Suspension tuning - dampers, spring rates, etc.

[RTW DC2R]

Sounds like a solid setup. Ill take a stab and then christian can correct me lol.

Im not a suspension expert but if I were you Id probably try a bigger bar up front before anything else. Dont change too much at once especially if you like the way the car handles now.

I just upgraded to eibach 25mm front and rear bars and while I havent had it on track yet, spirited drives and exit ramps you can feel the car trying to stay more flat. Its a sensation like the inside front wheel is holding the road just a little bit more. You can feel the weight transfer from outside to inside.

Adding positive camber in the rear could help rotation as well but you might need to watch pressures or start wearing out the rear tires shoulders.

Also, what are your toe settings?

[Underrated99si]

Sounds like a solid setup. Ill take a stab and then christian can correct me lol.

Im not a suspension expert but if I were you Id probably try a bigger bar up front before anything else. Dont change too much at once especially if you like the way the car handles now.

I just upgraded to eibach 25mm front and rear bars and while I havent had it on track yet, spirited drives and exit ramps you can feel the car trying to stay more flat. Its a sensation like the inside front wheel is holding the road just a little bit more. You can feel the weight transfer from outside to inside.

Adding positive camber in the rear could help rotation as well but you might need to watch pressures or start wearing out the rear tires shoulders.

Also, what are your toe settings?

Toe I believe is 0 front and rear. The guys at west end alignment wanted to give me a good baseline for future changes after track time.

Bigger front bar hmm always figured it would make it understeer quite a bit. Hopefully someone can chime in a d clear it up. I'm down to start there and see what happends

[aw614]

Would the bigger front have a huge effect on our cars? I know for strut cars it seems to make a huge difference in maintaining camber, but other than a few older H-T threads about trying a big front bar setup, I heard about many using that setup.

[Xian]

Honestly, 12k/10k sounds like it's in the right range of where I'd be. You could certainly go higher if you wanted to though. As far as a bigger front bar, that would absolutely make the car roll less but, as mentioned, the side effect will likely be a slightly more pushy feel. The reason big front bars work well on strut cars is camber gain under compression: strut cars don't have much. Any of the DW Honda's have great geometry and camber gain under compression... roll and suspension compression isn't a bad thing; it can work for you.

For the OP, I'd look at front camber first. It seems a little on the low side to me. Assuming it's in the 2.25* range, I'd expect some of the push could be fixed by bumping that to 2.75-3* and/or reduced rear camber. Maybe try to keep the front/rear split around a 1* delta. Adding rear bar will help also but I'd try the alignment before throwing parts at it. Don't forget that you can also tweak tire pressures too.

BTW, for those of you not at GridLife, you're doing it wrong.

[Underrated99si]

I have the big Nugent 26mm bar out back.

Your right mabe just have the car re aligned and camber changes and see what happends first.

If front bar is gonna make me a tad more pushy I'll pass on that option

[Xian]

I have the big Nugent 26mm bar out back.

Your right mabe just have the car re aligned and camber changes and see what happends first.

If front bar is gonna make me a tad more pushy I'll pass on that option

Yep, I had the 26mm Mugen bar for a bit too and went up to the ASR 32mm. IMO, that's really the way to go (ASR) because it's got enough options and adjustment ranges to cover what you need. IIRC, the thin wall ASR is about as stiff as the Mugen bar when set to full soft... obviously, you can go up from there.

[Brap]

- more understeer than i would like in hairpin corners (streets of willow)
- more roll than would like in some tight corners

I'd also like to add with the two statements being made; maybe a touch too fast into the hairpin is causing the push.

[Underrated99si]

I thaught the same aswell but if I lifted a little mid corner and then back to held throttle position. I could get the back end to rotate and turn the car like I wanted.

I just want it to rotate a little easier but not be super ass happy

[907ITR]

I've been pretty happy with how my setup has been performing, althought the disparity between the front and rear spring rates has always intrigued me as to why Ohlins did that. Though it appears that was answered in the first page of this thread.

Front
Ohlins DFV 14k spring rate
PCI Spherical UCA
3* camber
1/16th toe out (total, 1/32nd per side)
OEM JDM 25mm FSB
16x8 +38 215/45/16 RT615k+

Rear
Ohlins DFV 6k spring rate
ASR 25mm adjustable RSB w/ spherical end links on middle setting
16x7 +42 215/45/16 RT615k+
1.5* camber w/ stock links
Zero toe

After changing the sway bars from the OEM USDM ITR stuff to the current setup I noticed the car felt significantly more planted at autocross and had a lot less roll. At a recent track event I noticed a bit more oversteer (expected) which is what I prefer, but also a bit of understeer on corner exit when applying throttle. I'm still using the OEM diff, and I wonder if an OSGiken 1 way clutch type diff would help the understeer I'm seeing. I did have adjustable rear camber links, but the spherical ends had a significant amount of play in them after just 1000 miles, and were making a loud clunking noise at my autocross tech inspection, so back to OEM I went.

[coolhandluke]

I've been pretty happy with how my setup has been performing, althought the disparity between the front and rear spring rates has always intrigued me as to why Ohlins did that. Though it appears that was answered in the first page of this thread.

Front
Ohlins DFV 14k spring rate
PCI Spherical UCA
3* camber
1/16th toe out (total, 1/32nd per side)
OEM JDM 25mm FSB
16x8 +38 215/45/16 RT615k+

Rear
Ohlins DFV 6k spring rate
ASR 25mm adjustable RSB w/ spherical end links on middle setting
16x7 +42 215/45/16 RT615k+
1.5* camber w/ stock links
Zero toe

After changing the sway bars from the OEM USDM ITR stuff to the current setup I noticed the car felt significantly more planted at autocross and had a lot less roll. At a recent track event I noticed a bit more oversteer (expected) which is what I prefer, but also a bit of understeer on corner exit when applying throttle. I'm still using the OEM diff, and I wonder if an OSGiken 1 way clutch type diff would help the understeer I'm seeing. I did have adjustable rear camber links, but the spherical ends had a significant amount of play in them after just 1000 miles, and were making a loud clunking noise at my autocross tech inspection, so back to OEM I went.

What are the age/mileage (condition) of the car's bushings? What motor mounts?