just ordered these. any opinions from those who own them or have experienced them?

 

Hope it's for drifting only, because those have equal front/rear spring rates -- 800 lb/in. Have fun on those Indiana roads!

 

Ain't it funny how people buy these things then ask questions and do their research AFTERWARDS? Spring rates are 800 lbs./in., eh? Hope you don't wear dentures!

 

i already researched or i wouldn't have purchased them. i know all the specs and whatnot. i was trying to get some people's opinions who might have owned them or experienced them.

 

Could you tell us what your research has uncovered for you?


-Ted

 

spring rates, height adjustment, types of damping and rebound adjustment, etc...

i just want someone's opinion that has had them

 

do yourself a big favor and call them and switch them to the spring rate that comes w the Flex or HA model. that rate is 566 front and 422 rear and is the outer edge of springs for the car. the only thing that will happen is you will burn the tires off your car and it will snap oversteer before you can catch it.

tein makes great stuff... i run and recommend the HA's but they must have been smokin something when they came up w those springs.

they might work w about 5 pounds of airpressure.

howard coleman

 

well i've currently got stock r1 shocks with h&r port springs. the car pushes like crazy. i'm soon to have 255's up front and 285's out back, so i figured the additional weight wouldn't hurt terribly. if it gets to a point that i can't take it anymore, i'll order the flex springs. i would have gotten the flex's, but they're on a backorder right now and i need some suspension asap

 

i did not mean to be insulting to you. i just wanted to make a very strong point that you will find the spring rate at best incredibly uncomfortable and at worst quite dangerous to drive at the limit. i think you did pick the right company... i have a shock dyno and a digital electronic spring tester and you will love the valving in the shocks. actually all you need to do is talk nicely to someone at Tein and get a set of the HA springs sent to you. swap them for your HRs and you are in fat city.

your car pushes? what tire pressure front and rear cold? do you have the stock swaybars? what is your toe and camber setting?

howard coleman

 

well the reason i think it pushes has a lot to do with my tire setup. i have g-force t/a kdw up front and nitto 555r's in back. when i have the same tires all the way around, it's a little better, but it still pushes like crazy. everything else on the car is stock, but i do have quite a bit of camber. after the coilovers are installed, i'm going to get a full custom alignment done.

 

tire pressure front and rear cold? how much camber?

when you do get it aligned:

toe in front and rear one tenth of an inch
camber front and rear 1.2 degrees neg
thrust angle zero
ride height (front and rear) top of wheel wells 25 inches

howard coleman

 

have you tried going into the corner a little slower? i had the same thing happening and after i lowered my entry speed i stopped pushing as bad.

 

howard, thanks for the info. i usually run 32psi up front and 30 in the rear. i'm getting some 18's soon with a staggered setup, so i'll have to mess with it.

ryu, i tried everything, even a little clutch kick and nothing for me. lower entry speed just gave me lower track times this is auto-x btw, i don't road race

 

i kinda figured it was auto-x.

so you couldn't even get the back lose with a clutch kick? you must have some really stick rear tires or something cuz my FC will always come around if i clutch kick it.

 

245/50/16 nitto 555r's. only way to get sideways is with some water or from a dead stop. i've got 439whp and it's not real easy to get em to go. i like em, but they're not an auto-x tire

 

Howard: Would you then get the Tein Flex's or HA's? And why? Thanks in advance.

 

Opinions don't matter once you've already bought them. It's like shooting first and asking questions later. I assume you're going to put them on the car anyway? Then your opinion is all that matters.

Equal spring rates in the rear as in the front on an FD should be an absolute sure cure for understeer though...

 

Almost anyone who can do decent web searches can get this answer.
I thought you uncovered something a little less esoteric.


Your replies puzzle me.
How long have you been autocrossing?
How close do you get to FTD?


-Ted

 

why in the hell would my replies puzzle you? i want opinion of someone who has experienced them so i know what to look forward to. how hard is that to understand? i haven't auto-x'ed much due to a new shift at work. but i will say that my first time out, i placed 2nd in SM2. i was beat out by a c5 vette with 295 hoosier slicks all the way around. i don't see how your replies are in any way helpful to my situation

 

I have the Type RA, it's not uncomfortable, it's not for drift, but it's not for the stock tire size either. Who ever says it's wrong without asking the tire size should not be talking. I talked to the guy who drives the ORC N-1 RX-7 over here in Japan and that is the spring rate he recommended for 255's all around. He also recommended the 566 in front and 422 in back for the STOCK tire size. I am completely satisfied with the stronger spring and having a crap load of grip.

