This thread is a great tool, and it should probably be a sticky. In my own personal experience, I've never been able to get the EVO to tripod. It feels like it's gotten close, but I don't think it's ever happened...or if it has, it wasn't enough to notice.

my old honda accord that i used to race before the EVO though, it did a good bit of 3 wheel motion. on some hard braking fast turns i actually got both wheels off the ground and the rear end just swung around lol that thing was fun, but it could be a handful if you'd never driven it before.

That's because you aren't looking at the car from the outside when you are driving it. The EVO tripods a lot!

It is. See the Suspension Discussion Links.

you're probably right lol it just doesn't feel like it's ever done it, or if it has, it hasn't been for very long, or very high. When it happened in my accord, I could feel it.

I'm doing a suspension overhaul here in the next few weeks on my 05' evo 8... I've already been muellerized with JIC coils, progress 25mm rear sway, and the rear trailing arm bushings. This was a decent setup but I definitely lost out on canyons vs. the stock setup with rear sway and rear trailing arm with the ability to handle bumps and road imperfections with the jic coilovers. The car pushes slightly at the limit on 10k/9k f/r rates, but is also pretty easy to get the rear to track as well with the swaybar set at full stiff. Understeer on brakes is pretty bad though with 3 deg negative camber and thats why i've added the k-mac caster plates to the mix to get rid of most of my static camber and add as much caster as possible to my setup. I've decided to replace all the important bushings in my suspension and swap the spring rates to be a little softer to try and combat the harsh ride and sometimes unpredictable handling over rough, windy surfaces. I will be installing whiteline front roll center adj kit, energy suspension inner front control arm bushing, perrin caster adding solid rear- front control arm bushing, the whiteline rear bumpsteer kit, and also the stage 3 K-mac caster/camber plates. I have everything already but waiting on the plates and I'm ordering springs today. With the less suspension compression in the front with the whiteline front roll center kit I am going to go from 10k jic springs to 8k swift springs in the front and I am trying to decide now if its worth 180 more to order the same 9k spring rate in the rear with new swift springs rather than the stock jic springs... I think i'm just gonna leave the rear springs alone since they are already pretty set. The change will be enormously drastic, I'm really hoping the 8k front helps ride quality and overall balance, but It will be hard to tell what the springs do by themselves as it's all going on at the same time. I'll be updating in this thread in a few weeks once i have all the parts put on and get an alignment and have a chance to go out n test it.

While you're in there, I would recommend throwing in a Front Sway Bar. Spring rates don't have much to do with how well your car handles choppy roads at speed, especially at the low end of the spectrum that you are at. . . that's all in your shock's dampening. . .

Lowering your spring rates while adding the PSRS and WL roll center kit seems kind of self defeating. You are negating the added performance of those two by dropping spring rates and increasing the potential body roll and thus dynamic camber gain (less negative).

One reason your car understeers when braking is because when you are in a corner and using all the front traction to turn - and then hit the brakes - it takes away turning traction to slow the car. Try braking in a straight line before the turn, ease off the brakes as you start to turn into the corner. This willl greatly minimize any understeer in corners as opposed to braking IN the corner. . .

EVOlutionary

I've never been a fan of JIC, their valving has always been very harsh/choppy (to me) and a large reason for your ride quality and handling troubles IMO on the street and bumpier surfaces. Lowering the spring rates will help a little bit, but better valving will do much more as EVOlutionary said.

Definitely add some caster. The roll center kit and PSRS should IMO improve the car overall too, but the biggest problem clearly sounds like poorly valved shocks. And the 10k/9k rates you have are certainly causing some of the understeer....8k/9k isn't as firm and there will be more roll but the balance and ride quality will be better. Might be a better fit for your uses.

Please keep us updated!

- Andrew

Agreed, your spring rate and shocks have a lot to do with how well it handles bumps.

Adding the PSRS and WL RCK is a good thing. The WL RCK will improve his camber curve, it will actually give him more -ve camber under compression = more grip, which is what he wants. Thus he can actually afford to run softer springs to allow allow that roll without worrying about softer springs on a lowered car with too much body roll and a bad camber curve. Additionally, the WL RCK will reduce the roll couple which means less body roll even with softer springs. It's actually the best of both worlds, softer ride with less body roll.

Agreed!

Guess the main thing I was getting at was that adding the PSRS and RCK then dropping spring rates is kind of like taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back. . . if you go about it a different way you may be able to take 3 steps forward. . .

And if he's already running 3* he doesn't need more camber - that's not what's limiting his performance. . .

^how are you liking that psrs?

Awesome thread fellas, thanks for all the efforts and input everyone has put into this one.

few questions:
1) what are the stock spring rates on the 9 gsr?
2) I currently have the RRE 25mm rear bar and looking into the BC coilovers with 10/12 spring rates, any thoughts on this combo, or the quality of the BC's in comparison to their competitors within their price range?
3) Is it true to say that higher spring rate, help the longevity of the struts (less risk of blowing the struts) since the car is riding on the springs most of the time?

My car is daily driven, looking to make it stiffer and basically ride it like a go kart. I have future plans for autox and occasional 1/4 mile runs but mainly dd (25k miles/year). street comfort is not a big concern here.

Thanks in advance!
Ali

If the spring are stiffer than the dampener is designed for it will dramatically LESSEN the life of the strut.

From the spring rate sticky:
Stock: 200, 270. 0 drop.
Swift Sports: 179-269, 207-319 (157-314 for MR). -1.4, -0.8 drop.
Swift Spec Rs: 157-358, 196-380 (153-380 for MR). -1.4, -0.8 drop.
GTWorx (mostly linear): 290, 330, -0.78, -0.59 drop.

FYI, the Swift Spec-R springs equate to roughly a 6K rate.

If this is truly your goal, then the BC coilovers and RRE rear bar will probably achieve it quite admirably.

If, instead, the goal were to "make the car handle better", then you might want to try a different approach. Based on my experience, here's what I would do:

1. Get a set of Swift Spec-R springs to pair up with your stock KYB struts. If your struts are fairly worn, you may want a new set of struts as well. I'd go with Bilstein's at that point, since you can have them rebuilt when they wear out.
2. Get a TRE rear diff
3. Start replacing old, worn bushings, starting with the rear trailing arm bushing and then your front suspension bushings
4. Get a bigger front swaybar to match up to your rear bar - preferably an adjustable one.

I'd be willing to bet that this approach will net a better handling and more enjoyable car than going the low-end coilover route. Money spent should be about the same either way, but with drastically different results. Personally I prefer a car that is fast to one that feels fast.

l8r)

Ludikraut,
I appreciate your feedback.
On the springs vs coilovers note, i had springs at some point and due to the points below i changed my train of thoughts and sold them to get into a set of coilovers:
1) freedom of height adjustability
2) could run 255's without the potential of having to roll fenders
3) stiffer setup could be obtained with the co's
4) springs installation setup total price vs bc's price was close enough to justify buying the bc's instead.

Those are the factors that played into my decision. I guess, i will just have to try this setup myself to determine if it was the wisest thing i did or not.
Thanks

bump.