Which springs for a 2011 GT
05-05-2011, 10:15 AM
#21
Well, the thread has been hijacked a little bit.... but still a lot of good info, in the end, considering that i'm not planning to race the car and that ride quality is still important to me, I decided to order a set of Eibach pros. I understand that it might not be the best solution for handling improvement but I hope it will be a good compromise. Meanwhile I'm still debating if I'm going to buy a set of shocks.
Thanks everybody for your inputs
Thanks everybody for your inputs
Getting back to your original question about linear vs progressive. The progressive spring is simply a spring with one part being tighter wound (at least in the Eibach pro edition, you can make the spring progressive in a different way too). The part with more coils is softer and compresses more making the whole spring softer. When the soft part gets compressed fully so the coils touch each other the stiffer part takes the whole weight and defines the springs stiffness.
So, the spring is softer to some given point of suspension travel and gets stiffer beyond that point. I theory that should give you two modes of suspension operation, soft when driven lightly and stiff when driven hard.
AFAIK the practice might be different. You need to have the suspension precisely fine tuned to have the transition point in the proper spot. Among other things, that involves defining precisely the weight of the car so the spring should be different for every change in car trim, accessories, or even number of passengers. Another problem is that introducing the transition point in the suspension behavior makes it 'bistable' and therefore somewhat unpredictable. It is more difficult to drive the car hard when it's 'not the same' all the time.
The general trend I see is to stay away from progressive springs for track use.
05-06-2011, 09:24 PM
#23
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: SC
Posts: 9
Yes, It got hijacked and I'm sorry for that.
Getting back to your original question about linear vs progressive. The progressive spring is simply a spring with one part being tighter wound (at least in the Eibach pro edition, you can make the spring progressive in a different way too). The part with more coils is softer and compresses more making the whole spring softer. When the soft part gets compressed fully so the coils touch each other the stiffer part takes the whole weight and defines the springs stiffness.
So, the spring is softer to some given point of suspension travel and gets stiffer beyond that point. I theory that should give you two modes of suspension operation, soft when driven lightly and stiff when driven hard.
AFAIK the practice might be different. You need to have the suspension precisely fine tuned to have the transition point in the proper spot. Among other things, that involves defining precisely the weight of the car so the spring should be different for every change in car trim, accessories, or even number of passengers. Another problem is that introducing the transition point in the suspension behavior makes it 'bistable' and therefore somewhat unpredictable. It is more difficult to drive the car hard when it's 'not the same' all the time.
The general trend I see is to stay away from progressive springs for track use.
Getting back to your original question about linear vs progressive. The progressive spring is simply a spring with one part being tighter wound (at least in the Eibach pro edition, you can make the spring progressive in a different way too). The part with more coils is softer and compresses more making the whole spring softer. When the soft part gets compressed fully so the coils touch each other the stiffer part takes the whole weight and defines the springs stiffness.
So, the spring is softer to some given point of suspension travel and gets stiffer beyond that point. I theory that should give you two modes of suspension operation, soft when driven lightly and stiff when driven hard.
AFAIK the practice might be different. You need to have the suspension precisely fine tuned to have the transition point in the proper spot. Among other things, that involves defining precisely the weight of the car so the spring should be different for every change in car trim, accessories, or even number of passengers. Another problem is that introducing the transition point in the suspension behavior makes it 'bistable' and therefore somewhat unpredictable. It is more difficult to drive the car hard when it's 'not the same' all the time.
The general trend I see is to stay away from progressive springs for track use.
I have also found a video on the eibach website:
http://performance-suspension.eibach.com/
It's a comparison between a stock 2011 GT and the same car with the prokit (including sway bars but same shocks), if half of what they are showing is true than I will be really happy!
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