 

thanks for the input. i'll be running 255's up front and 285's out back as soon as my wheels arrive. do you have any oversteer problems? what about the rear end snapping out suddenly? have you had any major problems running them on the street?

 

Oh, this explains a lot...

My conclusion, FWIW, is you need to learn how to drive.
You're overdriving the vehicle, and you're thinking the suspension as a band aid fix for your slow times.
If you had a lot more seat time, I didn't understand why you would be asking us for advice, as more veteran drivers would know what they are doing wrong and what to do to correct the problems and what suspension does to the chassis, etc.
I don't think the Tein RA's is going to increase your performance (i.e. decrease your times on the autocross course) dramatically until you figure out what you're doing wrong with your driving technique.


-Ted

 

I won't argue with Ted about the need for driving experience. I do know a shop that runs 265 F and 285 R A048's with a spring rate of 18 kg/mm (about 1000 lb/in), so I still say you have a good tire size match for the spring rate. You souldn't have problems with the back end suddenly popping out, but that depends on your tires too. A reason for that happening might be grippy tires with too soft a spring rate, causing the suspension to bottom out. The same effect is achieved when less grippy tires are combines with too hard a spring rate. Just a note, the RA spring rate is 16 kg/mm which converts to about 900 lb/in vise 800.

 

never said i was experienced, but i'm far from inexperienced. either way, i feel the ra's don't suit all my needs anyways, so i'm waiting on the flex's to get off backorder.

 

hello again,

i wanted to respond last thursday to a few items on this thread but my engine was completed in new jersey and i had to drive out from wisconsin and pick it up....

there are a couple of items that i just can't let stand unchallenged or readers will get some very wrong info.

Rynberg and Speedking are dead on the money re spring rates. actually Rynberg, i find, is very worth listening to on a variety of subjects.

FD spring rates:

98 type rs appears to be saying that the HA/Flex (566/432) rates are good for "stock tires" and the RA
rate (800/800) is appropriate for 265/285 R tires. actually he is agreeing w some guy who races as well as a "shop" that runs 1000 pound springs.

so according to 98 type rs, changing tires in the rear from 255 to 285 calls for raising the spring rate 85%!

huh????????

assuming the car is to be used for aggressive street driving and road course tracking any more spring than the 566/432 area will result in slower lap times.

spring rates should be determined by taking the corner weight of the car, then finding the wheel rate in relation to the spring rate and relating the wheel rate to the corner weight. apply the correct ratio and you are in the neighborhood.

the idea that by changing (a bit) tire size should change the spring rate materially is preposterous.

a caveat here as to high spring rates...... i know very little about autocrossing. perhaps spring rates of 800-1000 pounds relate to autocrossing and a need for quick turn-in. they will not work on the street or a road course.

stiff is not fast. too stiff is slow.

watch the nascar cars warming up there tires preparing for a green after a yellow. as the cars weave back and forth note how "free" they are.. how they roll. anything more than around 550 front fd and you can forget roll.

it is important to understand that spring rate has no effect on lateral weight transfer. spring rate only effects the speed at which it transfers. eventually, with too much spring rate the weight transfers so fast you can't keep up with it and so you either head off into the tulies or slow your driving so as to control the weight transfer.

formula cars and highly ground effect cars are very stiffly sprung to hold rideheight at top speed as the wings produce 3 negative g's. they are driveable with huge spring rates only because they have downforce.

the fd has no downforce so i don't recommend running the equivalent of f1 springs.

spoolin 93r1... as i mentioned previously i have a shock dyno and have dynoed lots of shocks for the fd among them the r1. i will be polite w regard to the r1 shock and just say that when you get your flex setup you will be extremely happy with it. it will have lots more spring rate than you currently have but will ride much more comfortably, be easier to drive and faster.

good luck,

howard coleman