Spring rates need help to create custom units

[alwayzsidewayz]

Hi all,

On my Celica I currently use Whiteline Control springs both front and rear, which has given a nice 25mm drop and are fine as fast road use, but on track I feel that they are maybe to soft.

As they are few options available for my celica, I was thinking about getting a custom set made up, as I do not want to go any lower, but I want the springs to be stiffer. I now coilovers would be the ultimate, but thats at least

[duncan]

What makes you think they are too soft?

Have you uprated the roll bars or altered the geometry of the components?

[blacky]

As above, get some up-rated anti-roll bars and get the geometry set-up propery to fast road setting if you can adjust camber etc on teh car, it'll make a huge difference.

People get hung up on thinking that hard suspension is better, which is not always true.

[alwayzsidewayz]

Hi, cheers for replies,

The car has Adjustable front shocks, with new camber adjustment front top mounts, New Superflex bushes apart from the front ARB which is standard and just has standard bushes ( reason being I have been told fitting the uprated ARB will promote more understeer) I run quite aggressive camber settings, having had the car properly set up. I also use a whilteline anti lift kit for the front.
Plus front and rear strut braces, the car runs 17" rims with 205 40 tyres.

The rear suspension, features an adj arb plus uprated bushes, camber adjusting bolts, with Brand new OEM shocks.


The reason I think the car is to soft are these pictures.





To me the it looks like the car is pitching and rolling too much? But I am very much a novice when it comes to advanced suspension settings.

I run 34 PSI on track, and in fact found a little time at the recent sprint by going to 36 psi in the front tyres.

Cheers again for help.

[duncan]

What size ARB are they and what setting do you have it on?

[Fast Eddy]

Seems you have a pretty good set up already.
The Whiteline control springs are a progressive spring to retaim contact with the road over small bumps etc so they do allow some give for the first inch or so of travel and then stiffen up although they are not designed for track use so are not mega stiff.
I am surprised that the back is rolling with the Whiteline arb. What are your drop links and bushes like? If they are soft/worn they will be taking the strain before your arb has a chance to work.
Try some new/uprated links/bushes at the rear and replace the front arb bushes and drop links to make sute the bar is working at the front also if you are against the uprated front bar. You need to do this irrespective of you replacing the springs so give it a try before stripping the struts down to put stiff springs and reallising you have created a drift car lol.
I hope this helps.
Eddy

[alwayzsidewayz]

The rear ARB is a much thicker unit, I am not sure of it thickness :oops: , but I have it set to the stiffest setting, as this helpped to dial out the understeer I was getting in low to medium speed corners.

The front ARB is just stock

I am also getting a lot of wear on the out side edges of the tyres, is this indicative of too little camber, as the tyre pressures are constantly checked.

[alwayzsidewayz]

Seems you have a pretty good set up already.
The Whiteline control springs are a progressive spring to retaim contact with the road over small bumps etc so they do allow some give for the first inch or so of travel and then stiffen up although they are not designed for track use so are not mega stiff.
I am surprised that the back is rolling with the Whiteline arb. What are your drop links and bushes like? If they are soft/worn they will be taking the strain before your arb has a chance to work.
Try some new/uprated links/bushes at the rear and replace the front arb bushes and drop links to make sute the bar is working at the front also if you are against the uprated front bar. You need to do this irrespective of you replacing the springs so give it a try before stripping the struts down to put stiff springs and reallising you have created a drift car lol.
I hope this helps.
Eddy

Hi Eddy, cheers for help, drop links and bushes are new, in fact I broke one when I switched the settings on the rear ARB to its stiffest setting :!: Should I go for the uprated units instead of stock?

The front ARB bushes and drop links are brand new ( they always seam to be a pain to change so I just renewed them when we did all the suspension., but the bar is old.

The actual handling of the car is quite predicatable, but the weight transfer of the car still seams sloppy, its a heavy old thing.

[Fast Eddy]

Well the new std drop links and bushes will be alot better than the old ones of course but still may be not up to the job. There are no replacement drop link bushes listed from any of my suppliers, but we may be able to use a universal one. Failing that i stock the Whiteline universal uprated sperical rod end drop link kits in various lengths.
Get someone to rock the car while you look underneath to see if you can see if any of the new std rubber bushes are moving.
Eddy

[alwayzsidewayz]

Well the new std drop links and bushes will be alot better than the old ones of course but still may be not up to the job. There are no replacement drop link bushes listed from any of my suppliers, but we may be able to use a universal one. Failing that i stock the Whiteline universal uprated sperical rod end drop link kits in various lengths.
Get someone to rock the car while you look underneath to see if you can see if any of the new std rubber bushes are moving.
Eddy

Fantastic, I will def follow you up on that, as I do think that the std stuff is not quite up to scratch, one of the New OEM drop links actually bent while just road driving, hence the replacement.

Thanks for help

Rich