I have followed a similiar path as some of the others here with my Neon. I recently doubled my spring rate all the way around the car when I was at Sebring in Jan. My wheel rate was not doubled however because I was experimenting with sway bar combinations. The car felt great with more rate upfront, but the laps weren't any better. The conditions kept changing on us the whole weekend, which really was like a week since it was a double. The conditions made it hard to be scientific about the changes. All of this required that I have my already very expensive Dynamic shocks revalved. Fortunatly I have two sets of shocks, so I can have one valved for one spring rate and vise versa. The higher spring rate seems to work very well with mac strut front drivers. I also have lots of experience tuning Mustangs. They have a mac strut front and solid axle rear. They tend to not like lots of spring rate. Moral of the story is to keep an open mind about set up. Try not to get caught up in using half of one guys set up and half of another.

I also agree with many of the others who have steered you towards tires. I tell people all the time that the biggest bang for your buck will come from tires and seat time, in that order. With crap for tires you seat time will mean very little.