Hey guys,

I will be buying suspension components for my car in the next few weeks and am just trying to get some advise as to what I should ultimately buy.

I am leaning towards either the PIC Select coilovers or Koni yellow SP3's with GC coils.

The car will be used at autocross events and track days with the eventual goal being to turn it into a a road race car fully gutted and caged.

The car will only be street driven for fun in the summer and to get to and from events.

Harshness is not an issue so I can deal with stiff rates on the springs.

I am just getting into racing so I'm a bit of a noob who needs a saftey net for now. As soon as the season starts I will be taking the car to Evolution Driving School to learn to drive it but I cannot leave it on it's stock suspension as 2 shocks are currently blown.

My budget will be $1500 CAD to do this keeping in mind shipping and duty fees when ordering from the states.

With this all being said what would you guys recommend for spring rates and which set would you feel is more user friendly and offers more tuneability?

If it matters, I don't plan to slam the car like crazy and I will be running Enkei RPF1 15X7 with 205/50/R15 RT 615's for the season.

btw this is for a 97 civic coupe

 

If you will be doing HPDE's at the beginning of the upcoming season, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you do this on stock, or only just a very mildly modified suspension so you can get a feel for how the car behaves, and then start making changes. If you have stock springs on the car now, get some fairly cheap Monroe shocks or something similar to start out.

If you just can't stand learning on stock suspension, for whatever reason, then I would say go with a MILD lowering spring and new shocks.

I think it will be a mistake to suddenly upgrade to higher-end suspension when you're just starting to get into it and learning how the car handles on a track.

 

I think because my budget will be tight for the build and I'd like to do things right the first time, I am looking at jumping into something a little higher end right off the bat so I don't end up spending twice on this.

The road courses in the area are also fairly big and fast so I would like to avoid having the car feel vague and floaty at those speeds and that is what I am afraid just upgrading springs will do.

The car has around 180 000miles at the moment and feels very slopping on the stock suspension so I think it would be hazardous to venture onto a road course without a more solid suspension setup.

I can understand your concern but I guess I should say that I am not a complete noob. I have done a few autocross events before and a few track days and have been to high performance driving events before so I can handle a car ok.

The only concern is I don't want a car that will promote lift oversteer at the moment and don't plan on playing with sway bars and other adjustable components until I get a good feel for the suspension kit by itself.

 

bump anyone else have input?

 

My personal preference is Koni/GC, but everyone says PIC's are great, too, and it seems customer service is quite good from them, also.

I think it will just come down to personal preference (not sure how PIC's price compares to Koni/GC which can be had for around US$800-$850 w/o top hats). However, you'll probably have more choices as far as fine-tuning spring rates if you go with Koni/GC.

 

And would I talk to someone at GC to work out a good spring rates for my current needs?

Just want to make sure I am talking to someone who is knoweldgeable and can help me make the right decision.

 

Definitely, call up GC and they should be able to help you out.

 

Spoke to Mark and he says a good ballpart to get started would be 450 front 350 rear.

If my conversions are ok this is around 7.2k and 5.6k sounds fairly soft..

I was thinking of going with 500 fronts and 380 rears and eventually upgrading the coilovers when I get better car control and become a better driver.

thoughts?

 

Those definitely don't sound too soft to me. I ran 380f/450r on my Integra (much heavier than your car) and it rotated pretty well during autox w/ the 22mm sway bar back there. However it was very harsh on the street.

I actually told the GC tech that I wanted to go a bit stiffer in the rear, and those were the rates he recommended - 380 lb 8" front springs, and 450 lb 7" rear springs.

If I were to do it again, I would probably 380 or 400 up front, and 350 or even 300 in the rear. That's for mainly a street car, with some autox use mixed in.

 

And I think I want higher rates because this car will not really be a street car.

I have 2 other DD's so this car will be my road racing/auto x car exclusively. I won't really care if it is super stiff getting to the events as I want it to perform well once on track.

I have been in an EK hatch with skunk2 pro S full coilovers that had 8k fronts 6k rears. and those did not really feel stiff just well controlled. So I think I will use those rates as a "noob setup" for now and eventually throw in a 22mm rear sway since my car will probably not rotate nearly as well as your teg with the lower rear rates.

I really hope the koni yellow/GC coil setup is worth it because I could pick up some PIC Apex full coils or Skunk2 pro s coils for $1000 CAD and the koni/gc setup will probable end up costing me $500 more for the same spring rates.

 

Ah I gotcha, if it won't be a street car, then comfort certainly is not even an issue. Start with what you feel comfortable with and work your way up.

<-- wishes he had a track car + separate daily driver