Re:Coil-over springs From: One Time CR-X[SMTP:hchea@orion.ramapo.edu] Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 1:42 AM To: Trevin Chow Cc: crx@crx.org Subject: Re: CRX: Coil-over springs On Mon, 4 May 1998, Trevin Chow wrote: > I visited the Neuspeed website recently and noticed that have developed > "coil-over springs", which incorporates lowering springs and shocks in one > package. What are the benefits and disadvantages of this? Cheaper? Better > ride? > Tech Explanation of Coil-Overs: Coil-overs consist of springs and threaded adjustable sleeves (and in some packages, struts). The system is exactly the same as regular spring/strut systems in a crx, except that instead of the spring sitting on a perch on the strut, it now sits on a ring that is screwed onto the threads of the sleeve, with the sleeve sitting on the strut perch. See http://www.ground-control.com/gccats.htm for a good picture of the spring/sleeve/ring, with links to some prices for them. By screwing the ring around, one can change the distance between the bottom of the spring and the strut perch, thereby changing the height of the car and weight distribution. This allows for plenty of flexiblity that you don't get with regular lowering springs. You can have the car dropped like crazy during the summer, and raised like a truck during the snowy winters. You can rake the car (the front lowered, and the rear raised) for drag races. More importantly, you can set exact heights for aerodynamic stability and weight distribution for racing (autox, roadracing, etc). Aerodynamically, you want the smallest distance possible between the ground and the car, so that the venturi or bernouli (to give proper recognition to both scientists) effect creates more of a vacuum underneath the car (the smaller the gap, the faster the air flows through, and the lower the pressure, like an inverted air foil), "sucking" the car to the ground. Nevertheless, it is more effective at creating downforce than a suprastyle spoiler! This is how one can change the weight distribution with coil-overs: Say that you race your crx alone, so there is uneven weight distribution because you sit on one side of the car. You could even it out by increasing the distance between the ring and the strut perch on the passenger's side wheels, raising the car slightly on the passenger's side. It's like making one leg of a table longer than the others: the longer leg will have to support more of the table's weight. In this case, the passenger's side wheels will have to support more weight, and if you balance it correctly, it will compensate for you sitting in the driver's seat. Coil-overs are great for bigtime racing, but are slightly more expensive on a whole. They allow for great flexibility, and they look cool too. :) Cheers, Henry C. *********************************************************** * TAS: Physics 89 CR-X dx * * Email: hchea@ramapo.edu OR OneTimeCRX@aol.com * * OR OneTimeCRX@hotmail.com * ***********************************************************
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Coil-overs, shocks, struts explained From: Lee & Tracy Grimes [leetracy@primenet.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 9:10 PM To: S. Drabant; crx@crx.org Subject: CRX: Coil-overs, shocks, struts explained Recent questions and responses about coil-overs that should be cleared up: > > > what's the difference b/t coilovers and the regular shox and springz? > > which ones work better? > > Coilovers are height adjustable. Not true. Coil overs are simply any shock (or strut) that has the coil spring over or around it. That means all Hondas that I can think of other than the torsion bar cars have coil overs. However when you mention coilovers many people think of the threaded body or threaded sleeved units that also allow you to set ride heights, corner weights, etc. but they are best identified as "threaded coil-overs". > > This allows you to put your car on 4 scales and balance it so handling is > much improved. Coilovers are most useful if you are track racing... Truth. By the way all Civic/CRXs since '88 have shocks on all four corners, not struts. The torsion bar cars had strut front and shocks rear. So many cars had struts for so long that people call coil-over shocks "struts". An easy way to tell is to see what acts as the upper ball joint for suspension motions. If there is a upper ball joint or pivot that states what the suspension geometry is during its range of motion and it is not on the damper/spring assembly, then it is a shock. If the damper moves and states geometry changes based on the pivot, camber plate,etc. then it is a strut. On the front the decision is easy, turn the steering wheel... Does the damper pivot and move? Answer yes and you have a strut, answer not and it is a shock. That is why no one sells camber plates for 88 and later Honda...moving the upper shock mount in or out does not change your camber because the upper shock mount is not a geometry stating load point. Move your upper control arms and ball joints and you change your camber. Struts were hailed as marvelous in the 70s and 80s because they were better than their primitive mass production predecessors and were much cheaper to manufacture but now that street cars have better suspension designs you rarely find struts in good cars. Long explanation over, thanks for reading. If you have questions call the KONI tech line at 606-586-4100. There is a lot of information involved and I speak on the phone faster than I can type. Lee with KONI
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