Numbers are correct....great rates, great drop, great springs.


- Andrew

 

Well, it seems like I'll go with Swifts then. One more question, any comments on Espelir Active GTs? I've read that the ride is as good as the Swifts, but lowers the car a little bit more at front (45mm). I think a 35mm drop at front is not enough (Swift/Hotchkis drop), there is still a noticeable gap.

 

Andrew,

I'm not trying to hi-jack the thread just wanted an explanation on spring rates. I own the Swifts and love em. Very nice spring, comfortable, ride very well in auto-x. I just realized I never knew the spring rates until now...heh!

But as I have seen on this site there are different schools of thought on how to run spring rates and sway bars -- Swift has gone with higher spring rates in the rear and softer in the front.

Now, granted it's a completely different application, but the KW V3's have softer spring rates in the rear compared to the front. Can you elaborate on the different schools of thought -- why go one way vs another?

 

heres why you dont want lowering springs

They limit your suspension travel. If you are hard in a corner the weight transfer can/ will bottom out your strut. when your suspension bottoms out your car becomes unstable. when it becomes unstable the car will have a better opertuniny of crashing

so heres what it coems down to

lowering springs= DEATH

go buy some real suspension that does more than make you look cool to 14 yr old boys



heres my car, still stock checking out the bump stops just from braking hard

 

I understand your point, however I already stated that I won't track my car at all, so there is no real need for coilovers. Thanks for your input though.

 

Sounds like you know what you want then. If your worried about the gap then just screw handling and get s-techs.

For real though...Say you buy the GT's and don't like them. Sell them and try something else, what your out a bill for an alignment big deal.

 

You're right....for a spring that simply lowers the car with little to no increase in spring rate.

Fortunately though, that is not even close to being the case for the spring we are discussing.

Swifts (and a few other springs) don't simply lower the car with spring rates that are close to stock....spring rates are up considerably from stock. So yes, the car does sit lower, but does not bottom out and result in dangerous situations because pitch/roll/dive are reduced by the increased spring rate. Stiffer dampers would also help, but the stock ones are actually pretty good.

So no....not all lowering springs = death!!!

Yes, there are springs that just slam the car and make the car handle like poo (cough green springs cough). But Swifts aren't one of them. The majority of our customers track their car, and all have reported that the Swifts more then exceeded their expectations for a non-coilover equipped Evo.


- drew

 

The EVO comes with softer in the front and stiffer in the rear because of the different motion ratios of the front struts and rear shocks. So it should have a softer front, even with a heavier front weight distribution.

Coilovers complicate things, and adding different size swaybars only adds to it. You'll see a lot of people going in different directions here and it's based on usage and personal preference. Auto-x guys won't blink at having 12k fronts and 16k rears with a 35mm rear swaybar (jk) but track day guys may want something that has a very slight tendency to understeer at the limit (meaning their car is a bit safer on high speed sweeping corners).

In mine and many others opinion, a lot of off-the shelf coilovers have rates that aren't particularly suited to the EVO, but the overall improvement from them is still usually good. Usually being a key word.....

As for the KW V3's, the standard rates are stiffer in the front and soft in the back....they say it works, and it does work fairly well. BUT from our experience it's not ideal. For our own KW custom rates and our upcoming RCE Coilovers (oops....that slipped out ) we usually have it closer to even front and rear, not exactly even, and it depends on if you're using a rear sway bar or not.


- andrew

 

i would go swift.

cb

 

I put Hotchkis on my wifes Evo and it rode great and looked aggressive. I wanted something that she wasn't going to be scraping the front end everywhere.