So I am building my 2001 for STR. This thread is to note my suspension setup for those who are interested.

I have not installed this yet but I will provide feedback once I do

The setup is Truechoice's Phase 2 which is koni yellows with sleeves and any spring rate. I payed extra for custom valving. All said and done it cost about $1800

I went with a 700lb spring in front and a 600 lb spring in the rear. the springs on the set as shipped are from hyperco, they also use eibach, not sure how they determine which to use.

I chose these spring rates based on a combination of reading Glagola1's and TheNick's developments and my desire for it to be streetable (hence the slightly lower rates) I will admit right off the bat that I like a loose car

The suspension came today and came with Dyno plots. When talking to phil at truechoice I told him that the suspension would be for autox but also would be street driven, and to match the shocks to the springs.

I was very happy with the service and the whole thing was built and out the door in 8 days. Further, it came fully assembled.

Attached are the dyno plots.

 

Hey man, don't blame me if those spring rates aren't right! ha ha ha... I'm still figuring it out!

I wish I knew how to better read those types of graphs. I'm more familiar with the force/velocity graphs. At least they look pretty similar side to side.

 

IM mostly concerned with symmetry myself... Im relatively new to this suspension tuning stuff. plus... springs are the cheap part of the equation... if theyre wrong... Ill replace em down the road... Just figured you all were about the best guages to start from. You both also talked about a lil push so I went with a setup with the spring rates a little closer to eachother. They are also similar spring rates to the HKS Hypermax III coilovers that some of the Road Course guys have said good things about with a non staggered setup. But like I said, seems like a good starting point.

Edit to add something:

Someone pointed out to me that due to the design of a shock dyno, at the extremes of the stroke range the velocity is zero and at the mid range the velocity is at its Max... so according to this guy (mechanical engineer by trade) the force plots at the extremes are slower speed and the force plots in the middle are higher speed... we just don't know the exact velocity. Now this guy is not a automotive guy but we looked at some diagrams of how shock dynos work and such and figured this out... so take this with a grain of salt.

 

will you be doing anything else?

bushing/sway bar?

 

Bushings, maybe down the line a bit... Sway bars, once I get the shocks dialed in and such I will see if I want anything in the way of sway bars. IMHO sway bars are for fixing problems that the rest of your suspension can't, so if I can get the car handling the way I want without aftermarket sway bars then I probably will leave them stock

I also may get a camber kit if after driving a bit I feel the front needs more camber. basically suspension wise, its all going to be a drive it and see what it needs and what it doesnt.

 

Yeah the thing that concerns me about those plots is the absence of a scale. There is no way to tell how much force is being exerted, so you can't even extrapolate much of anything. Any chance Truechoice would tell you the scale?

The good news is there seems to be little crosstalk on the compression side when adjusted.

 

Ill email True choice and ask about the scale, thanks for the tip.

 

Are the shocks single adjustable? I think they are because the Bump (compression) does not change.

Did you get top hats with them? Or are you going to use the stock top hats.

I like the custom valving, becuase the gave you a digressive shock tune. It will help greatly in low speed transition like that of an autoX.

For those who do not know what digressive is. Here is a link

http://www.circletrack.com/techarticles/sh...dyno/index.html

I am opting for the Konis as well, but they are off the shelf and the valving is not digressive. I am going with 440 front and 340 rear, much less than what you have, but much higher than what a stock 07 has in spring rate. They are close to CR spring rates. I do not want to go too stiff since the car is a daily driver.

In two years, I will rebuild them and go with double adjustable and digressive tuning. I might even go with higher spring rates if the rate that I opted for is not too stiff for daily driving.

The way to read these charts is to look at the shape of the curve. Yours is very nicely digressive on the rebound and bump. The Bump is set at one rate (that is why I am thinking it is single adjustable), but the rebound is tested at two rates soft (lower line) and stiff (higher line). I always ask for the shop to give a chart with THREE settings, soft, medium, and hard. Most of the time you will have your shock in around the medium setting. That is why I like to see that setting.

TC does a great job with shocks. They built my set-up for my SE-R, but I now I rebuild it locally in CA. It is easier that way.

 

They are single adjustible... I am reusing the stock top hats. From what I have read, most of ride quality is in the shock tuning, even with real high spring rates. We will see. They should be getting installed next week sometime

 

I don't get why TC can't give you a F/V dyno plot. I mean, if they put it on the dyno to make sure the shocks match, why can't they spend a couple extra minutes and run the test for the F/V plot. They don't even include a scale.

Maybe you can ask them if they did a F/V plot, or mebbe they have a F/V plot from a previous set with the same exact specs. If they don't, ask for the scale, and also ask them at what velocity they ran the test at. This will at least give you a little bit more data than what you have.

If you had 1800 to blow on shocks and springs, how come you didn't pick up the TC Kline DA shocks? Not slamming you or anything, just curious...

Best of luck with the setup!

James Yom