how does lowering and new suspension setups effect everything

[NSX_GTR_LM]

Alright, basically my question is for the Tein HA suspension. If I were to have Tein HA's, Hotchkis competition sways, energy suspension bushings, f/r strutbrace and underbrace, how would that affect my setup? I know scott always says if you lower you dont care about performance, but would this really take away from the performance of my car? why would they sell Teins and sheit if the hinder the car?

The major question I would like to have answered is that the celica comes with a 39 mm offset to maximize contact patch in certain areas and keep certain geometry. How would this kind of setup affect the optimal offset? Would the offset go up to 42 or go down to like 35? Never really thought about that until now. Thanx in advance.

[Celica RZ]

you want to buy my suspension setup also? :D

If you are drasticly reducing the hieght of the car 1.5" below then you need to get shocks that have a shorter stroke. the short strokes allows the the shocks to work in their range without bottoming out.

also another thing to worry about is if you lower the car too much and you're spring rates aren't up to par then you could experience bumpsteer.

I know with the Hotckis coilover kit that it was made for lowered cars, so that means that it has short stroke shocks, but still I don't think you should lower it below 2" without encountering bumpsteer unless you're running some ultra stiff spring rates (like 600 lb/ft or above). I don't know about the tiens though.

swaybars, that's up to personal driving tastes. note they should come with their own bushings.

energy suspension bushings - again up to you. I would recommend doing this if you were going to be modding out all the suspension parts but if you're keeping the suspension fairly stock, it's a fairly new car and the OEM should still be pretty good. maybe if the car was 3 years or so....you will get more NVH into the cabin with the stiffer suspension bushings.

strut braces - Celica Chassi is fairly stiff already, but i say go for a roll cage!

anyways if you lower it remember to get an alignment.

the 35mm offset on the wheels really shouldn't be effecting you much as you're going to be going to larger (wider) size tires. with stock size wheels it may be preferable to get 35mm offset wheels as it moves the wheels a little bit more to the outside. wider is better. The one problem you may have with the new wheels is that it may give you some torque steer cause obviously you are putting more contact to the ground.....but the celica has so little torque I'm not sure if that would pose a problem either. FYI 42mm offset the wheels are going to hit the strut or rub on the spring perch.

[NSX_GTR_LM]

i am lookin at tein HA's, if you gottem, i will put a deposit down for them too :)

[00 scrub]

Wow, this was informative. I have a question as well. I read that the Tein HA's are progressive springs, but they are very stiff ( I thought I read somewhere that they were like 800lbs in the rear!). I also heard that the Tein SS's aer linear springs, but they aer also softer. What would you guys suggest? It seems that the Tein HA's are very stiff, and progressive. Would it be too stiff to be useful on the street/canyon or auto cross (I still need to work on the driver portion as well)?

[NSX_GTR_LM]

Tein HA's I am pretty sure are not progressive. Check out Tein's website for the spring rates. It depends on the quality of the road. I willl be spending most of my time in cali, so stiff is good for me.

[GTS LAID]

well if it has one spring rate doesnt that mean that its a linear (single) k value for the force of the spring on the car?? or do they give you an average k value for progressive springs?

[NSX_GTR_LM]

thats what I am thinkin GTS LAID. Not to mention that if any of the teins would be progressive, it would be the SS lineup. The HA's are made for more of a competition mode, and a linear rate is better for the track since its a more predictable suspension setup. I dont think either of them are progressive though

[GTS LAID]

well i can tell you with a bit of certainty the SS is linear... I looked at the 3 things that would influence the spring constant of the spring (inner diameter, coiling, and coil metal diameter) and none of those change throughout the spring.. the spacing between consecutive loops is consistent throughout as well... this is what led me to believe they're linear, plus i havent heard otherwise and when i get out there and drive i feel a steady force from the spring and handling characteristics dont do much in the way of change in the middle of a tight turn.

[00 scrub]

ok then, I was wrong, I guess the SS' are linear. The Tein website doesn't say if they are prog. or linear. SO the only real difference between the SS and HA are the spring rates? The HA is a bit stiffer than the SS.