Stiffer rear springs?

[x_fg2_x]

Ok so I went to the Streets of Willow at Willow Springs raceway and as normal for a FWD car, I was getting a lot of understeer initially. I fixed most of it by softening up the front dampers, and After that, the car felt pretty stable all around. I wasnt getting oversteer, and I didnt really have any understeer issues unless I was clearly going off the driving line and trying to correct it. However, I do have some stiffer rear springs just sittin here.

So what I would like to know, is what would be the result of me throwing in stiffer springs? I would be running the same alignment, same everything. The only difference would be the rear spring rate..

My current rear springs are 10k.. The new ones waiting to be installed are 14k

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Here is my current track settup:

Engine:
apex N1 catback
T1r test pipe
custom ram air intake w/ K&N air filter

Suspension/wheels/brakes:
skunk2 Pro-c's 12k front , 10k rear
dampers set to full stiff in the rear, 5 clicks from stiffest in the front
progress 22mm rear sway bar
alignment (camber) = -2.5 front ... -2.3 rear
Volk TE37's 17x7.5
Nitto NT01 225/45 R17
air pressures = 35 front, 30 rear (all cold)
porterfield R4 front pads, R4s rear pads
stainless lines
ATE super blue racing fluid

I gutted the interior, no rear seats, no front passenger seat, no interior trim panels from the b-pillars and back, no spare tire or trunk liner.

I also have an APR front wind splitter

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(Sorry for making 2 posts, but they are both different and I feel that others would benefit from this as well.)

[x_fg2_x]

Bump anyone?

[Ayodog]

stiffer spring rates are just going to not load the rear tires as fast so they will likely not have as much grip when turning.

this is why softer up front will load the tire gripping by allowing more weight on it and having stiffer in the rear gives a little less grip allowing some rotation.

Its all personal preference and is part of the fun of tuning and tweaking your suspension.

I say do it and see how you like it after a track day and messing with the dampner settings. If you dont like it then switch it back to the 10k rear springs.

But dont forget you can always get rotation and close to the same affect through messing with the dampner settings. Not sure what the differences are in increasing the stiffness of the dampner in the rear compared to increasing te spring. They would both affect the car with more oversteer but which is the better way to do it is what i would like to know.

Hope it helps a bit, some one should come to better put what i said and explain things.

[VTEC_4_LIFE]

stiffer rears, in the simplest terms, loosens up the back, it stiffens up the suspension as a whole as opposed to stiffening up the dampers which focuses more on transient stiffness into and out of the corners, but with your dampers at 7/12 you dont have much room to go in terms of up. . .

anyways, itll shift the grip bias a little more forward. . . ive heard 14KgF/mm rears on the Pro-C gives it a little bit of tailhappiness if you want it. . . if you have them already why not give them a shot and see how you like them, if not id mess around with the dampers, maybe soften them up a bit but keeping the whiole ratio rear biasing, like in aggressive setting I run mine at 4/10

[x_fg2_x]

if im not mistaken, the s2 pro-c's are 15way adjustable.. so it would be 10/15 .. But as mentioned, the rear's are max stiff.

Sooo, im thinking that if I slap in the 14k rear springs, I could tone down the dampers a bit and then mess with them. IDK, maybe this is one of those things that i just going to have to try out and see how it works. Problem is, is the rear end feels great right now. Its just the front that I need to work with. My logic was maybe if I stiffen the rear, maybe it would play with the front as well and I could do some adjustment on both ends.

Oh well. lol. Ill give it a shot

[VanSi07]

12k/14k is a pretty good combo, I think you'll like it.

[x_fg2_x]

well. I just put em in. took 5 mins haha. ill drive on em for a few days and see how they feel. Hopefully going from 10-14k didnt mess my alignment up too much. lol It drove strait =X

[VTEC_4_LIFE]

Originally Posted by x_fg2_x

if im not mistaken, the s2 pro-c's are 15way adjustable.. so it would be 10/15 .. But as mentioned, the rear's are max stiff.

Sooo, im thinking that if I slap in the 14k rear springs, I could tone down the dampers a bit and then mess with them. IDK, maybe this is one of those things that i just going to have to try out and see how it works. Problem is, is the rear end feels great right now. Its just the front that I need to work with. My logic was maybe if I stiffen the rear, maybe it would play with the front as well and I could do some adjustment on both ends.

Oh well. lol. Ill give it a shot

nope, Pro-Cs are 12/12. . . if you can turn past 12, then you may have a problem

and with the stiffer springs id keep the dampers stiff, since I wouldnt want to under-dampen them, under-dampened spring equals the bouncy bouncy stuff, and thats no good

[trickyazn]

Pro-C's are over dampened in the rear. You can go as high as 18k in the rear.

[civicferio]

SOW is a very fun track but most well set up FWD will still understeer because of the lower speed turns. If you set up your car to perform 100% at SOW it may become too twitchy when you go to a higher speed track like buttonwillow or the Big Track at Willow Springs.

What I did on my old Civic was to set it up in a way that it performs decent in most tracks and I only need to change rear swaybar size to tune in how much rotation I need.

[trickyazn]

Tune the car to your liking then drive it at the limit. Hone in on your skills before anything else. Streets of Willow is a amateur race track anyways.