Thread: Front vs Rear Spring Rates

true roll bar, unlike the auto power roll bar.

@Vadim, I was quite busy over the weekend, but if you still need to pick my brain, let me know

not on saturday between 10am-1pm

People forget the B14 onward were never meant to be handler's out of the box so it takes some creativity to make them handle and thinking outside the box.

Unequal length A-Arm/ double wishbone setups made it very easy to get things right considering the motion ratio was pretty close to 1:1, the pickup points were much better and the idea being able to adjust camber/toe/caster independently and the idea of camber gain (or more negative camber) while the suspension carries out it's "arc" or sweep.

I know people are die hard "bend your rear beam to zero toe" fanatics, but there are other ways as well

P.S Hahhahahahhahaha @Keo!

Keep in mind body roll doesn't affect handling nearly as much as people think. Body roll just helps the car feel more steady and inspires confidence in the driver. To top it off stiff springs cause the tires to skip over bumps and loose traction. This might not be relevant on a racetrack due to a very nice smooth pavement, but it matters on my autocrossing course since it's not a good even parking lot.

In July I should have an autox event near me, it's a two day event. I plan on going first on 400lbs front and back and then install the Swift 280lbs springs up front and compare the times +pictures of the car. Until then I need to get my beam straightened out.



Watt's and Panhard take up less space and are lighter then the SRL link though... Beams are cheaper, but the added benefit was improved trunk space compared to IRS.



No worries, I was more of going to taunt you :-P

Agreed with everything except your last piece. You don't need to bend your beam to zero toe, but your tires will be fighting you in every turn you make. This is why Steve, Mike, everyone who races these cars always says to get zero toe in the rear beam. Heck I bet the beam being shifted to one side wouldn't matter nearly as much if the beam was 0 toe.

@Vadim, your thought on stiff springs make the tires "skip" over bumps is correct. BUT, that is where properly valved dampers come into play.

Fast "beam" guys run over 600lb springs! Thats getting close to 1000lbs in the Honda world!


EDIT
Oh @Vadim, what I meant by my last statement is: Since not many places in relative distance to most folks here have the capabilities to have their rear beam bent, resorting to other tactics (roll cage, rear arm bushing, etc) also work as well and are much cheaper!

P.S VAdim taunt me all ya want


EDIT @Vadim
However, the idea behind roll making the car feel more stable seems a little off as the car, although more "stable", is very very slow to react, transfer too much weight to one end and you end up having to "hamfist" the car for any sort of times. In addition to absolutely destroying the tire, which, in using a non slick, is very very unnerving (awful sounds from the tread block moving around), I would not say it is more "steady and inspires confidence". I think it would be quite the contrary actually

Not for steady-state cornering, but it helps a lot for transitions. I think auto-x has transitions.

Even at stock ride height?

Silly Nissan, beams are for trailers!