If anyone can help cut down on the research on this it would be appreciated. I just bought an 88 CRX Si with a B18c with Toda cams, etc. The car is really for DE work. I instruct for a few groups. Right now the car has stock springs, only koni yellows in the rear with I think a 22mm rear sway which IMO gave the rear a pretty nice rotation I was comfortable with. Stock sway up front. I am taking off the dash this weekend to get a six point custom cage welded up so that will make a HUGE difference in chassis stiffness therefore affect spring selection. I don't know ride height/camber issues on this car yet. All the interior is stripped out except the top half of the dash and the two door panels (window glass is in). I am guessing the car is what 1800lbs and some change but with roll bar will have to see. Can anyone get me in a range here? I have had Eibach ERS/GC sleeves/Koni yellows on another car (RWD) and was happy with it.
Please comment on the following if you have an opinion
spring length
spring rates f/r
shock
sways

I saw the thread on the recently purchased ITA car and it had what 450f/650r?

Any help in helping me sort out what may work or come close to working out of the box would be appreciated.
Thanks
Barry H.

 

**** who cares, with that much power in that little ******* your gonna be doggin everyone...na JP of course. Unless you want to go with very expensive double adjustable race shocks i would recommend koni's. You can always get them revalved to deal with 450frt/550rear ( i would say thats good, no less but maybe 50 more on either end) a little better. DEF do the bushings, what a world of difference, I did ALL of them even the big 100 dollar ones that dont come with the kit in the rear. You could go with metal if its all out race but id say poly is just fine. stick with the stock fnt/22mm rear swy brs, cant go wrong there. ( i just changed to no fnt/ 22mm rear for autoxing but havent really tested it yet, find out this weekend how it works with my setup). OOO ****, i forgot that the 88's are setup differently. The 88's have the "good" race setup suspension in the rear, very close to ITR setup. It makes the rear end a little looser so the sway bar deal might not work with you, you might need a more neutral setup, they changed it in 89 becuase it had too much oversteer and you know how all the saftey buffs just love that. Your gonna have to do some reaseach with teh 88 guys cause thats a different deal. Get that bad boy on the track and give us some feedback, I would love to do that to mine, ive got a b16 now but that b18 sounds mighty tempting.

 

I have a B18 in my 91 Hatch and run the full Progress Group ITA coilover set-up with 450 front/600 rear, spherical bearings all around and their adjustable rear bar with no front bar. Like it a lot. Many of the fast ITA/H4 cars in SoCal run the same combo...

Check them out: http://www.progressauto.com

Thawley

 

Hi Barry,
I'm assuming you're going to be street driving the car, so don't go crazy with the rates. 400/600 to 500/700 is a typical CRX or Civic setup, but if you're street driving the car I'd go more conservative. Maybe 300/400 with the 22mm adjustable ST rear bar. Most of us do not run a front bar on our IT cars.

You can't go wrong with Koni, and at those rates off the shelf stuff will work just fine.

 

Thanks guys for the suggestions. LOL shiftkit, yeah it pulls like a mother with the stripped interior/light weight. I took my brother-in-law who has owned a few modded muscle cars in his day and when I ran it from 1st through about 7K in fifth he could not believe it and said, "this thing pulls like V8". The car has no A/C. Really no ventilation system (I am going to rerig some of it) so it is 80% track about 20% tooling around some. I like the Konis I just don't like the PITA to change the settings but then if the springs are at the upper end of the range of the shocks, I probably need to be full firm on all fours right? Or do you guys recommend softening up the front on setting? Do I need to buy the GC sleeves?

As to the sway bar in the rear, coming from a tt supra with a pretty aggressive suspension set up, this Honda rotates and steps out a lot more but is very predictable/barrel of laughs. Although at a place like Road Atlanta I might want to calm the *** end down some. Turn 12 on the throttle at 100+mph is not the place you want a lot of drama. With the stock spring rates (anybody know what they are?) and the sway set up it has about the balance I am looking for so when I change spring rates (and rear to front rate ratio), I am wondering if the car will be too much oversteer. I have a lot to learn about the car and appreciate the input. This car is sooo much fun and I want to play with a few folks minds on road courses with this plain looking CRX (well until maybe they see the full cage inside). The outside is "original" with scratches here and there/total sleeper. :-) Again thanks for the advice.
Barry H.