A question regarding Japanese suspension tuning

[BeQuietAndDrive]

It is common knowledge that many Japanese tuners of FF cars, such as Spoon Sports, for example, employ higher spring rates in the front than in the rear of the car. This is generally backwards from the American and European tuning philosophy of higher rates in the rear of front wheel drive cars.

I read yesterday that the Japanese reasoning is that by running stiffer rates in the front, which would generally induce understeer, the car is able to have it's ride height lowered further, lowering center of gravity and improving handling.

Is there any reasoning to that? I read this online, so I am not sure of it's accuracy. The only reasoning I can gather for higher rates in front for front drive cars is because of more weight being up front, and thus encouraging balance.

[Loren]

Most aftermarket kits are biased towards understeer, often with some slant towards comfort. Understeer for liability reasons, comfort for marketing reasons.

I think most FWD cars for purely competition purposes *might* do better with stiffer rear springs, but it's going to depend on other factors as well. I know from experience that you can bring a FWD car to "balance" without putting stiffer springs in the rear vs the front. Swaybars, alignment, ride height and tire size are other items you can play with.

But, you can't apply any of these generalities, or the ones you heard elsewhere to a specific car. They're all different. What works on an '89 Civic might not work on an '02 Focus or a '97 Saturn or whatever.

One thing is certain: You must maintain some suspension travel for good handling, especially on a street car. A lot of people lower their cars to the point of riding around on the bump stops in the name of improved handling... they'd be a lot better off 2" higher with appropriate spring rates and good damping.

[w0rd]

I think the original poster of this thread now runs a front stiff setup...
http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=845964

Here's a description of RTR cars from Smurf BNMS on Honda-Tech...
The RSX's run 800# front, 3000# rear, what looks like a 25mm front sway bar, and a 42mm rear, both I believe are hollow. The arms and rates of the bars are unknown. Also, the moton canister pressures are 280psi for the rear. The person I talked with said that they needed a tremendously stiff rear to get the car to rotate well, but didn't offer any sugesstions as to why, but stated that the integra's a used setup that was less extreme. On the other hand, the TSX's run 700 to 800, both front and rear, and depending on the driver, uses any where from a 1 inch to a fence post as a sway bar out back.

[BeQuietAndDrive]

Ah, awesome. That's the kind of information I was looking for. I was watching one of my Best Motoring video's today. It featured an Integra Type R tuned by Circuit Club. It ran 18 kg/mm springs in front, 12 kg/mm in the rear, once again the "higher in front"