Track / AutoX Suspension. Suggestions?

[stockysnail]

Listen to Racecomp Engineering. He knows what he's talking about. For $1500 I'd get RCE Yellow springs or Eibach Pro-Kit springs (which I have), and all the Whiteline bushings (visit their website), installation of those bushings (4 sets of them need to be pressed in), and an alignment after all is installed. Response and feel is so much better after the bushings and the Pro-Kit or yellow springs lower it enough (1") without sacrificing any handling. I just basically described what I did to my car though.

[GTB/ZR-1]

Anything wrong w/ driving it stock for awhile while you really get comfortable w/ the car--considering you're coming from a FWD platform?

I drove mine for almost 6 mos on a completely stock suspension/alignment. I had 245s on 17x9" rim/tire setup.

I did close to a dozen events. Taught me a lot abt the car & its behavior (been WAY too immersed in AWD since '05) .

Now it's on an MCS C/O setup/Sam's bar/GC Camber Plates/aligned. I'm glad I got plenty of seat time in stock configuration--as I'm able to exploit the changes straight away due to knowing the car's inherent dynamics.

Meh, this older dude's .02--take it for what it's worth! lol

[Gopherboy6956]

Originally Posted by GTB/ZR-1

Anything wrong w/ driving it stock for awhile while you really get comfortable w/ the car--considering you're coming from a FWD platform?

I drove mine for almost 6 mos on a completely stock suspension/alignment. I had 245s on 17x9" rim/tire setup.

I did close to a dozen events. Taught me a lot abt the car & its behavior (been WAY too immersed in AWD since '05) .

Now it's on an MCS C/O setup/Sam's bar/GC Camber Plates/aligned. I'm glad I got plenty of seat time in stock configuration--as I'm able to exploit the changes straight away due to knowing the car's inherent dynamics.

Meh, this older dude's .02--take it for what it's worth! lol

While not only understand, but fully agree with you, my want to mod also comes from what I want my end product to be, in a shorter timeline. While I will do probably 5 autox and 2 big road course weekends this summer, I really want to get my build underway. My car is being delivered on the 26th, so I'll have only a few months to get what I want done before summer.

The previous posters who talk about getting the separate spring/shock combos and bushings instead of full coilovers are probably correct and they probably work wonderfully, but I want the flexibility to get the exact ride height I want. That's a big deal to me.

The main part of all of this that is beyond my current knowledge set is at what point to aftermarket coilovers overtake the stock setup in performance. In my RSX, it only took $1000 Progress Coilovers to make a huge difference, but it appears that in this case I'm going to be looking north of $2000 for something that is worth it.

That being said, I am definitely willing to change out bushings AS WELL because i can see the benefit. My 'true' modification budget to start is around $5000, i was just hoping to limit suspension to $1500, as I'd like to also do:
-Wheels and Tires (~$2k for Enkei RP03's and Z2's)
-Intake (Perrin)
-Crank Pulley (Perrin)
-Full stereo (est. about $1k for what i want)
-Tint, and other small things.

I was really surprised as to how much more difficult of a question i was asking than i anticipated, but coming from the RSX world where everything has been done for almost 10 years, it's a much younger aftermarket, um, market.

As of right now, mostly thanks to the great advice which prompted me to do more research, I'm leaning toward the KW V3 or the Tarmac II's.

I do admit, I don't fully understand spring rates yet or how it affects the car, but by association for what type of racing I will be doing and what i've read others are doing, I believe rates of between 300-400 F&R should be A OK for me.

Thoughts?

[Gopherboy6956]

bump for thoughts.

[TSY]

Don't forget to add brakes to your list.

If you're going to track the car at minimum change pads and brake fluid.

You might want to drive the car first- it might surprise you. It's quite fun to drive without being very fast. And it's not an RSX- it's much more track ready stock. Just put some better tires on, do the brakes and it's good to go!

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Gopherboy6956

...

That being said, I am definitely willing to change out bushings AS WELL because i can see the benefit. My 'true' modification budget to start is around $5000, i was just hoping to limit suspension to $1500, as I'd like to also do:
-Wheels and Tires (~$2k for Enkei RP03's and Z2's)
-Intake (Perrin)
-Crank Pulley (Perrin)
-Full stereo (est. about $1k for what i want)
-Tint, and other small things.

...

As of right now, mostly thanks to the great advice which prompted me to do more research, I'm leaning toward the KW V3 or the Tarmac II's.

...

Thoughts?

Skip the intake and put that money towards your suspension. Just remove the snorkle from your intake and you'll be on par most any intake on the market. Crank pulley is neat, but it won't really translate to a quantifiable difference in times. You can't go wrong with the V3s, but the Tarmac IIs are very nice. I see myself going to them sometime in the future.