Buddy Club N+ Spec Coilovers - Sport Compact Car Magazine

SPC Performance's toe and camber links use either hard rubber or heim mounting points. Both have less slop and better free play in multiple directions. The links also offer easier precise alignment adjustments with its threaded length adjustable bodies.

SPC Performance's toe and camber links use either hard rubber or heim mounting points. Bot

Back then, people wanted lowered looks more than functionality, so they opted for the functionally oxymoron combination of super short springs that were still soft enough for street use. Race cars could afford to be so low because they run ridiculous spring rates for pothole free racetracks. The super short stroke springs on street cars also made whatever stock-length damper they were mounted on operate in the nearly compressed range of its stroke, causing bottoming issues and blown seals.

Instead of hunting around for the right spring and damper combination, we're just going to use an affordable entry-level street coilover system. Buddy Club's N+ Spec coilover system is the company's entry-level coilover with adjustable body length and spring pre-load, pillow-ball mounts and 16-way rebound damping adjustment. It provides a simple bolt-on suspension solution that takes the guessing out of shock lengths and spring rates.

Project Budget Integra Polyurethane Ball Joint

Castor is adjusted by rotating the new polyurethane ball joint into specified detents designed in the mounting. By rotating the offset ball joint, the angle of the axis that the front hubs rotate about is changed, which changes castor. Sliding the ball in and out compensates for the camber angle.

Castor is adjusted by rotating the new polyurethane ball joint into specified detents desi

Out of the box, the kit comes on 12kg/mm and 6kg/mm front and rear springs, as well as helper springs for droop travel. Without looking at motion rations the front-spring rates are twice that of the rear, so there's more spring in front since the stock car's weight distribution is 64/36. Since the kit is designed specifically for the DC2 and has an adjustable body casing, we don't have to worry too much about if we have sufficient suspension stroke.

We adjusted the spring perches so they touch the bottom helper spring while the suspension is unloaded. This is to ensure that we have full droop travel at each corner. Once installed in the car, the weight of the car will compress the helper springs to full bind and the weight of the car will be supported by the main springs, which will compress slightly. During cornering, when the inner rear suspension fully extends, it's the helper spring that provides the force to plant the unloaded tire on the ground. If you waited for gravity to overcome the rebound damping resistance and put the inner rear tire on the ground, it would take too long.

Cranking the spring perches up to the helper spring when the suspension is unloaded also helps to make sure there is enough compression length. Because of the moderately soft street spring rates, the suspension will compress over a bump more than stiffer springs. If the perches were set far lower than the spring height (again, with the suspension unloaded), much of the compression length is used up once the weight of the car is on the suspension.

Make sure the new thicker control arm has the right amount of sweep as the suspension travels. There is a chance that the arm might come in contact with the wheelwell seam.
Make sure the new thicker control arm has the right amount of sweep as the suspension trav
Even though we kept the front antiroll bar, we took some of the slop out with heim and polyurethane joints on the end links. The stock bar mounting bushings were also replaced with Energy Suspension bits to reduce bind and slop.
Even though we kept the front antiroll bar, we took some of the slop out with heim and pol
Our entry-level Buddy Club N+ Spec coilovers are both body length and spring preload adjustable. Helper springs are used to take up droop travel due to the relatively stiff spring rates the kit comes with. Even when adjusted to full height, the coilovers still come up shorter than the stock hardware. We ended up having to adjust the front spring perches further up, and thus adding some spring pre-load) in order to get the front suspension to sit higher and avoid wheel rub when the steering is cranked all the way over.
Our entry-level Buddy Club N+ Spec coilovers are both body length and spring preload adjus

Ride height was increased to the maximum with the adjustable length shock bodies. We maxed out the ride height at its highest we could, while still having enough thread engagement (at least the width of the threaded shock housing) on the aluminum lower shock mounts. We needed the ground clearance since this is a daily street car. Keeping the ride height just a little lower than stock also lets the control arms sweep in a range they were originally designed to operate in. Since the Buddy Club coilovers are already shorter than the stock dampers, the car was lowered by about an inch overall. We ended up adjusting the front perches slightly higher and preloading the front springs in order to gain just a little more ride height and clearance in the front. This also helped add a little more wheelwell to inner sidewall clearance since there is less static camber when the car is higher.

Antiroll Bars or Not?
The final portion to address is the roll rate. Most people think that less roll means more lateral grip. This only works if the tires have enough camber; more than you should run on a street car. More often than not, most people put the biggest antiroll bar onto a car they can find and end up losing cornering grip since there isn't enough suspension compliance to let each tire do its work. Instead, having no roll overpowers the outside tires and makes the inside tires useless since it can't stay planted on the ground.