Springs are integral to your suspension set up. They control the vehicle’s ability to bounce, absorb bumps and create low body roll when loaded. Higher spring rates require more force to compress the spring, which reduces the amount of suspension travel. The body of your car moves when you accelerate, brake and turn. By reducing body movement, you make handling more predictable and effectively spread the cornering load across all four tires leading to better grip.
Most aftermarket coilovers use significantly stiffer springs than OEM suspension, which improves handling and gives the driver more feel for the road and their car when performing spirited driving.
Spring rates are determined by the amount of pressure that it takes to compress the spring 1”. If your spring rate is 300 lbs. per spring, that means the springs will compress 1” per 300 lbs. of load. If you add another 300 lbs. to the springs, the spring will compress another inch to which the load on the spring is 600 lbs. while the rate of the spring stays its constant 300 lbs. per inch.
The ideal spring rate is different for each application. Drag racing, street driving, or drifting, the suspension you choose will change your car’s performance. The selected coilover application changes internal shock valving to match the modified spring rate desired. Our Kontrol Pro Coilovers for example, use stiffer springs overall which, in conjunction with our monotube design damper, significantly improves handling. If you’re in need of stiffer suspension, we offer a wide range of variations of spring rates built to handle specific uses such as drifting, drag racing, rally, auto-cross and more.