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Toying with different ways to reliably raise the ride height on our stage rally car. 95 Civic SI with a B16A2 and lots of weight in the way of roll cage, safety equipment, tool kits, spares, coolsuit cooler, etc. Currently the car sits on Bilstein B6 with custom coilover sleeves that I had machined to allow ride height adjustment, 12" 250lb QA1 springs in the front, 12" 200lb QA1 springs in the rear. In order to achieve roughly stock ride height, we have 1" of preload in the rear and 2" of preload in the front. I would like to raise the car another inch or so, but I am worried about preloading the springs more than they already are. We just tested this suspension setup at a RallyCross last month and the car felt great, very planted and firm yet pliable to the small bumps. With this in mind ive come up with a few possible options:
1. Swap to stiffer springs and run the same or less preload, which could cause the car to feel too stiff over uneven rally roads.
2. Strut top spacers (I worry about the durability of this setup, but I suppose most of the forces are being handled by the control arms rather than the strut itself)
3. Moving to a longer front lower control arm from a CRV (not sure if that would work how I think it would, thought ive read that the crv shock mount point is the same distance from the subframe as an EG, so i figured it could cause a slight increase in ride height and increase the track width slightly as well.) The tapered hole in our current LCAs is out of round due to an encounter with a large rock on the driver side, so we need to replace both arms regardless.
4. CRV struts, swap to type R or CRV rear LCAs (Ive read that CRV struts have a longer shock body and mounting point.)
There are plenty of purpose built Stage Rally strut packages available for our car, but were talking 5-8K for a kit, and Im trying to do this on a budget while also insuring that if we break stuff, we can still get parts at a local Autozone lol.
If you guys have any other suggestions or opinions on my ideas, please feel free to share. I know that Rally is not exactly the most covered type of racing here, but I think general understanding of suspension geometry and design is universally applicable.
I would probably switch to low cost 2 way adjustable coils, that way ride height adjustment isn't affecting preload. For less than $1000 you should be able to get something decent.
I have thought about going that route, though I worry about the durability of cheap shocks and hardware. Unlike on a track, if we have a suspension failure it could mean flying off a cliff or getting taco'ed around a tree. Not sure who the reputable adjustable shock manufacturers are, but most of what I find doesnt seem like it would hold up to all the bumps/jumps of stage rally. Do you have any specific recomendations?
I just wonder if really this is the one niche where golden era double wishbone front and rear trailing arm suspension just isn't the best setup.
It's great for dialing in negative camber and toe curves. But it's fragile and too many pieces. It's no wonder why successful rally chassis utilize Mac struts for durability and wheel travel.
Another example that limits your front ride height and travel is the shock is placed right above the axle. And there's not much that can be done without completely rearranging the suspension geometry.
So I'm not saying dump your chassis, but understand the limitations you've already started with.
Dump the kuckles and upper control arm and go to an 01+ Civic knuckle and probably a custom McPherson. Or maybe CR-Z knuckles, the steering linkage is on the knuckle in that application.
Look up jvab at rally anarchy. He was using 50mm Bilstein strut inserts as an upright for custom rally McPhersons for all kinds of cars.
95 Civic SI Budget Rally Suspension Ideas
