# S.T. Anti-Sway Bars / Setup with lowering



## dho (May 15, 2002)

I'm going to be swapping my springs from Eibach Sportlines (1.6/1.5" drop) to the Hypercoil's (1"drop). Do I need to change the links for the front and the rear for the not so low setup? I remember them giving extra metal plates for lowered cars and shorter links, do I need to change them to the longer ones or will it be okay to leave it like this with the short links? Which setup gives better handling?


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

I don't know if you need to swap the links. You will probably have to determine that after you swap the springs and note any unwanted contact between the front bar and the undercarriage. Link length will have no bearing on suspension performance as long as the bar doesn't hit the chassis where it shouldn't.

The stiffer springs will make the sway bars work better. Lean in a turn is entirely determined by the spring rate and track.


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## dho (May 15, 2002)

Awesome! What domestic/import cars will I be able to handle like or better than? Will it be as good as a Corvette Z06?  Maybe a Camaro Z28? or even a Type-R?

The hyper coils are 300/200 spring rates.


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

I've never driven any of the cars you mentioned. Truth is, tires make as much difference as the rest of the suspension combined.

Then again, a car is only as good as its driver. I regular placed mid-pack with Corvettes at autoX when I ran DOT race rubber. But, I normally placed third or fourth in class (DSP). This proves that despite the great ability of a 'Vette, it has to DRIVEN to make good time and a majority of 'Vettes aren't piloted by DRIVERS. It was rare, too, for a stock Mustang or Transmarobird to finish better than me.

As my SE-R sits (check the owner registry for mods), I would say it approximates the '86 Shelby Charger Turbo I used to own.


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## dho (May 15, 2002)

What would you recommend for learning how to drive better? I'm 19 so all I have are street experience and the X-street racing skills or lack of skills.  I'm wanting to learn better defensive driving, and controlability skills. I'm getting rid of my sportlines because of all the bumpsteer and unpredictability of my current suspension. I was surprised how much better it was without the sportline springs (just running the GR-2's).

I also need to learn some driving discipline. I need to stop getting the urge to street race when a civic revvs up on me. I need to learn to accelerate slower. I need to slow down in turns. I need to get a lighter foot!


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

It took me a long time to learn, but there is *NEVER* a good reason to engage in racing behavior in traffic that imperils innocent people. My thing wasn't racing, I was perpetually late. I'm still late, but I no longer risk life and limb.

When I get revved on, I look at the other car, point and laugh. Then I just continue on my way. Remember that street racing is *stupid*, and most people don't like to be called stupid.

Teach yourself that timeslips mean more than talk. Teach yourself that "exhibition of acceleration" costs money both upfront and for the following three years (here in Texas). Teach yourself that "failure to control lane" or "failure to yield" can be costly to you and *others*.

If acceleration is your "thang", then hie (look it up) yourself to your nearest drag strip on their test-n-tune or open nights.

If you like to turn-and-burn (like me), start autocrossing. In my SCCA region, it's $22 for non-members and $17 for SCCA members to run. You learn quickly about traction management and car control. I found myself slowing down on the street as I got faster at autocross. SCCA runs once per month. My local BMW and Porsche clubs pool their resources and host an autocross monthly, too, two weeks after the SCCA event. I could autocross 24 times per year if I had the urge. I found my competitors to be a friendly bunch who readily help each other with time and knowledge. Newbies don't get laughed at, they get extra help.

I did learn to control my right foot to apply heavy force only in certain situations. When there is zero traffic, I'll indulge a little. When entering a busy thoroughfare, I'll endulge up to the speed limit. When entering freeways, I'll indulge. That's it. I've owned my SE-R for eight years and street-raced three times. That's it.


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## dho (May 15, 2002)

Let me ask you this, with all the suspension modifications, is the car an overall safer car to drive on the street? With you're SE-R, you have a manual transmission and you can control the rpm's right? One of my problems is knowing that I can't peel out so even if I floor the car I wouldn't know it's at full throttle till it hits 20mph-50mph. When I drive faster, newer cars, I don't feel the same way, I don't speed. Is it just the torque they have? I've started to watch my tachometer that was installed 2 yrs ago and I've noticed that every time I go from a stop sign, intersection, traffic light, my rpms start at 2,000-2,500rpm. Any of those rpms feel the same way (don't feel power) but once the rpms get up to 3,300rpm you can feel the power. Last year I was running a 3,200 stall converter and that helped a little with the acceleration. If I floored it, I peeled. I could play with the throttle a lot easier, I had a range of launching at 1,000rpm-3,200rpm.

I've been thinking about getting a header put on, just any header to help with the mid range torque/hp. Hope fully that will allow me to have better driveability on the street. Another thing that kind of bothers me is the noise of the car... if I accelerate and keep the throttle half way or just keeping the rpms under 2,500 rpms, the car feels like it's struggling to acclerate to 40mph. It also growls like it's tryin (CAI w/ JWT pop charger).

