[Shotimes] My Experience with Suspension Altering (long)....was: Lowering the SHO (sorta long)

[Donald Mallinson]

George,

I have extensive experience with the Eibachs in both my
Gen I and my son's Gen II.

RE: variable rate.  I have never noticed any ill effects 
from them in our SHO's.  The only noticeable effect is that 
the car still rides somewhat decent on bad Illinois Roads. 
if you live where the roads are billiard table smooth, you 
can get away with stiffer single rate springs.  Some people 
LIKE a super hard ride, I am not one of them.  I need a dual 
purpose car, not a race car.  The SHO with Eibachs will 
corner much flatter than with stock springs, will ride 
similar to stock, and the lowering in the front is about 
1.5", about all that you should want for street use.  For 
most SHO's with sagging rear springs, the Eibach rears 
actually raise the back a tiny bit, leaving the SHO either 
level or slightly front down, a much better look than "back 
down".

If you are taking corners hard with Eibachs, you should 
never notice the "rate change" because all the motion will 
be used up on the first motion.  Then you have a single rate 
firm spring for the rest of the corner.

Again, if a race car is what you want, a single rate spring 
will be better, but for a compromise (and all suspension 
setups are a compromise, even in Formula 1, think Indy!) the 
Eibachs are a super choice in the SHO.

I like my 89's ride with the Koni adjustables set soft. 
With Tokico, at least till the struts wear in a bit, the 
ride is firmer, but still acceptable.

Don Mallinson


George Fourchy wrote:

 By the way, I have never tried
> Eibach springs in any of my SHOs.  I had them in a Mustang, and they were
> disgusting...the variable rate was totally useless, and the car kept banging the ground
> in the center of the chassis when hitting freeway dips, even with the adjustable Tokikos
> set all the way stiff.  After that, I never got any again.  I have driven a couple of Gen
> 2 SHOs with them installed, and they weren't bad....however I don't like the idea of
> variable rate springs....you get the car set up for a corner, and the rate changes as the
> weight transfers, and the car does wierd stuff you weren't expecting....I'll just take
> standard springs, thank you.