Zerocool

iTrader: (2)

Looking into purchasing these coilovers. Heard some good reviews from other forums. But my question is for those who are running these, what spring rate are you running for the FD? I spoke with a rep from thmotorsports about them. I know howard coleman suggest running a 8/6 setup for street and track, but the rep says that setup would be too "bouncy" because the coilovers are valved. He seemed pretty knowledgable and has some autox experience. He suggested running a 12/10 setup. I on the other hand will mostly be using this setup for mostly street driving and the occassional autox event. I guess i want a comfortable ride for the street without sacrificing handling performance. So anyone running these coilovers on thier fd, feel free to chime in and let me know what u run and how it feels.

Zerocool

iTrader: (2)

I guess nobody is running these coilovers.

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

As I found from my thread on Stance, most of the anecdotal talk about them is very positive, but there's very little experience with them on FD's.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Ive got them on my FD with 12K springs all around, I don't mind them at all but I haven't pushed the car on the track hard yet. Daily on the street they may be too stiff for a lot of people but I don't have any back issues from them and no passenger complaints. We have pretty bumpy roads here in Van though, I definitely feel every road imperfection but it also has a lot to do with my wheel/tires setup.

They are good for the price for sure I think.

Zerocool

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the feedback. Im thinking maybe go with a 10/9 setup or 11/9 for the FD. What do u think Tai-lun, since your the only fd with the stance coilovers.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

For what your using your FD for, lower rates might be a good idea like 10K instead of the 12K. My car sees as much track time as street time, especially this year so its not a big deal for me. If you still have stock seats as well that is probably best for a lower choice, even when I had mine set soft you still feel the bumps more then stocks.

cosmo105

I just bought a pair with a 12/10k setup with an extra set of 9k springs. I'll be putting them on this week and running them on Mar 14th at the first Autox. I'll let you know what I think about them once I get them on.

Sandbagger

That rep sounds like a complete idiot.

"8/6 setup for street and track, but the rep says that setup would be too "bouncy" because the coilovers are valved. He suggested running a 12/10 setup."

That doesn't make sense at all. The rates he suggested are almost double which would result in a car twice as bouncy.

When describing a car car as "bouncy", that would imply a car is either, under damped or over sprung. In both cases the spring over powers the shock and continues to oscillate after being compressed, resulting in a bouncy ride.

The second reason why I say that rep is an idiot is because for an FD 8/6 would be too little spring; due to the fact that the FD runs a double wishbone design versus a mcpherson strut suspension. On double wishbone designs the wheel has more leverage on the spring itself; with a lever ratio less than one.

The best example to describe lever ratio is the use of a breaker bar to undo overly tight bolts/nuts. If you use just your ratchet or even a box wrench you are unable to move the nut.

However if you use a breaker bar twice the length, you are able to undo the nut. This is because you have effectively double the amount of force you are applying to the nut with the breaker bar.

So, back to suspension stuff. Since the FD has a lever ratio less than 1, if you were to use an 8k spring in front; the wheel would see a spring rate less than that. Say the ratio was 0.50; then the actual rate would be 4k or about 225lbs/in. Most stock cars use a rate between 110 to 200lbs/in;

In the case of an FC where an 8/6 setup is common place. The mcpherson strut design of the suspension has a lever ratio of almost 1.0. Which is just like the S chassis cars, where they also use an 8/6 setup.

So if we use the 0.50 ratio for the FD as mentioned above, you would need a 16k spring to match the FC and the S chassis cars because of the difference in lever ratio.

Now look at other cars that use a double wishbone design, i.e. civics, integras, s2000, 350z All their rates are in the 12-16k range because of the lever ratio. Now you may be asking, what about a multi link suspension, almost all of these systems resemble a double wishbone design.

Hope this helps... I hate it when sales reps give bad info!

Now if you are running lower offset wheels or even wider ones this will also effect the lever ratio; giving you more leverage to compress the spring.