The roads here in Hawaii are getting even more shitty (yeah, hard to believe... and I live in a pretty good neighborhood) each year and are full of potholes. I dont know of a single road near me without major defects and its annoying the hell out of me. My car is dropped and suspension modified (not exactly sure what it has on it but its still pretty tight after all this time). I love how my car corners and handles but driving on the streets here is total crap. How do you guys live with bad roads?

 

If you feel it's too harsh then it may be time to actually look at your suspension to see what setup you have. Who know's, it may be adjustable.......

As far as bumpy roads go, I typically try to stay away. My car isn't daily driven so I usually have the luxary of being picky. However, my car is not overly stiff. I had a set of older unadjustable JIC coilovers and could not stand them. 90% of the coilovers on the market for our cars run way too stiff of a spring.

My setup:

Eibach Springs
Apexi 7-way adjustable shocks
Power flex poly bushings

I also suggest you read this thread. FD's weren't designed to have overly stiff suspension. It is counter productive.

https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-wheels-tires-brakes-20/howard-colemans-fd-chassis-setup-723617/

 

If your car is driven on the track with fat slicks or even fat R compound tires you ABSOLUTELY NEED stiff springs and at least 2 degrees of camber front and rear. Howard's thread is not touching on anything related to road racing this car or even auto crossing it with fat sticky tires at the upper level.

I'd suggest the OP find a good low mileage set of stock shocks and put some racing beat lowering springs on the car. They are soft and give the car a nice ride height but you can't use aggressive offsets or tires wider than 255.

 

I'm running the greddy s-types. Everyone that has been in my car always comments on how much smoother the ride is. Nothing is better than the stock touring suspension but the s-types are a great comprimise between performance and ridability. I drive my car through some rough roads in NJ and NYC just fine.

 

I agree, but the OP was talking about street driving, and my comments were relative to that. Howard's thread outlines details of a good handling FD, not a full blown race car. It also outlines many suspension options that the OP would run in to when looking at ways to fix his issues. Again, relative. The OP didn't mention anything about road racing or sticky tires.

The point is, most individuals buy suspension and coilovers for a desired ride height. The biproduct of that adjustability is often a very stiff spring rate for street driving. Compounded with rough roads, it turns what is suppose to be a fun car into a teeth rattling experience that isn't necessary.

 

Another way to help with bad roads is wheel size and tire selection.

What wheel and tire combo are you running?

The stock size 16" wheels with street tires will give a notably better ride than 18's with stiff sidewalled performance tires. And, they will survive potholes better.

 

Good point and yes there is lots of info in that thread but most of it is geared toward road racing. Somewhere in that thread is some info about spring rates on various aftermarket lowering springs which could help the OP.

Again I'd recommend some soft RB springs (about the softest aftermarket springs made and they lower the car nicely) if they still make them w/ the stock shocks for bumpy roads or simply stock springs if you can handle the look of the ride height.

 

^ I second that. A decent spring setup such as the Racing Beats or Eibachs (found used) will work great. An adjustable shock is also a plus but stock would work.

 

iv got hks coilovers wound down that are like rocks.
its all a comprimise i guess,
here in nz, we have a good mixture of roads - from nice smooth motorways and good quality twisty country roads to potholed pieces of crap or sometimes gravel roads.

me, ill put up with some rough teeth jolting rides in order to have the stiff suspension setup there and ready for when the opportunity/road is right to make use of it.
we have some cool roads here and im going to make use of them..and avoid the crap ones...if i can

 

ya...the roads were even bad when i had my stock suspension...

when i had stock wheels on a long time ago it was a lot better with the taller sidewalls, the 18s are pretty harsh

 

You ever go down Ward Ave in town between King and Beretania?? its like going off road damn near, worst perhaps! I got 275 40 17's in the rear and skinnies up front as well, feels like im gonna fall out of my seat when i go through there. Hawaii has the worst roads and worst drivers in the world!!! Ever see an 80+ year old asian person driving around? Dear lord its scary stuff man! First of all I dont think anyone over 80 should be driving around but this really puts it over the top! I'm asian so I know how first hand how bad these people are (I refuse to get in to these people's cars!); most never took the drivers licenses test either, they get grandfathered in some how and just keep up on the renewals (doh). Most don't even speak, read, or write english.

I really do miss the mainland where you could do 75-80mph everywhere and even mini-vans with soccer moms driving would pass you on the highway! Just the other day it took me nearly an hour to get from Red Hill by the stadium to the Punahou cut off (5 miles!!!). No accidents or anything like that, just normal Hawaii traffic...

 

it would be worth it if there were roads here which were nice and not covered with cops. its 50mph speedlimit on the highway here!!! There are also so many cops and theres no real chance of running from them cuz your stuck on an island you can drive around doing speed limit in about 3 hours (most of it is 35mph!). Scares me when I do nearly 3X the speedlimit but oh well, its the risk you take you have some fun with a car which can easily handle it. Even more scary when there are 2-3 inch deep big *** potholes on the highway as well haha (saw one just the other day, their not really uncommon...). They seem to fill the potholes with the cheapest *** gravel they can buy cuz its just as bad the next time it rains (which is damn near every week at least here).

 

^Another reason I never want to get stationed in Hawaii.

 

haha ya, driving through aiea today was really bad too

well we were ranked 3rd for worst roads in the nation lol
http://www.kitv.com/Hawaii-s-Roads-3...z/-/index.html