You shall find below the back and forth e-mail correspondence I have had recently with a shop which is apparently familiar with fine tuning the S2K suspension. I am posting this without their authorization, so I cannot , at least for the moment, identify them.

I am posting these exchanges as I think they can be informative and, also, provide a basis for discussion on a topic which is of interest to many who use their cars on the street and on the track and who, like me, would like to have their cake and eat it to.

Therefore, you are invited to peruse the following and comment on the content, as you see fit, as we may all profit from it.

Pierre



Q : I understand you were instrumental in sourcing/developing custom Koni coilovers for a few Honda S2000s in your neck of the woods. I am looking for the same with +/- 7 kg/mm (391 lbs/in)Front & 6 kg/mm (335 lbs/in)Rear spring rates, in an attempt to reduce the rear bump steer problem with this car.

That

 

Talk about doing your homework! Nice post.

 

Interesting thread. Don't know that I can contribute much to this, but I do have a few questions:

Do we know what model of Koni dampers we are talking about here?

Will the shock still be in it's optimal operating range if:
Concerning the front biased spring rates, I can see the point but is the differential enough? For example, the spec miatas have 700 lbs/in in the front and 325 lbs/in the rear.


Perry

 

I am pretty sure the Miata's weight distribution is far from 50/50. They also use the same width wheels / tires on the front and rear, and have less power.

 

Very informative post. The one concern I would have when going with equal spring rates all around (F/R) in a car with almost perfect weight distribution would be possible exagerated pogoing effect. Not sure this is correct but thats my guess anyway. I have 340 front and 380 rear and the handling is very similar to OEM (just less roll, quicker turn-in and so forth) with no pogoing.

 

Pogoing has to do with using too stiff a spring for the damper. If your dampers are valved for equal front / rear spring rates, it will be fine.

 

True, but I thought there is some type of harmonic frequency oscillation that is exageratted by equal rates front to back? Only an issue with a perfectly weighted car/ same rates and equal damping? But with enough damping it would be reduced (or eliminated if the damping is high enough). In other words lets say you had a perfectly weighted car with 400 lb springs (F/R) and a set of struts. Then you put a set of 500 lb springs in the back. Now even though the spring rate has increased in the back and there has been no change in damping, I think the setups with equal spring rates would be more likley to pogo? BTW, I might have invented this notion in my head while daydreaming at work, not really sure but I think I remember reading something about this in a suspension setup book.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gernby
[B]Pogoing has to do with using too stiff a spring for the damper.

 

I haven't ever heard of any such problem, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist.

 

The setup refered to in the above post is my S2K. From the post, I'm sure you can see why I highly recommend Modern Garage! The car set up is phenomenal with very neutral, very predictable handling. Those that have co-driven the car -- including some nationally competitive SCCA STX, AS, SM drivers -- have described it as the best setup they've ever driven.

The setup/work that Modern has done on the car has certainly exceeded my expectations.

-MSM

 

BTW -- I spoke with Christian at Modern Garage this morning and he is ... of course ... fine with Pierre's post. If you're interested in details on the shop, contact info is available on http://www.moderngarage.com

I spent a lot of time researching various tuners across the country. I was expecting to have to take the car out of state, but was surprised that recommendations and referrals led me to a shop less than 15 min from home!

Send me a PM if your travels bring you to SLC and we can go for a canyon ride ... or better yet an SCCA or IVR event!

-MSM