give you more control. See how it feels with PS and without. See which you like the best

GL