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RE: Springs
Ben, the spring rates actually get higher when you compress more.. the shorter the height of the spring, the harder you have to push to make it EVEN shorter... When you catch sight of spring rates on aftermarket springs, that's what they're telling you, is the average pressure necessary to compress the spring a given distance.
That said - Your calculation is about correct for what I know of most OEM small car springs... they're never more than 200lb/in.
One thing you could look into is just using springs from another small car that are *slightly* longer, and the car is slightly heavier... that would give you more preload once they're installed. You could also preload your stock springs (insert measured washers above them), but you'd have less travel in your suspension from doing so.
What you're probably going to end up being comfortable with is a set of *GOOD* adjustable coilovers, which you can usually find cheap on places like Craigslist or similar.
You can find very cheap ones on ebay which will last you a good time until you figure out exactly what you want to do weight-wise, they're about $60 shipped. You can get them from a Civic, Eclipse (some), Neon (hint hint stock springs hint hint) and several other cars, as they're "basically" universal blanks that are cut from a 300-400 lb spring stock.
You'll want to pay close attention to your stock ride height though. If you sag too much, you'll need even stiffer springs, or you'll certainly pop your shocks. Running too stiff of a spring will also wear on the shocks, so keep it as light as what will handle your load, or get better shocks. (Koni makes decent shock/coilover kits that will probably work for you if you can do some light modding.)
One thing you can do to make your car feel less "bleh" in the suspension is just to get a slightly stiffer sway bar. This will also help distribute sudden bumps and shocks across the suspension, so that one corner isn't taking all the abuse of a hit, and there's some distance to absorb part of the initial shock.
If you can find cheap progressive rate coils, that would be your best bet... they keep a standard spring rate until they are compressed, at which point the spring rate begins to multiply by a factor of compression. You can tell these springs from others by the winding, as they're not all the same depth/diameter per coil.
I hope this helps a bit, good job so far on the car Ben. Keep it up!
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