Awesome, keep us posted!

 

I can STRONGLY recommend Hotchkis!

Two races. Two 2nd's. Stock car in Street Touring other than the sway (my tires & muffler delete would still allow me in stock)

Same competition both days. 1st: RSX w/ coilovers 2nd: Me 3rd Focus hatch w/mild mods.

First day, I was right on the RSX. After morning runs, I was .09 out of first. Finished a couple tenths out. I was happy.

Second day, same result, except I drove like crap (not the car's fault). I was lucky to get second.

One more race this year on the 17th. I'm pretty solidly in 2nd for the year, so it doesn't really matter what I do now. Of course, I will still do my best! (And hope I sell enough Toyotas & Scions over the winter to get me some serious suspension!)

 

Awesome! Good luck on the last race of the year!

 

Well, this is a little delayed...here's how it went.

My buddy Dan in a Scooby Imprezza 2.5RS had the season locked with 4 firsts. All he had to do was to show up. He needed 5 events to be scored for year-end standings. He didn't show. Family obligations.

I thought he handed it to me until my other buddy Brian in an RSX on coilovers showed me his calculations. This was his fifth event & he basically had the same finishes as I did.

Pretty much whoever won the last event SHOULD take the year.

I was a bit nervous, as the only mods I had were the Hotchkis swaybar & the StarSpec tires. That was it.

After the morning runs, I was 2 sec faster! I was actually shocked. Brian & I were usually neck & neck. BUT, he has a habit of pulling miracles out of his **** in the afternoon runs.

The afternoon & he improved bu ALMOST two seconds. I was still a few tenths ahead at the end. I won it! But I didn't win by enough. Brian got the year-end by .8 point...

(As a side note, scoring is done by percentage back from first. I had two wins & three seconds. So did he, but he was closer to first & therefore had more points. By a hair.)

I was slightly disappointed, but I was expecting a second for the year in the xA, then I got a new, stock car & went at it. Considering the situation, I was satisfied.

I made it clear I would like car money for Xmas... The tC needs some serious suspension. With the stock springs, I could feel the **** of the car swinging back & forth, three-wheeling. With better suspension, I think I can manage a first next year...

 

You're lucky you dont have well prepped and well driven old school si's to run against. I love running in ST, but those cars make it hard for most others.. primarilly due to the super low weight you wont see in a newer car and the short wheelbase. We have a guy that usually finishes in the top 3 or 4 (sometimes better) nationally in his si, and a couple of others that arent as good, but pretty darned good Out of the latter 2 I usually am within a tenth or so of one of them, but the other gets me.

If a tC in ST prep outruns an older (89,90ish) si, it is 100% gap in driver. Those that dont autox will cry and complain... but those old si's can outrun 2/3rds of ALL cars on the autox course if driven well.

But I still wont go and buy one ... I will enjoy beating over half of all the other cars and classes in my 2900 lb tc and still enjoy driving it every day :D Its funny that ST, which is a bunch of fwd econo cars, tends to run in the top 1/2 to 1/3 of times at events!

But I could have entered my tC, still prepped just like it is in ST, in SMF this year and finished in 2nd if I was on my game every event.. against nothing but boosted and more aggressively prepped cars That will change though once that class continues. This was the first year for the class.

Good work on your season, sounds like you are doing well. Not to mention you should give yourself props for beating the 2.5 rs as well. That also is a faster car, hands down, on an autox course if the driver really knows what he is doing. I have driven them and they are a great fit for ST... just not something I would really want to drive around every day like my tC. Honestly, that car could put some serious pressure nationally on the si's if the right people took them there. So you should feel good about winning due to driver skill, not having the faster car!

Honestly, I have never had much pressure on me from an RSX at an event. I thought those would be better for it, but either no one that drives them around here can drive or they just arent that impressive. Even the RSX-S (not in the same class as I) the comes out finishes a ways behind me in times.

Going to stick with the tC for sure for a while... my next race toy I am pretty sure will be an Elise. After autoxing one, there is simply no comparison to most other cars out there to how much fun one of those things are!

On your setup... you need much stiffer springs. The rates on the SS-P's have really done well in keeping it planted better for me. I find that running the front dampers a lot softer than the rear (a bit over half up front, full stiff rear) makes it still transition good. I would rather have rates closer to 600F/900R for autox, but that would be ridiculous on the street!

 

RSX have a really crappy suspension design, which is why many guys don't do well with them.

