I’m in the process of completely upgrading the suspension on my DA. The car is street driven, however, in the future I wouldn’t mind tracking the car periodically.
Current suspension mods and items on order, everything will be installed at the same time:
-16x7" wheels with 205/45/16 Dunlop Direzzas
-Front strut bar
-Stock Front Sway Bar
-ASR Rear Sub Frame Brace with 24mm Rear Sway Bar
-All new OEM bushings, possibly ES bushings only in the front and rear LCAs
I’m set on purchasing Koni Yellows with Ground Control Springs based on good reviews and other people’s experience. I just wanted a little input before dropping $900.
I’ve heard recommedations to run the DC struts because they allow more shock travel (I’m aware that I would need to run the DC front strut forks). This sounds appealing because I really don’t want to spend additional money on extended top hats if it’s not needed. Also if I ever I intended to sell the struts/springs in the future, it would be more marketable because DCs are much more common.
However, I’ve heard that the DC setup on a DA may cause a lower ride height as well. I really don’t want the car lowered much more than 2 inches. The car has a pricey hytech header with limited ground clearance.
Also looking for input on spring rates. I’m looking for a mildly aggresive street setup, but I’d like to have fairly neutral handling charactistics. I don’t want the ass end sliding out excessively. Does 450 Front, 400 Rear sound about right? Take into account that I’m retaining the OEM front sway bar with an ASR 24mm rear sway bar and sub frame brace.
Other items possibly worth mentioning: Car has full interior, p/s, and a/c. All motor setup laying down 217 whp.
not much input needed. u have a good enough clue of what u are looking for. personally i think those spring rates are very very very soft, but thats up to u. ask the place u’re getting the setup from, on what they have available n what not. if you plan on tracking the car even if its only like once a month or something, a more aggressive spring rate would be desirable. i’m not gonna throw a number out due to some thinking that 15k in the front and 12k in the rear is too soft for some, but stiff for others. ask what the traditional spring rates are (DD), and what the more common track rates are, and try to settle somewhere in between.
Thanks for the advice, spring rates are still up in the air, probably call Ground Control and get their opinion… focus is primarily street driven then possibly track driven in the future.
Based on hearsay, some had adviced that Koni Yellows are under dampered beyond spring rates above 500… Maybe 15k F, 12K rear is overkill for those struts?
Still curious about using g3/DC strut assemblies though, I want to be sure I can go with that setup practically with only a 2 inch drop in ride height.
Sounds like you’re definitely on the right track. Before I move to the springs I just wanted to make sure when you mentioned bushings you also replaced your rear trailing arm bushings? That’s crucial.
In regard to spring rate I think you’ve chosen almost perfectly. Without any first hand experience you can’t very well decide much better than you have. I would disagree w/ Jeff about 15k/12k rates. That’s very high, I wouldn’t consider that a street setup unless your primary focus was track days. And yes, those rates are a bit above what the Konis can handle. You could run those rates, but you’ve clearly done the research and know that it’s not recommended to run over 500lb springs. Depending on the situation I wouldn’t hesitate to run 550-600lb springs but at that point you would be dealing with under-damping. Sometimes you could still benefit from that… but like I said, that depends on the situation (and realistically that’s going to be only track related situations).
If you want to bump your springs rates I would say you could step up to 550/450 (approx 10k/8k) and you’d be safe. But I think you’d be fine with 450/400 and that would definitely be a great starter track setup. Remember, you gotta learn to drive before you start getting pro setups…
I haven’t used a sway bar as large or nice as you’re running, so I can’t give first hand advice, and I don’t know what alignment settings you’ll be running, nor what your handling preferences are… But I think that with the setup you have you should be able to balance the car quite well. You could swap springs front to back as well as change your alignment and tire pressure settings to get it setup how you like.
In regard to your question about DC shocks lowering the car more… that is irrelevant since you’re running coilovers. You will be height adjustable. So, if the shocks would normally lower the car an extra 1/2" then you just raise the coilovers to compensate… done.
What you should know though is that the valving for the DC and DA shocks is different. The DA shocks are the most aggressively valved of the bunch, so really you’re downgrading a little by using an EF/DC/EG shock. I’m not sure how much different it is, but when I was looking at shocks, Lee (works at Koni and helps a lot of us Honda guys), gave me this info and since I was already thinking yellows were possibly too street oriented for me highly discouraged me from getting anything but the DA application. Eventually I just scrapped that idea and upgraded to the RACE valving.
The best thing about your setup is how long it’s going to last you. You can easily buy different springs and try them out to find what you like. And when you’re ready you can get them rebuilt and revalved to the RACE spec valving and really up your spring rates. So, in the future if you want a race quality setup because you’re tracking a lot you don’t need to start all over again, you can just change rates and revalve for a fraction of the cost of a brand new suspension of comparable quality.
It definitely sounds like you know what you’re looking for. I’m running pretty much the same set-up except for a couple different things: DA Koni/GCs 425F/400R with 4 tophats (they were included with the sale), all new OEM bushings throughout with Noltec polyester trailing arm bushings, stock front and ST rear sway, and Benen rear tie (I do have an ASR brace to replace those, just need to source an ITR sway first), and some brake mods as well. It’s an awesome set-up, and I can’t wait to get it out on the track to see what it can do, so I would definitely recommend it. As far as rates go, like Colin said, it’s just a matter of trying them out and seeing what will fit the ride your looking for.