wayland1985

My awesome wife went ahead and bought me some Hotchkiss lowering springs from Strano. My cousin has them on his, and she knows I love the way his stands, so she went ahead and bought them for me for Christmas.

Now, I made the mistake of reading a thread here a few days ago where Sam said the Hotchkis rates are far from ideal.

So I'm wondering how they compare to the stock rates?

Right now I'm on Koni shocks (lower mount in the front), and hose mod in the rear. I feel it has too much rear lean....which is why I was looking for springs.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

They are stiffer, and lower than what you have. They aren't the world's worst springs by any means. They just aren't what I wanted myself, so I made what I wanted.

Lots of folks have them and are happy. Some folks have changed from them to mine and like mine better as the car is firmer without being harsh. It's all a matter of degrees.

Stock is 292/115 or so. These are 285-525 (never 525 until the end, never 285 when driving, just somewhere in between), rears are 100-140. Rears are never 100 when driving, only 140 near max compression.

Mine are 550 rate in front all the time. Rears are 100-150, but I wound them specifically so the soft rate is taken up by the static weight of the car, and they go right to the 150 rate dynamically. Doesn't sound like much difference but it does make a difference. Mostly I wanted the rear a bit firmer the front quite a bit firmer. Not everyone has the same opinion. You could certainly do worse for springs.

wayland1985

Thanks, Sam for chiming in.

I wasn't sure what to expect with these. I guess I'll know for sure this summer. Sounds to me like it could be a mixed bag...

I'm stuck with what she bought, so hopefully I like them.

I thought about going with your springs last summer, but the fact that they lower the car so much was a bit of a worry for me (which is why I went with the koni's and hose mod instead).

Any way, Sam, that you could PM me what you think I should use as a starting point setting for the Koni's with the Hotchkis springs?

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

uh... lower the car "so much"? Really they are pretty similar to what you got. If you compare pics of theirs and mine on cars, not a lot different in actuality.

My springs don't slam the car, and because of stuff like this and the fact ALL springs can only tell you approximate drops (in no small part because there are so many different stock springs), I don't even put a number on them anymore. There are enough pics out there of cars on my springs and a picture is worth a thousand words sometimes.

As for the shock settings, best to call me on that. 5 minutes and happy to do that for customer!

wayland1985

Sounds great! I'll give you a ring sometime closer to when I instal them (the 10foot snowbanks in my driveway will have to melt before I get under the car!!)

I guess I wouldn't say "so much" but instead I think the fact that you couldn't promise a number scared me (but I completey understand why you wouldn't with the amount of variables in these cars).

Also, I was looking at many of the pictures... some of them look perfect, others looked a little too low for my liking (but again, it's hard to tell if those lower ones had different shocks, hose mods, etc).

In any case: the wife pulled the trigger and I have some springs to try out!

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

I hear you, it's not nice in PA right now either.

I don't make promises I can't keep, and I don't make generalizations for an easy sale, I leave that to others.

Also different tire sizes, some people have "lowering" a-arms, put 100 pounds of stereo crap in the back of any of these cars on any spring and it'll sit lower than a car without, etc. I'll be you money your car doesn't drop exactly 1" with those springs installed vs. whatever the height is right now. I used to call them 1.2" springs, but I got real tired of someone calling and saying it lowered them 1/8" more or less than that.

What we don't do is deck the cars. And we use more spring rate than say Hotchkis or Eibach does so the weight is better supported in motion. Team that with good shocks and well it's not usually a problem unless you have crappy fitting headers or 8" high speedbumps.