The Honda City was launched a few years ago as a regional model, specifically designed for the South-East Asia market. Based on the Honda Domani Japanese Domestic Market model, the City quickly gain a big market as its relatively affordable price allowed many people to enjoy their first Honda.
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The City first appeared with a 1.3l SOHC PGM-Fi engine with max power of 95ps at 6400rpm. Later, a 1.5l SOHC PGM-Fi engine was introduced, delivering 105ps. In fact, both engines are being used on the current EK-generation Civics in Japan, the 1.5l engine being a variant of the D15B and is currently used in the mid of the range EK3 Civic Ferio Mi in Japan. |
Two year ago, Aerotech evaluated the Honda City's suspension and subsequently felt it was inadequate. With both stock springs and absorbers considered too soft, Aerotech found that a City tends to wallow and roll a lot through turns. In addition, the steering input was not precise making turn-ins vague and sloppy. Finally, there was also a mild tendency to '3-wheel' (ie one wheel lift off the road) when cranked sharply into a corner. As a result, Aerotech decided to invest in a research project to design an Eibach Pro-Kit Performance Spring set for the Honda City.
The picture at the top shows the result of the project. The spring on the left are for the rear suspension and that on the right for the front suspension. These Eibach springs are variable rate springs. Made to be used with the stock absorbers, Aerotech said the final spring rates were very difficult to settle on because the stock absorbers had too little damping for both bump and rebound. The front springs are designed to lower the car by 15mm while those for the rear will lower it by 25mm. An immediate query was of course made on the discrepancy of the amount of lowering between the front and rear springs. Aerotech replied that the springs had to be designed to lower the car this way in order to avoid the possibility of a rear wheel lifting off the road when a City is flicked hard into a turn.
The project took two whole years to complete. Three batches of prototypes were made in the U.S. and total testing time which includes waiting time for manufacturing of new prototypes took the best part of 1.5 years before getting the final product shown here !
There were no City for Aerotech to demonstrate the benefits of the spring or the failings of the stock suspension. However, if any TOVA readers driving a Honda City are interested to upgrade their springs to Eibach Pro-Kit Performance Springs, you can contact Aerotech at 03-7556112. Be sure to write in to tell us your experience !