Have a few Q's I am hoping I can get answers for:

1) OEM spring rates for 2003.

2) If going with separate springs and shocks, what are the best choice for a dual purpose street/track car? Any why? This is not my daily driver - when it is used on the street, it's on very familiar rural roads and it's getting a thorough flogging...... just like the R1.

3) If going coilovers (street/track) and money is no object, what are the top choices? And why?

4) If on somewhat of a budget (let's just say approx $1500), what coilovers are the top choices for the S? Again, why? Are separate compression and rebound adjustments of value?

As U can see, I am in need of some aftermarket suspension education on the S. I am quite familiar with spring rates, preload, compression and rebound damping............ but for 2 wheels (bikes), not 4. I am a degreed (electrical by education) engineer, so I can follow more than just the real simple basics......A simple example: adjustable (and too much) rebound damping with no compression damping adjustment (or too little, if adjustable) can lead to suspension "pack down" - your suspension basically comes close to bottoming out after running over certain non-smooth terrain and/or running a few closely spaced turns which require a decent amount of braking at entry.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

honestly, I'd recommend driving the car STOCK for a while. learn it, understand it and if you still feel as though you need more (and I'm not sure why) then modify it.

it's just a bit silly to mod the suspension before you've really understood it's limitations, As a smooth consistent driver, the stock suspension will really handle quite a bit and peform well.

fwiw... ymmv, but the car as it comes is set up fairly well and doesn't need much to be very quick.

 

Appreciate (and understand) the advice. Now let me stand on my soap box for a minute - please bear with me.

This is not the first performance car I have driven hard........ every vehicle, including my 2wd Toyota Tacoma (king of understeer) gets a routine thrashing.

As a teen in high school (20+ years ago) my parents actually allowed me to go out driving whenever it snowed (grew up in eastern PA)..... always a rear wheel drive car.......... some great experience at a young age - learned a helluva a lot driving in that white stuff. Again, still in high school, Pop finally got a decent car for himself - a Beemer......... I had the (60 series) rubber scrubbed all the way to the wheel lips (for some reason, that was the only car which I experienced a decent amount of oversteer - trying to look back on it, perhaps it was my driving style, as those cars were not known to behave that way... or so I still undertand that to be the case)...... Couple years later I was lucky enough to spend a good deal of time behind the wheel of his LT1 (I know, it was a straight line only vehicle).

Add in dirtbikes since I was in 3rd grade, a couple of big block restored Chevy classics (not bought that way - restored on my time, with my hands, on my coin), street bikes on the street, then on the track........ I am not trying to 'brag' in any way.... But those who have had the opportunity to be exposed to such a variety of motorsports know that they all, in one way or another, compliment each other, making it easier to 'pick up' operation of a new motor vehicle.

Just saying that, if you haven't already guessed, I have been thrashing the S since about day 1 on well known, well ridden local rural roads. From my take, it is a pretty neutral vehicle when pushed..... I have been bitten by oversteer a few times in my life (thankfully always recovering), and so far, the S has not given me a hint of that...... wondering if it is the suspension or the lack of torque.......

Another reason I asked the above question is that, purely from a cosmetic standpoint, I would like to lower the vehicle a bit............ while at the same time not throwing $$$$ into something which is going to degrade handling - it should maintain status quo at the least, and improve, when properly set up. Years ago we could simply cut off a coil to achieve a cosmetic lowering, but I was not paying attention to handling characteristics back in those days.

OK, I'm off my box (huh? ).

-Kleeck

P.S. Forgot about air travel/'driving'...... Pilot's license at 19 while in college (father a Naval, then commercial, then corporate pilot, now retired with (finally) his own aircraft).

 

Whoa there big fella, careful what you wish for.

You asked for advice from an internet forum and that's what you got. I'm not going to sit here and tell you as an instructor for 5 years and 60+ events for 4 different clubs that I'm an expert, but I don't need you justifying your life story of exp. to me to prove a point.

If you want a different answer you'll need to look elsewhere, those who know on this forum tend to agree with my line of thought. that said, there's another thread not 4 lines up from this one which goes into the same train of thought..

you could be the coolest, most awesome person in the world and I wouldn't give a hoot. Soap box or not....

 

It's perfectly reasonable for someone to recommend that you drive the car stock until you figure out what needs to be changed, and how. You didn't give any specifics in your message, so the response you got was appropriate.

Lowering for cosmetic reasons isn't going to fly very far in this particular section of the forums.

I've been doing well autocrossing with the stock springs, Penske shocks, and a larger front swaybar. The car isn't lowered.

 

Whatever bro'................ Cages are called that by those who race on 2 wheels for a reason........ It's quite easy to go from bike to cage, but not vice-versa..... try it for yourself

 

[QUOTE=Orthonormal,Apr 20 2006, 09:59 AM] It's perfectly reasonable for someone to recommend that you drive the car stock until you figure out what needs to be changed, and how.

 

ROFLMAO

take your ego and accomplishments somewhere else...

 

Mark, I think there's some impatience on our part because there have been many recent questions along these lines, and in fact there are several active threads that are addressing similar questions RIGHT NOW. So even a rudimentary perusal of this forum should have answered most of your questions.

Still, I'll indulge you briefly, but please read up on what's already here.

1) '00-'03 spring rates are in the neighborhood of 220lb/in front, 290 lb/in rear. (Changed slightly in '02, no one seems to know exactly what they are.) There's also a thread in UTH Technical giving swaybar dimensions.
2) See Ortho's response
3) Moton, JRZ, and Penske are all proven
4) KW v3 is proven

 

Dude, it's the same reply as you got before.

This question has been addressed in this forum about a million times. If somebody bothers to answer, take it as a gift.

You didn't say how you plan to use the car, except to say "street/track" (which usually means somebody who is never going to take it to the track but is trying to get the track junkies to pay attention to them).

You didn't say what handling characteristics of the car you wanted to change, and what direction you wanted to take them in.

Frankly, I think the proper answer is "ask a more focused question if you want a more focused answer".