Review of Tokico Blues with Tanabe NF springs

[kngrsll]

Originally Posted by evo165

Alright guys, i managed to "reduce" the stiffness out from my car. Remember the earlier on "Rear free supension mod"? I shifted up the pivot point of my rear suspension before i did my tokico blue as posted. By shifting the point up, i gain additional stiffness on my rear spring which i can gain slightly more responsive handling and the "extra" steering with the cost of losing the comfort.

I just recently shifted back the pivot point to the stock configuration(lower point). And now BINGO!!!!! My ride feel less "stiff" on the rear for overall comfort and yet still can provide the "super glue" feeling round the corner!! I am falling in love with the BLUEs!!!!!!!!!

you make an interesting point here. the Fit spring i use in the rear was a loose fit when i was using the lower twist beam mount. when i raised that pivot point, the spring fit it very tight, and had to be pry'd out to be removed. now, the Tanabe rear spring was a tight fit with the lower mount, so if you were to raise the rear pivot point, that would compress the spring.

now, does spring preload effect the rear spring rate? i am not sure. you said you noted the rear felt more stiff, but is that an effect on the spring rate of compressing the rear spring or is that "feeling" from the change in suspension geometry? i am not really sure, id love to hear another opinion on this (ie. Loren, Tamago)

so, i looked up this calculator for spring rate: http://www.engineersedge.com/spring_comp_calc_k.htm i changed only 1 variable, and that is the # of ACTIVE coils in the spring. i changed nothing else. using the defaults in the calculator, a change from 10 coils to 8 coils increased spring rate from 18k to 23k. so, what that tells me is this: if you take the DF210 rear spring and compress it (eliminating a certain amount of coils) by raising the rear suspension mounting point, you will increase the rear spring rate by doing so though reduction of the number of coils. how much? no idea, but it certainly SHOULD go up.

another benefit to a free mod!