 

My name is Kris I have a 06 tc. Built motor and head 60-1 with a stage 5 wheel pretty much a small 35r. Boostflow manny. Dp dt. Tial wastgate. Greddy pos emange ult trd LSD I ran scca last few year when I had a zpi turbo kit Runing slicks. And did not do much good. Boost all the way down and still just burn to much tire. I do alot of drag racing in my other cars not much in the tc. To slow not much fun I think my best time. Was a 8.4 in the 1/8th mile. That's all we have and that was on. Street tires blowing tires off down half track. Tein coilovers Seems so the tc pretty much is slow and sucks ***** and I'm bout to sale it. I just spent 4grand on a new turbo setup and few other things. And I keep looseing tunes. I'm pretty mad at it right now if u can't tell. I have way to much money in it. And it's done right. And it's still slow and peforms like ___ I wish I could post some pic it's a clean car and I've never posted any pic on here of my car. If someone could post afew for me that would be great I can text them or email them to u that would make my day. I want to see what y'all think of my pile

 

and yur a troll dat cant spel and tries to comez here and talk trash about what you dont know your talkin bout.

Go home troll kiddie.

 

Rock on engifineer!

 

Engifineer, you're absolutely right about the old civics. There are a couple that run in Milwaukee region, but they usually don't come down to Chicago region.
The fastest non-civic up there is a ZX-2!
The top 30 at nationals reads like a list of civics. The only non-civics this year were a Scooby 2.5RS, like the one who won our region the previous 2 years, and a Celica.
This year, the damned civics even won STX at nat's!
According to Koni, the yellows can handle 400f/700r. The DG Spec coilovers are 350f/650r. I'm guessing that's still streetable.
With the stock suspension, the car felt all over the place. I'm sure an upgrade will sharpen things up!

CRX, The RSX has the same basic suspension design as the tC, so what are you saying?

 

The length of control arms, geometry, motion ratios, etc are likely different, so it is hard to say they are comparable. But, at least from what I have seen they dont tend to be as competitive at the autox events for some reason. There was one at nats last year I think, but I think it finished close to last behind a field of civics.

And you are right, the winner of STX was basically an ST car this year! So even being mid pack in ST should feel pretty good and it feels even better to finish in the top third, seeing as how ST is actually one of the faster classes. Of course, FMOD's and shifter karts throw a whole different spin on things.

That is one idea I have had too... just buying an FMod. Actually, probably the most cost effective and will be the fastest cars at events other than the shifter karts.

 

You can get koni's custom dampened for whatever you like from Koni if you call them. You can figure out the suspension frequency you want, springs you are running and they can build the dampers.

Those DG spec coilovers will be a good choice too. Those rates are probably as far as you will want to go on the street. Those are slightly higher than the SS-P's, and the rates + pillowball mounts on the SS-P's make for a pretty harsh ride already.

 

The only problem I had with the DG spec's is non-adjustability & not nearly the race support that Koni does.
Dan Gardner is a cool guy & I'd really like to support him & the DG Spec team though.

I have had probs with my Koni adjusters seizing up, and I've had one srut go bad (with Eibach Sportlines only)

Anybody heard anything about Stance? They're local & I'm considering them.

 

Well... the advertisers claim one benefit of Stance coilovers is that they are made in japan Performance coilovers are definitely NOT one of the areas that Japan excels in... actually, they are known to be fairly inconsistent in design, at least in the common brands. I can vouch for this on my Teins. Damper adjustment is nowhere near linear when you are really trying to dial it in. Basically consider the 16 clicks stiff, kinda stiff and softer And you can bet that if you (serious guys have done this with most all Japanese brands) put them on a spring dyno no 2 in a set will match. Overall the teins are a good setup for out of the box and not super expensive (kids on here have no idea that $1600 IS cheap for decent coilovers) So as far as that goes, I would probably go with the Teins if you are buying Japanese coilovers for this car and those are your two choices.

From what I have seen so far, the standard Stance setup is 7kF/6kR ... if this is true they are wrong right off the bat. Motion ratio is way lower on the back of our car by suspension design, so you need more rate in the back anyways. I dont really know why they even picked that ratio of spring rates (info is taken from Meng's sale)

Meng is supposedly getting the dampers revalved for some custom setups. 7/9 is one they mentioned, which would be closer to the SS-P setup, but still a bit soft in the rear. I would ask for a 7k front, 10 k rear. That would be right at what the SS-Ps run, which works pretty well. Also, any stiffer and you will hate it on the street, so that is a pretty good tradeoff point. Some of the race teams run 600/900, which is 50% more spring in the rear. The SS-P's have about 45% more spring in the rear. So I would say you want to be closer to the 50% number, not lower, if anything.

Stance apparently is trying to keep ride comfort while lowering, which is never a good sign for performance, so the custom setups would be the only way I would buy their coilovers.

 

I'll probably go with Koni Yellows again, with 700r/400f Ground Controls then...