I was emailing with a friend and telling him I'm planning on getting 17" wheels and so the topic of springs or coilovers came up. This was what he had to say about it. I was curious to hear what yuo all thought about his comments. Just so you know, my friend is a superb autoX and track driver and is an HPDE instructor here in the NorthEast. He drives a 350Z.


"You have to be careful with springs because nobody really know what the heck
they're talking about. 99% of the spring kits out there (and 95% of the
supposed, track-ready coilovers) are designed with looks as the only
consideration and very little thought about handling and suspension tuning.
Your best bets are (IMO) to either:
1) Deal with the "jacked" look of the stock springs- I think this is fine to
be honest
2) Call H&R or Eibach or whatever spring company's racing dept, lie your ass
off and tell them you are building an S2k for Grand-Am or Speed Touring
Championship or Valvoline Runoffs or something and tell them you want them
to work with you for an optimal spring set-up but you aren't allowed (by the
rules) to change damper rates. Make them design a proper spring based on
your setup.

As a last resort you can buy some off-the-rack spring set but it's 50/50 on
whether it'll screw up your suspension. At least these things are cheap
though and you can always go back."

 

The stock suspension is fine. I'm assuming you don't know what your looking for in suspension so I'd recommend taking his advice and Honda's engineering work and sticking to what you have at least until you've got a decent idea of what you are looking for and why.

On the other hand...

The stock suspension is designed for the street, driveways, speed bumps and potholes. It's not designed for the track. Springs are the most important part. They determine suspension travel, ride height and work to keep the tire in constant contact with the road.

As a rule you want the softest springs you can while not having the suspension bottom out (chassis on the low end, bump stops on the high end). Shocks are responsible for dampening the springs so the car doesn't bounce (springs when compressed will ocsilate when released. Shocks (dampeners) prevent this. Beyond that they don't do a lot else.

Shocks, springs and anti-roll bars are part of a complete suspension package that needs to be tuned together. There are several good books on the subject I'd recommend you read before dumping a lot of money into suspension components without understanding why.

Tune to Win by Carroll Smith is a classic.

 

"Tune to Win"? I'll see if Amazon has it. Thanks.

I know the 101 stuff, that is, the function of each compoment. As for getting them to work the way I might want in harmony - no clue. I'm in that tough spot where I use my car on the street, AutoX, and the track. I don't really care about AutoX that much but maintaining reasonable road clearence would be important to me as would keeping the car responsive for the track.

Thanks again.

 

I think your friend is making a general assumption.

 

This is actually a better read with much the same information:

http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?...K&PROD_CD=R-308