H&R owners, I got a question

[thebox]

I just replaced my H&Rs for Ground Controls. When I first installed my H&Rs I can't say I paid a lot of attention to how close the spring coils came to each other when i sat the car back down, so maybe I just never noticed it... but when i installed the GCs I noticed the H&R spring coils were damn near sitting on top of each other even with the car sitting still (front coils). The rear coils were sitting close together too but not as much so. Is that normal or did something go horribly wrong? It rode fine in my opinion and never felt like something was wrong, nor did it even make a lot of noise. Any thoughts?

[Mradio]

I have H&R's on my car, and I have the same problem. The coils are just too close to each other. They make some noises when going over bumps as well...
How are your Ground control springs? Much different?

[thebox]

Yes the ground controls are awesome, I got rates of 300f 250r. It makes a remarkable difference, even compared to the H&R springs which are pretty good. I enjoyed the H&Rs but I absolutely love the GCs.

[992mmx3]

Hey, cool a WA. state owner. This is a good post as I'm deciding where to go with my suspension set up right now and almost went with the H&R's, maybe I'll wait up and do some more research on this later.

[thebox]

I'm actually like 20 minutes outside of Federal Way =) Dude if you have money buy GCs. They are worth every penny. It would be worth waiting for if that helps. I bought the H&Rs because I was kinda in a rush to make my car look better but in the end, I wanted a better suspension set-up, so I bought the GCs anyway . I should have listened to a post I once read on this board that said something to the effect of do it right the first time.
P.S. Nice to know theres someone else around me who is on this board, I never thought I'd see that. =)

[Orange-GSR]

you guys should come up for a mx-west meet i would love to see your cars and the GC
check out our board in this fourm

[Sam Baker]

got one question.. how is the ride? is it less bumpy with GC springs? because i'm trying to find better springs (also have the close coils problem with Dropzone).. lookin for smoother riding springs. thanx dude
~ sam

[Mazdaracer]

I have the MX3 H&Rs on my Protege, i switched from Eibach. Much better than the Eibach's, but i too am going to go with GC's. I need the better spring rates to keep up with these local hot shoes The H&Rs ride pretty rough (well, with ES poly bushings anyway) and they do work pretty well for autox, but the rears are just too soft.

The H&Rs are 200# front and 180# rear (but i've been told more like 160#) I was going to go for the same 300#/250#, but i may step it up to 350#/300#. Also, i'd suggest 12" frts and 10" rear spring lengths for a racing application, and 10" frt 8" rear for street cruisers so you can go lower.

Oh, and yes, the coils are close together on my Protege, the bottom few have some breathing room, but the tops are slammed. And they do make noise over some bumps.

note: i use the Ford ZX2 S/R Tokico struts.

<small>[ September 25, 2003, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: Mazdaracer ]</small>

[thebox]

Sam: I got the GCs with rates of 300f 250r which is stiff, so it is a *worse* ride than the H&Rs were, but I enjoy my stiff spring handling, so in my opinion the roughness doesn't matter at all.
Since you seem to want a pretty smooth ride, you should consider GC anyway, because when you order them you can tell them what spring rates you want, and I'm assuming they would prolly give you a soft spring if you ask for it, it would be worth looking into. =)