im turning 18 in may and im finally going to be able to start autocrossing. i already have KYB AGX struts and i am stuck between the Eibach prokit and the sportline kit? i think i am goin to go with the prokit. any recommendations or knowledge on these 2 springs is greatly appreciated. im lookin for good ride but more for the better handling.

 

If the only mod you have so far is the shocks, then keep the shocks and maybe buy some R tires. You'll be much better off, and much more competitive in stock classes (where youre allowed shocks, brake pads and R tires. If you get springs you'll be bumped into STS, where the competition is stiff, and almost all the cars are better prepared than a dx with lowering springs. I'd say race the car in H-stock for a season, see how you do, and then decide if you want to tackle the ex$pense and super-competitive classes.

I raced for 2 seasons before I felt comfortable leaving H-stock.h:

 

I agree too. Autocrossing is not like drag racing. Certain mods will bump you into harder and more difficult classes. Newbies worry too much about mods and don't worry enough about fixing the nut behind the wheel. Mods can slow the learning processes because you don't know if it was the mod that messed you up or the driver error.

I would say save your money for an Evolution School which can drop your times by 4-8 seconds on average for around $200. Eibach springs might drop your times by .5-1 second for the same price.

Staying in stock class is probably best for 1-2 years until you can consistently be 1-2 seconds behind the quickest person in your class.

 

BTW - Pro-Kit is too soft for serious autocrossing. Good for street driving, not so good if you are looking to really improve handling.

 

i'd say save up for tires, they are the single most important upgrade to your car (besides driver experience) instead of suspension, i am considering putting my stock airbox back on so i can go back to h stock instead of sts where i get beat badly due to my lack of suspension and experience

 

And people like me who have 99% of the STS mods done to their car At the last autocross I beat the 2nd place car by almost 2 seconds And he's been autocrossing for some time now. And forget about the 3rd place car

In classes other than stock sometimes it's the guy/gal with the most mods win All I need now is a VTEC controller, rear sway bar, and remove my A/C and power steering - which I cannot do since this is my daily driver and I HATE SUMMER!

 

Good advice from the other members on this thread, but there are a few thigns that were left out. In addition to R-compound tires (w/o ABS, I'd stay away from Hooisers, unless you're really good with brake modulation,) a set of lightweight wheels, stock size of course, helps low powered cars out a bit. The front sway bar and method of attachment is open, so you might improve your times by playing with that a bit. With my car, I kept the stock bar, but installed Energy Suspension urethane mounts, the greasable ones (they fit even though the catalog says there isn't an application for it, order the smallest casing available in your sway bar size) are great as they reduce binding and improve performance. You can then tune the amount of sway bar you want to dial in by loosening the endlink(s,) urethane again is a good thing to use in this case. One thing to pay attention to is the alignment, and the amount of tire rollover. Get some white show polish for this and to measure how much air pressure you need.

 

Actually a better way to measure you are using your tires to the fullest is using a pyrometer. Measure the outside, middle and inside tread to figure out what's the best.

 

Well, a pyrometer is the best way to do it, but for a beginner, shoe polish is cheap and enough of a no-brainer to use that its okay to use. Not optimal, but good enough to get started with. Especially if you don't have someone explaining to you what it all means, and what adjustments need to be made. Also, you dont' have to be in a big rush to check the tire temps right after a run, and you can go around and make individual adjustments at a slow pace. I used to make shoe polish marks on the insides of my front tires as well (with my old RWD solid axle auto-x car,) to see if caster needed adjustment. I'm currently prepping an Accord for FSP, so thats a whole new world, but its geting there.

 

Just from experience, any off-the-shelf suspension components will be utterly inadequate if you plan at all on becoming competitive. I'm running the stock GC + Koni yellow setup in STS and my car has so much body-roll I could swear it's stock. I believe the stock GC rates (Koni edition) are 380F/250R; to be competitive you'll want to have custom rates that are a bit higher (and perhaps biased towards the rear, eg. 400F/600R). Then you'll need to revalve your shocks and blah blah blah. You'll also need surgery to correct your spine from driving with those rates on the road.

With that being said, the prokits should be a fine choice if your car is also a daily driver. Just don't let the body-roll bother you too much when you're out cone chasing.

Shingo