Yeah, I'm approaching this cautiously. I went all-out with my Miata before in a Canadian class that's similar to STR but with R-compounds. Wicked fun at autocross but I hated it on the street due to a few mods.

Dynos:




It looks like the Tein Flexes are 10/12 kg/mm, or 560/670 lb/in. Weird, that's a rear-biased spring rate... Unfortunately my Penskes are only 2-way adjustable while the Teins are 16-way adjustable. The Teins MUST be better! (Please see ** below)

I'm not too scared of some healthy spring rates as I noticed with the Miata that the spring rate had a lesser effect on ride quality than shock damping. I was at 600/325 with the Miata. My first Penske valving for the S2000 was BRUTAL on the street!

Ninja edit: I have the exact same fender liner wear pattern with the 225 Dunlops and the 245 Hoosiers. Maybe it's more related to tire diameter than width? My previous valving had dramatically more rebound too so I was likely jacking down.

** Yes, I'm joking.

 

I can appreciate your concern with the street ride quality.

With my CRX STS build, it only has 450/400 and it is horribly rough in comparison to my S2000. I honestly could not imagine anyone going more than that with the CRX and drive it on the street (note: I'm getting old, tho).

Now with my S2000 build, I wouldn't hesitate to go with more rate than I have now and still drive it events that are a couple of hours away.

-Dave

 

My STS CRX had 450 front and 600 rear and was quite comfortable... it also had Motons. When it had Koni yellows, I wanted to drive it off of a cliff.

 

FWIW, I'm running 700 and 850 lb springs on my STR car and it's very comfortable.

 

Corey - you won't need to revalve those shocks. The rebound looks ok - but there is way too much high speed compression and nowhere near enough low speed compression - even for stock class.

 

[QUOTE=glagola1,May 24 2010, 01:50 PM]My STS CRX had 450 front and 600 rear and was quite comfortable... it also had Motons.

 

700 Rear and 850 Front? Or the other way around?

I'm running some Tein SRC's right now with 895 Front and 784 Rear. I think I still need to go just a lil bit lower. I'm thinking 840 Front and 729 Rear. That should be equivelant to a 1 kg drop on front and a 3 kg drop from std. spring rate on rear.

My car is very comfortable. It's all about the right dampening. I rode in a WRX with AST's once that had 800lb springs front and rear... it was unbearable. Ironic... considering it was a much heavier car.

I started with 895lb square... because that's what the SRC's come with... Rear was far too lose. With the 784 spring rate in rear the back of the car is much tighter. However, there is stilll speed to be gained in transitions (Found that out at the wendover pro.) I was hoping to keep my same spring rates and maybe tune out the oversteer with a rear wing. However, looks like the SEB in the last fast track is proposing a removal of the bodykit / wing allowance.

 

Great questions, Corey. I think my STR build will be more along the lines of an "STR-lite" too. This is a great thread to learn.

I will be looking for as much plug-n-play as possible due to lack of mechanical skills/experience/competence. However, I push pencils with the best!

 

Just keep in mind all the talk about spring rates between cars is irelevant. The only comparison worth making is in wheel rates.

 

I'm assuming you're talking about other cars and comparing them to the S.