Happy trails to you...

In another car, the springs wouldn't have made much of an impact, but
on the 00 Hatch, I think the stock's were too slow/soft to capitalize
on the wishbone bone setup (the bad springs were too slow and couldn't
get the wishbone suspension to push-out the wheels fast enought when
corning, which would mess up the left/right transition). The Pro-Kit
springs I had installed on my 98 Hatch were progressive and only
dropped the car by an inch (so, my ground clearance was on par with
most stock car). Also, the progression on the springs was nicely done,
so I still got the stock ride.

When I sold 98 Hatch at 300,000km, the Tockico shocks had 270,000km on
them, but the car's handling was still within about 5% of perfection. I
realy think it's the springs and not the shocks that was the bigger
factor. And once you got the right springs, the swaybars become
unnecessary (specificaly for the wishbone setup on 00 Civic Hatch, I
doubt it's the same case for the other models).

Pars

 

interesting. i'm not interested in dropping my car*, so i'll have to
look into coilovers to keep stock height if i go with progressive
springs since i can find none which are stock height. not wild about
that idea, so it's back burner for now.

back in the day, sway bars were the way to go. today, it seems there's
two very distinct schools of thought on that subject. old farts like me
didn't have access to the real wide low-pro tires we do today, so there
had to be a technical solution. sway bars were it. personally, i like
the way they improve the ride, particularly on transitions. and it
seems that i can consistently out-corner the ricer kiddiez in what looks
like a bone stock beaten up old banger, which pleases me no end. but no
doubt, big rubber has advantages. big rubber /and/ sway bars?!?!

* attracts attention of the cops in my neighborhood. no joking, if
there's 10 cars going the same speed through this one neighborhood, the
ricer is the one that gets pulled over. every time. not even funny.

 

With the old Civic Hatch, it's not just the police that's returning the
unwanted attention, It's also the insurance company. My New 07 Yaris is
costing me about the same amount to insure, as the old 98 Civic Hatch.

The only problem with a solid swaybar and fat tires is once they brake
loose. Good luck on trying to catch it. On the Streets, I've found that
the car's ability to come back, after being forced out of controll
(usually by a third party, or idiocy) is more important.

Pars