I have an EP ('new civic Si'), and there aren't many suspension options out there for it for a serious auto-x STS effort yet.

The stock setup is estimated at F-248/R-440. Some of the most promising options out right now include Tien's Flex at 560/671. These seem hardly stiffer when compared to some of the high rates found in the much lighter Civics/CRXs out there on this board.

Well, one of the up-and-coming products for the EP's suspension is KW's V3 implementation, which sports much lower spring rates (340/500) in what is supposed to be a race-tuned setup.

That was confusing to me so I called up Glen at KW to discuss, and he explained that thier suspensions use a "New School" philosophy of tuning suspension. The result, according to Glen, is that in addition to ride comfort, you get better traction on surfaces with small abberations than with springs, but are still able to cancel pitch and roll by adjusting the slow-bump rate.

Has anyone else ran into this "New School" that seems to say "keep moderate spring rates, and adjust your slow bump rate to compensate?"

 

he's telling you their 'lawyer approved' response.

ask Tod00 what he runs on his STS EP....i know it's definetly more than 350/500

 

Todd00 was running the Tien Flex... 560/671

 

I believe GRM's EP ended up with a LOT more spring than that...

 

well then....

well, the latest issue of GRM has their EP running 700 up front and 800 in the rear. on revalved koni's

i'd go for the Tein's. you can adjust ride height without messing with spring preload and/or losing all your suspension travel up front.

 

Please, please do not follow the GRM 02 Civic Si setup. While their springrates might have been close to being good (although not ideal IMO), the Koni/stock shock combo just doesn't allow the car to have enough suspension travel. That's why they were always off the bumpstops on a lot of courses. And they complain about not having enough gear yet they won't spend $600 on the Hondata flash, which is a major component to getting the car to work on an autox course. That and the car needs 16" wheels with at least 215 tires.

IMO, the 02 Civic/RSX needs a good full-bodied monotube coilover setup. You need to be able to get the shockbody short enough to work with how low the car needs to go.

And the only thing the Flex kit needs is a little more springrate in the rear. Otherwise it is valved rather nicely, especially for bumpy courses. And this crap about less springrate on the new cars sounds like a marketing plan to support their (KW's V3) undersprung suspension. Realtime runs 30kg+ springs on their RSX's in the rear, sometimes more.

 

Todd00

Did you ever find out any new info on the "revised" DC5-R steering tie rods?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sjracer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Todd00

Did you ever find out any new info on the "revised" DC5-R steering tie rods?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No. Since I have had to surrender the 02 Si as my daily because of the new tow vehicle, I stopped looking for tierod solutions. However, while the tierod angle may be a little less than ideal, I never broke a tierod or experienced that much bumpsteer. Perhaps on a roadcourse things might be different, but for autox I had no problems.

 

Thanks for the input Todd00.

Glen at KW was saying the V3's wont be much more than 350/500, so I'll wait and see if the Mugen Coilovers hit over the next 3 months.

If not, Im going with Flex for next season...the EP needs some more serious suspension options!

 

Just a few random thoughts on the topic:

I am beginning to believe that a big part of the reason that most of the "new school" suspension kits that are out have very low spring rates is because they are catering to the majority of the tuner market. How many tuners who go out and buy coilovers actually race their cars? Most are looking for a drop while maintaining a soft ride. These companies are probably afraid of losing business if they put in spring rates that are considered very harsh for the street.

A veteran racer once told me that due to the strut vs ind suspension in F/R, the motion ratio should dictate that your rear rates should be approx double the fronts. I have to wonder why a lot of the aftermarket suspension kits seem to have a much lower ratio in their rates.

The Spoon coilovers listed here really intrigued me since it seems that you can pick your springrate from their list of available ones. But apparently, they are not going to go to production on these for some reason. http://www.aj-racing.com/spoon....html

Todd00: The Realtime RSX has 30kg/mm rear rate??!! What're they running up front?

 

Why are these not going into production? I wonder if you could put these on a the GC sleeves and find a shock that will have enough travel at a low stance