Spring rates for coilovers

[drj_fl5]

Hey guys I’ve been in the market for some coilovers for my fl5. I purchased this car with the intention of building a very track capable car/weekend driver. My main concern is that the car becomes way too stiff losing any street ability so I’m trying to find a true sweet spot if one exists.

Spoke with nitron who recommended R1s fast street. Spoke with MCS who recommended, “For dual duty use somewhere around 550-600lb front and 350-400lb rear” with eibach springs.

Currently running swift spec R which I believe are: Front: 6.3 kg/mm ≈ 353 lb/in. Rear: 7.5 kg/mm ≈ 420 lb/in.

Most track setups I see are more stiff in the rear to help with rotation so a little hesitant that we’re prioritizing comfort. Would love to hear from anyone who tracks their car on coilovers or is simply knowledgeable in field. Thank you

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[Adam123]

Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya talks extensively about this in his videos. Here is a good video where he goes over various FL5’s with increasing spring rates and gives his impressions. He has so much information about what is actually needed on a track car. I have decided to go with the Spoon KW suspension which I believe are the kw clubsports (drift kings pick) on 10kg front 12kg rear and tuned specifically for the FL5 based on their super taikyu car.

here is the video link

 

[optronix]

Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya talks extensively about this in his videos. Here is a good video where he goes over various FL5’s with increasing spring rates and gives his impressions. He has so much information about what is actually needed on a track car. I have decided to go with the Spoon KW suspension which I believe are the kw clubsports (drift kings pick) on 10kg front 12kg rear and tuned specifically for the FL5 based on their super taikyu car.

here is the video link

Those Spoon units look promising. For someone who's 60/40 track/street or above, that might be the way.

But I'm still leaning Ohlins R&T. I'm more like 70/30 street/track biased these days, and my car is already getting to the point of being pretty compromised. The Ohlins ship with 6kg/10kg- I've heard some folks swapping springs for 7/7 or even 10/10. I figure I'll try out what they come with and go from there.

Also availability. Apparently there are still HRC KW units coming for the Integra Type S... but that's just the thing, they've been "coming" for a while now, I have no idea when they'll actually become available. Similar story here. What does "pre-order" actually mean as far as when you can expect the parts to actually show up at your door.

 

[derbo904]

The flat ride concept is a good concept for retaining comfort with high ride frequencies while keeping compliance for bumps. OEMs all use this concept where the rear ride frequency is higher than the front so that when you hit a bump, the rear catches up and prevents the car from pitching forward as much.


Street cars are usually around 1.5-1.7Hz and a tuned car probably could be around 2.0-2.2Hz.

 

[BuntaTypeR]

For the best balance of comfort and daily driveability, stick with the stock suspension. Tracking on the weekend leads to track addiction, leads to extreme mods, and extreme mods kill streetability.

 

[Adam123]

The main issue with the stock suspension is the combination of relatively soft springs (4.8kg front / 4.4 kg rear) with overly damped dampeners. I find that even in comfort mode though, street driving is comfortable but the moment you start to push it, any surface imperfections cause the car to bounce and hop rather than get absorbed smoothly. Once you hit r+ mode its just way too dampened and bouncing all over the place. The dampeners are essentially taking all the load that stiffer springs should be doing. It’s a personal choice but I’d rather stiffer springs and the ride feel abit firmer but not have the jarring experience every time you hit a hole etc. I’m hoping that stiffer springs coupled with relatively less dampening will not change the ride roughness too much but make it overall more compliant on the road and track

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