Everyday, I think about having a factory car with some power and good handling so I wouldn't get tempted to speed or race. Only if I had a regular car, it wouldn't sound cool, noisey, or look like a sup'd up car. I already cut the exhaust noise by more than half going with a 2" custom mandrel exhaust, 20" glasspack, dynomax ultraflow welded muffler, and a dual resonated dynomax DTM tip. My other exhaust was sooo loud you could hear me from down the street just cruisin down the road. Going 40mph under a bridge you could hear me. The setup was a Random Tech cat, 2-1/4" crush bent exhaust, tsudo muffler. Now, the only noise you can really hear in the cabin while accelerating is the intake. When you do passes on the street or highway, it sounds like a 5.0 mustang with a dynomax exhaust and a K&N intake.

Does regular car insurance still work for you if you have an accident out on the tracks (Mainly SCCA)?


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

Overall, I feel my car is safer...because of the tires and brakes.

Ewww, you have an automatic. Your biggest problem is that 1.6 liters is pretty damn small for a performance vehicle losing 25% of its power through the drivetrain. As far as acceleration is concerned, forget it unless you boost.

A more powerful car won't quell your desire to race, it will probably enhance it.

A header won't do too much for the lower mid-range that's usable on the street. It will noticeably enhance upper mid-range and top end.

If you want a quiet car, get the factory exhaust. If you want performance, I guess you're okay with what you have. I have the Courtesy exhaust and you would call it loud.

Auto insurance doesn't cover accidents during competition though sanctioning bodies provide some coverage for their members. If you dent your car autocrossing, too bad (though I've never seen it happen). Our insurance does generally cover "driver education" courses. John Eagle Honda rents Texas World Speedway twice per year for two-day driver education events. I had a major good time last September.


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## dho (May 15, 2002)

Regarding control of the car, I was in a situation where I was going 45mph and going down hill. My car was gutted and was equipped with all of the suspension mods. The day prior to the situation I had my front pads changed to Bendix pads. The Bendix pads seem to not grip as hard as the Raybestos PG Plus pads. I was in the right lane. A Lifted 4x4 off road truck cuts in front of me very close to the front of my car, then he slams on his brakes. To avoid an accident, I slammed on my brakes. The front seemed to slow down some but not very quick. Then the following things happened, extremely fast (less than 15 seconds): the rear brakes locked quickly, the back end starts fishtailing towards the left, I immediately let off the brake for a second, counter steer all the way to the left, then I started braking again to avoid hitting an intersection or cars, the back end kept fishtailing till it finally did a 225 degree turn from the original direction..... the rear hit the curb and jumped it, front tires decide to lock, front left tire jumps curb... then finally the car stopped.

The accident warped my chassis by 1cm in the back left, popped out my rear STB, cracked a section off my enkei wheel, blew the tire, and made me nervous as can be. What could I have done to avoid this accident? For some reason my car likes to fishtail when I don't have people or a big stereo in the back. Could camber have any thing to deal with this? The camber is off in the rear because of the sportlines 1.5" rear drop and wears the inside of the rear tires quickly. What did I do wrong? I have Raybestos PG Plus shoes in the rear.

I have had instances where the accelerator would stick or keep going. Is my car ghetto or what?


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

My SE-R understeers heavily, as expected. I have a difficult time locking the rear brakes. However, when I first installed the big wheels and tires, I spun three times at the next autocross, which was a first for me. It seems that, since traction = coefficient of friction of the rubber/road and WEIGHT on the tire, lb/in on the rear tires dropped to the point that they just skated, not to mention with more front grip I was understeering less, forcing the rear tires to see more lateral G, exacerbating the low-load condition. I have a feeling that was your problem since you mentioned it was less apparent when carrying a load in the rear of your car.

Later, after installing bigger sway bars that increased rear stiffness relative to the front, my car was a bit more tail happy. I made DARN sure I braked in a straight line. I could get away with braking and turning only when running race rubber.

The only other thing you could have done was anticipate bonehead maneuvers at intersections and allowed either more room between you and the car you were following or, and this is a poor habit I picked up while commuting, glue yourself to the leading car to so that nobody gets any idea there is space into which they can move. Let that cowboy hit you; it would be his fault and his nickel to fix your car.

Yup, by your description your car is from the wrong neighborhood.

PS. what size tire and what air pressures are you running?


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## dho (May 15, 2002)

I'm using 195/50/15 Kumho 82H tires with 37 psi front and 34 psi rear. Atleast that's what I set them to every weekend. It gets kind of tiring to adjust the pressures every day in 90-100 degree weather. Every day it seems to go from an average of 95 degrees during the day down to 75 degrees at night. The next day it'll be the same thing. I was thinking that the tire pressure would re-adjust for the temperature difference to the next day. Isn't there a rule of thumb that says, "for every 10 degrees drop in air temperature there is a 1psi loss?"

There was one crazy thing that happened to me, my front left was at 35psi and I went to check my right one and it was at 45psi! I checked them just 5 days before! The right one tends to have less tread than any of the other 3. I don't know why but the car usually peels on the right side too but even without peeling it'll be less. Too bad I don't have LSD on the GA16DE.

Oh wait, I forgot, I usually drive by myself without a passenger. No wonder my left side of the car (looking from the front) looks lower than the right. I only weigh 140lbs!


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

My opinion is that you are running too much air in the rear tires. Drop it to thirty pounds for awhile and see if tire wear is good. Too much air in the lightly loaded rear causes the tire tread to bulge down the center reducing the rubber on the road, another possible reason for your spin.

I ran 45 psi front, 28 psi in the rear, but this was a result of autocrossing and wider tires. Tire wear was just fine.


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