I'm sure most TSX owners know how badly the front end hops when trying to launch the car. I've had the wheel hop problem when the car was stock, as well as it was lowered with Neuspeed springs and Konis. I recently replaced the Neuspeed springs with Eibach sportline which lowered the front a little more, perhaps also increased the spring rates. Two weeks ago I took the car to an empty parking lot where someone has marked a few large circles. I believe people were doing skid pad testing as numerous tire marks around the circles. But anyway, I did some suspension tuning with the Koni adjustments and finally got it to steer quite confidently around the circles. I ended up setting the rear a little firmer than the front. It was understeering quite a bit before the adjustments.
Today I did a few hard launches and was very surprised that the wheel hops that I normally experienced is now gone! First I thought maybe the ground was wet when I did the first launch, so I drove to another spot where the ground was completely dry. I disabled VSA, rev to approx 3K rpm, then released (not dump) the clutch, while floored the gas pedal. Normally, this is when the wheels will start to hop but not this time! The rpm went to redline very quickly and the car didn't move very much in first gear, but the car was not shaking or hopping like before. My initial thought was... shit! I just slipped my clutch! When I turned the car around and saw two strips of tire marks on the ground about 20 feet long, I had to repeat the test to verify. So, I did another 5 launches back to back with the same results, long strips of tire marks without wheel hops! I guess the suspension tuning did help with launches as well. The interesting thing was this guy in his truck stopped and asked me if the car was fast. I said why? He said he saw the burn out and wonder if I can do it again. So, obviously I granted his wishes.

Btw, two tires spinning doesn't mean it has LSD. I wish it did though.

 

Nice work JTso!

Did you make a note of your settings in case you need to replicate them?

 

Yes, I did. The initial Koni settings were 1 turn F & R. I later set them to 5/8 turn F & R to obtain comfortable ride on the street, and finally set them to 3/4 F 7/8 R for balance between comfort and handling.

 

Ok, noted.

 

Umm, just to be sure I am understanding this correctly, it prevented the car from hopping around, what about the torque steer. I don't get so much wheel hop, rather, I get crazy amounts of torque steer.

 

I didn't notice torque steer but then again, with tires spinning like that, it's a sign of poor traction. I still have to work on getting good launches without spinning much. Otherwise, spinning tires in place won't set any records.

 

good find. I expected that having a stiff rear helps w/ wheel hop and launching. I believing FWD dragsters pretty much have stiff shocks in the rear to keep the front of the car planted. The only reason I want Tein & EDFC is to tighten up the rear wheels a ton when I'm racing, which should greatly decrease understeer

 

I was thinking about softening up the settings on my Konis too but i was afraid that i would start bottoming them out if I did that, right now i have them on 1 full turn and sometimes the ride is alittle too stiff. maybe i should play around with them some more huh.