Hello,

My wife recently complained about handling in her car (115K miles, stock strut/shocks and springs). I took it for a drive and have thus ordered Tokico HP strut/shocks and H&R OE sport springs, a drop over 1" would be unacceptable due to a steep driveway. I didn't want an overly stiff ride for her, just a hair stiffer than stock.

I'm planning on getting the Neuspeed STB to reduce the flex, and am thinking about a rear sway bar. I hope you all have some suggestions for me. I looked into the US ITR rear sway bar, but I believe that would be overkill and cause oversteer. According to the FAQ the GS 4-door sedan has a 22mm front and a 14mm rear bar. What do you all use to balance out the handling with the above noted mods? I want to reduce the understeer. I'd like to get more neutral with a hint of understeer.

Since the springs and shocks are relatively soft, I've thought about going with a bigger bar in the front and the ITR bar in the rear (soft springs, more bar to reduce body roll). However, I'm not really going that direction due to cost...unless it's the only route.

Thanks!

 

With those springs and shocks alone there will be a very noticeable difference in the handling of the car.

The Neuspeed STB is really good, but also consider getting a triangulated bar to further improve the stiffness of the chassis...there's the Benen bar and the PasswordJDM bar. They're a bit more pricey but they bolt to the firewall as well as the strut towers to further reduce a bit of flex.

With the sway bar, yeah, putting an ITR rear sway would increase the car's tendancy toward oversteer, but if you get a bigger front sway bar, bigger than the ITR rear, then that should help with the possible oversteer.

Another, slightly more pricey, route to increasing the handling performance of the car would be to get lightweight wheels and better tires. I personally have 15" Falken Hanabi wheels that weigh 11lbs each (I really honestly did notice a difference with the much lighter wheels) and 205-50R15 Falken Ziex ZE 512 tires, and so far my (stock) suspension has bottomed out and given up before those tires have squealed. Decreasing rotating mass in the car is always a quick route to slightly improved acceleration, braking, handling, and even a tiny bit of fuel efficiency.

Hope all this helps some, and of course feel free to ask more questions!

 

Thanks for the links. I think those tie bars are a bit out of my price range. I want to keep the mods relatively cheap, I chalked the springs and shocks up to basic maintenance. The wife wants a new car in 2 years, but wants her Integra to handle like a stock Evo. So, I'm thinking...nothing too expensive.

I think the shocks and springs, STB, and balancing the understeer should be more than adequate for her.

 

yeah, those mods should be able to make enough of an improvement to make her happier, but if she's gonna be constantly comparing it to the handling of an evo, then it's gonna cost a good bit more, heh