Quote:
Originally Posted by BC_Garrett
I agree with most of what you are saying here.
For me personally depending on the piston design used in the damper to control it or where you set the damper I personally find 8-10kg under the front of these cars very streetable for a daily setup...but that is my own preference. I couldn't agree more with how all of this is a compromise and the best setup is one you pick out yourself making an informed decision. To be honest that's the entire reason I joined and now started posting was to try and help put the info out there and help the members make more informed buying decisions (regardless if its our products or someone else).
I think the word we are looking for is "sag". You don't hear this term as much in reference to cars but anyone familiar with motorcycle setups will instantly know what it is. When using a singular linear spring the distance the wheel could drop back down before the wheel lifts off the ground would be the same as the amount of sag the setup has- or the distance the cars weight compresses the spring. For illustration purposes we can average and round the weight of the front corner of f82 to around 950lbs. so if you were to use a 10kg spring (560lbs) the car would sag about 1.7 inches. (again I say roughly because there is number of other factors that should be considered if we were trying to get a 100% accurate number). So this 1.7 inches would be distance the tire/suspension could droop back down before the wheel raised off the ground if we went over a bump.
Simply lowering your spring rate to gain more droop is yet again another compromise and not something that always makes sense. A helper spring could be utilized to give more suspension droop in a setup that doesn't naturally have much (higher spring rates)....but I also wouldn't just add helpers to all setups as this add length to your spring setup which then takes away from wheel and tire backspacing (you can't run as big of a tire on factory fender car).
We also use helper springs a lot here for rwd setups built for drag racing. There is a number of worlds fastest (for a given chassis) street car setups we've build where helper springs are utilized for more travel. When rwd drag cars launch and get large amounts of weight transfer the extra travel down allows the front wheels to stay in contact with the ground (completely or more depending on the car) giving the driver more control allowing them to maintain steering control where it would otherwise be lost.
Companies who offer setups without independent preload and height adjustments usually add helper springs to their setup to maintain preload (and eliminate noise and other issues associated with drooping the spring to change ride height).
I agree rebound/droop is very important, but having a TON isn't always necessary and can sometimes have a negative impact overall.
Again it can't be stressed enough, there is no "best" without a context, and even then its very subjective. The best racing suspension is not going to be fun for the street or even work well (since it was setup for lighter car with more mechanical grip)...and the best street suspension will just bottom out all over the track in a full race car.
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Very good conversation here. I'm glad you joined and have been contributing very good information to the forum. It's refreshing.
One small note to point out about helper springs and coilover kits. All the coilover kits that come with helper springs are in the upper range of each respective company's product line (way out of OP's budget). Until you get to the track coilover with camber plates, you'll mostly see the conical spring that utilizes the OEM tophat. For kits like the KW V3, this is it's biggest downfall IMO. Having a loose front spring always seemed ghetto to me; reminds me of back in my JDM days when we used to just cut springs in the backyard.
To me personally, the compromise in suspension is mostly in my disappearing cash; all out or nothing.
