I'm looking to drop the car about 0.5-1" with a noticeably stiffer ride. I was considering the Ohlins kit as they recommend a 5/8" drop and from the reviews, it rides pretty darn hard, which is great. However, the adjustability and the need to rebuild the shocks every 30k miles is kind of a turn off. The Eibach Prokit springs with stock shocks drops the car 1", which is the absolute lowest I would go (hey, I like the stock look ), but from the reviews, the ride may not be stiff enough for my liking.

I drive my S2000 daily and put around 25k miles/year. I've never been to the track but I may in the future. However, I do like to drive in a spirited manner and like to take turns quickly and efficiently and don't mind a stiff setup at all. Actually, I find that the stiffness in the ride makes the experience more engaging and fun.

Are there any setups you can recommend close to a 0.5" drop that have a nice firm ride with no adjustability? I have no experience in tracking and I feel the adjustability may just mess me up. Improved handling/limits is a given, obviously. It could be complete coilover systems or just mix/match spring/shock combos.

TIA.

 

I have a 1" drop with Tein S-Techs on stock shocks. 0-5mm sag on the spring length. Fairly stiff...

 

custom valved konis and ground controls

or

bilstein pss9

 

If you like the stock look (not lowered) but just want to stiffen it up I'd look into a CR suspension swap.

 

Do you happen to know the spring rates of those springs? And do the stock shocks provide hard enough damping?

 

Aren't these adjustables? I think they would just confuse me more. Something that is plug/play with a great well-rounded setup that is stiffer than stock would be great.

 

I've thought long and hard about the CR setup (springs/shocks/bars). The good thing is that it is endorsed by Honda so I guess you can't really go wrong with it.

However, it seems that the setup raises the car ever so slightly and I'm looking for around a 0.5 inch drop. Also, I remember reading in a review that this setup provides "industrial strength understeer" which I'm not sure I would like. I would like to kick the tail out whenever I wanted as that is part of the fun. I take it this is because of the heavily biased spring rates to the front?

If Honda made the CR setup lower the car 0.5 inch and bumped the rear rates a bit, I would have been all over this. I'm at a loss why Honda did not lower the car as every hardcore aftermarket coilover kit lowers the car at least a little.

 

Custom valved Konis paired with either Ground Control or KG/MM Race Springs would be ideal for you.

The KG/MM Race are no longer made and hard to find even used.

The Ground controls are height adjustable so thats good considering you only want a .5-1 inch drop and you can specify your spring rates.

If you do the GCs do at least 550F/500R spring rates.

 

Set it to the height you want and never touch it again...

If you go the Bilstein route you can just leave everything at the recommended settings. The only thing to adjust would be a knob from 1 (stiff) to 9 (soft).

I'd be very surprised if you found just a spring that would be "noticeable" stiffer than stock. I have the Eibach Pro-Kit on my car and while it rides at the height I want, it also rides very similar to stock...

 

Thanks for the info. Regarding the settings, I thought that the 1-9 thing was the "adjustability" that everyone talks about. Wouldn't how you set the stiff/soft settings greatly affect the handling dynamics?

And couldn't you say the same for the Ohlins as well? I would just set it at the 5/8 inch drop they recommend and play with the dial, yes?

Also, regarding the Eibach Pro-Kits, when you say rides similar to stock, do you mean comfort-wise? Compared to stock, I'm assuming the travel would be less. And are the suspension movements quicker and more efficient over bumps than stock?

Thanks.