It would be interesting to put the CR front springs on an 00-01 and leave all else alone and see how it handles. The front springs would give it a slight front bias counteracting the tail-happiness of the 00-01.

 

Just ordered a set of Front CR springs for MY01, this is more of an experiment that I am trying to run to help with my driving style, I am not replacing the stock shocks yet, as I found out from looking at the Shock Damping Curves for AP1/AP1/CR published by SCC (Sport Compact Car), that compression is lot higher on the CR when compared to the AP1 across the range, but the rebound rates are pretty much the same, actually AP1 has better rebound rates than the CR ( see below for the link to the dyno on SCCs Website)

Courtesy: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/features...0/photo_02.html

I will let you guys know how it turns out ...
I may have found the missing piece of puzzle in the Spring rates changes over the years (especially with the guesstimates of the AP1 02-03 rates ), read my thread below for more info, you might be in for a surprise
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...&f=22&t=621783

-Kishore

 

Wow! Looks like the CR springs are even stiffer than we thought.

 

Among those that auto-x their S's, the conventional wisdom is that these cars are very tunable via rebound adjustments, but compression has little impact. I find it interesting that the Honda engineers have increased the compression on the CR shocks but done nothing to the rebound. As Kialleda pointed out, the AP1 shocks have a better rebound curve than the CR or AP2 shocks.

 

Interesting point, I put the custom valved Konis on my CR during the first week of owning it. I had no time to play with the stock shocks, but I do remember that they were very stiff due to compression. In auto-x and aggressive street driving, the rebound on my Konis make all the difference.

 

I have DA Penskes and don't really change the compression much, both front and rear are set to mid-range, but do change the rebound to tune the handling to the road surface.

 

Installed the CR front springs on MY01 (stock) about 10 days ago, here are my impressions and observations

Visual Impressions
1) The CR spring coils are much thicker than MY01
2) The spring length on the CR is considerably shorter than MY01
3) The ride height has increased by about 0.4'' ( only thing I don't like that much about the new setup, but its still within spec of what Honda published for the 00-01 ride height , that is 26.4'', so looks like the 7 year old original springs settled about 0.4'', so I guess its back to its normal height

Driving Impressions
1) The car is a totally different animal now, gone is the twitchy rear end, its much more planted ..
2) Body roll almost non-existent
3) The ride quality is almost like before, no additional harshness, no weird sounds from the suspension
4) With 32 PSI front&rear (stock rims+ dunlop direzza start specs) the car had considerable understeer at low speed fast turns[front tires screech), and when pushed really hard into a corner the front end was coming lose before the rear
5) but with 35 PSI Front, and 32 PSI rear, the street understeer at low speeds is gone, and guess what?, at corner exits you can mash the throttle and the car is very very neutral with a bit of oversteer (believe me, its just the right amount to pull yourself out of the corner without being slowed down by understeer, but at the same time knowing the rear end wouldn't be stepping out like it used) , so I guess I found the secret formula ....

Conclusion
1) What a tremendous change in handling for $120 ..
2) The front shocks seem to be holding up the 7 KG/mm CR front springs pretty well, partly due to the same rebound rate they have compared to the CR, the CR has way higher compression damping though, so the front is not as harsh as the back on MY01 with the new setup, I think Honda put in too much compression in the rear )

I highly encourage everybody to try this cheap experiment out and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the results, not to mention how confidence inspiring your S2K would be with the right front/rear bias ...


Let me know if you have any more questions

-Kishore

 

Thank you for an Excellent and thorough review

I have some Kg/mm springs with fairly high front and rear rates, except that they are progressive. I've been waiting to revalve some Koni shocks I have in storage before I install, but maybe I should try them with the OTS Koni and see what kind of results I come up with. My 06 is very neutral to start, so I am not looking to reduce oversteer, just get rid of body roll.

 

The suspension on my MY03 is stock and was planning on upgrading shocks/springs/bars with the CR setup.

Based on the numbers given, should I install the 00-01 rear sway bar instead? Since it seems the 00-01 rear bar is stiffer, it may decrease the understeer tendencies of the CR setup. Also, instead of the CR rear coilover, should I get the 00-01 rear coilover for the stiffer spring rate (264 for CR vs 291 for 00-01)?

Even though the 00-01 spring rates are 291 for the rear and are firmer than the 264 for the CR, is the CR rear shock firmer than the 00-01? If this is the case, the CR rear might feel harder than the 00-01, despite the latter's higher spring rate. Which rear shocks are more aggressive?

 

All I have on MY01 are the following from the CR

1) front shocks + springs ( please get the shocks also, they are a blast like my 01 rears, nice and firmmmmmm)
2) steering rack stiffeners ( they are amazing )
3) shift knob ( love it )
4) Black S2000 side emblems ( love them too )

Yes I decided not to get the rear shocks+springs from CR due to my wild ass guess that the slightly lower spring rates on the 01 rear ( 291 compared to 353 [ its not 264 as everybody thinks, see earlier posts in this thread) make up with the slightly larger rear sway when compared to the CR.

All in all, the CR suspension will put a smile on your face everytime you drive it ... I must warn though that the car does feel a little unstable/unsettling over bumps/road imperfections/uneven surfaces, due to the increased stiffness, but is a blast on turns

Cheers