[Shotimes] Is our suspension travel really that short???

[Josh Salaets]

> May I ask how much this suspension setup costs and how
> you are doing this? :)  Any Pics?  I'm curious as to
> what it would take for me to get a system that's
> better than the standard Eibachs/Intrax Springs with
> the standard Koni's( One Way Adjustable) or Tokicos..

I am sure you know about the coilovers that Innovative Performance
Technology (www.iptech.tv)  makes and sells for our cars.  This is what my
friend is running on his car.  The kit is very high quality, but is just not
designed for street use if you want to use it to it's fullest extent.  The
600/300 lbs/in (front/rear). spring combination that comes with the kit is
too stiff for street use IMO and overpowers the Konis.  In order to make the
coilovers streetable, we installed 300/250 lbs/in springs on the car  and
raised it up slightly higher than if it were on Intrax springs.  It still
looks decent and is streetable, but the cost and effort to install the
coilovers is basically wasted - we could have gone with Intrax or Eibach
springs for much cheaper and easier install.

Another disadvantage to keeping the car low on the coilovers is you can't
run any bumpstops.  This isn't a problem with the 600 lb springs up front,
but going down to 300, you risk bottoming and ruining the Koni insert (bye
bye lifetime warranty).  There are a couple solutions we might try later on
to both improve suspension travel and lower the ride height.  This includes
trimming the little tab on the strut housing to let the strut sit lower in
the knuckle, trimming the bump stops, and cutting the bottom off the Koni
inserts and welding them to the stock housing (also void warranty), giving
us probably an additional 1-1.5 inches of travel.  We got the idea of
welding in the Konis from the following site (look about midway down the
page):

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/3g/howto/3gkoniinfo-old.htm

Unfortunately, the Intrax or Eibach springs combined with Tokicos or Konis
are currently the best solution for improving the handling of our SHOs while
still keeping it streetable without breaking the bank on coilovers (which
are wasted on a street car) or custom struts and springs.  If you plan on
using your SHO purely for racing, I'd say go for the coilovers and spend the
cash to get your Konis modified to handle the stiffer springs and lower
stance - there's nothing better!  You might have to play around with the
spring combination that comes with the coilovers though, as I think the 300
lb springs in the rear are too low and would induce understeer if driven
hard.  I would try to keep the front/rear ratio closer to stock.

Josh Salaets
95 SHO MTX (See it here: www.cardomain.com/id/sh0gun)
85 Omni GLH-T (Autocrosser)
Eugene, OR