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I own a 2001 1.7 Civic vtec and I’ve noticed many times that the road holding and steering aren’t very good. My Civic is has had no mods apart from a body kit and I’m thinking about making the suspension and steering firmer.
I don’t want to lower the car or put on bigger, wider wheels, so what can I do to really improve road holding? Any advice welcome.

 
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For starters you might look into lowering the car only 1 inch or so. I know you don't want to lower but that will help with handling and won't affect your ride quality or your body kit. You can try to get RSX-S springs or Eibach prokit. To improve handling you can start with a front sway bar (neuspeed would probably be the best choice). Then upgrade your front and rear sway bars. If you get a rear sway bar above 19mm you NEED to get a rear tie bar also. Progress has a nice set of front and rear sway bars. You can also get a rear strut bar, but that won't do as much as the aforementioned. Hmmm. Other than that you can get a Neuspeed or Tanabe front under brace which will hold the car chassis pretty stiff. If you are confused about any of this let me know.

 
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Got loads of speed ramps where I live, so lowering even 1 inch is out of the question. Will better springs improve things?

 
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i am not sure if there exists OEM style springs with custom spring rates. You can try Si or RSX springs to see if those work. The higher the spring rate the more force it takes to push it down. So when taking turns in a 100lb spring rate will be softer than a 200lb spring rate. The higher the spring rate the less your chassis has to flex and it will improve handling. Finding springs that are OEM height but have a higher spring rate might be hard.

 
Rep Power: 380

For starters Strengthin the Chassis, get a Front upper strut bar to elimiate shock tower flex. as far as springs are concerned, If you dont want to Lower the car, get a set of full adjustible coilovers. This will allow you to have a higher spring rate, and better shock absorbers and still retain stock ride height. Hondas, especially Civics are nitorious for having a "Dead Zone" when it comes to Steering imput. You can make the civic have much more responsive steering if you disconect the Power steering. Of course then you wont have power steering.

 
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Absolutely get the front upper strut bar, I got the Neuspeed version and it dramatically improved the steering.

If lowering it is out of the question get the Neuspeed X-brace too, with these 2 pieces you'll see a dramatic improvement on the next ramp you take. I added the rear upper strut bar to complete the setup.

Result is: no drop, no real loss of ride quality, much more sporty car.

 
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also get an rsx-s rear anti-sway bar, it helps a lot too or if ur looking for a thicker size, try the progress or neuspeed one but you will need a lower tie bar if you get one of those two

 
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I have an LX with no rear sway bar, and likely I would get more performance from adding the rear sway bar first, then the rear upper strut. But I really hate chassis flex with a passion. I want my car to be rock solid, like a BMW. The strut bars and the X brace really moved the car a lot closer to BMW-type driving performance. I'm not saying it is close to BMW driving experience, just that it is much closer then before... Anywayz, the other things to consider:
when tokico's "blues" come out take a look at those, and of course get some good performance tires.