Originally posted by akrump47:
Originally posted by ZetecNinja:

But personally I'd rather have the stiffest & roughest suspension setup you can have rather than bounce all over the place like those damn Hondas.



Nope

The reason those cars bounce and skate all over the place is BECAUSE they have suspensions that are far too stiff. So much so that the car is tossed into the air and sideways over rough pavement.(Yes i've seen it happen) This equates to a serious loss of control. Fine for a track maybe, but on the street your suspension needs to keep the car stable and the tires planted under all conditions.



Harder does not equate to better, it's true. The Hondas (and any other car) are either dropped too low, and riding on the bumpstops, or underdamped, or both.

It's telling that Grassroots Motorsports took a new Civic as a project car. It had been set up for the SEMA show, so dropped very low so it would look cool. GRM guys drove it, and the first thing they did was raise the suspension and use softer springs to improve their course times.

The trap that people fall into is thinking that more is always better and sexier.

Function before fashion. '96 Contour SE "Toss the Contour into a corner, and it's as easy to catch as a softball thrown by a preschooler." -Edmunds, 1998