Tyson,

Are you also thinking about Moton/JRZ/Protrac triple adjustable?

 

I had KW v1 on my previous car, they are more for street car! I also heard they just launch their competition and double adjustable with remote reservoir line in US, I really want to see one of those in person.

 

It's being considered, but there is much better stuff coming our way soon. But it will also be far more expensive.

 

Tyson,

Do you think Protrac single is more than enough for street/track?

Simon

 

Probably, since it is 15-way adjustable.

 

Hmmm.......Totally forgot about Moton Clubsport......

 

I for one don't care about tracking a 911 turbo. I buy cars to do what I want with them no matter what anyone says, and for me, acceleration in a nice package like the 911 turbo would give me the most fun everyday.

If you just want to track, why not get an elise?

 

Chad,

The most difficult part about this question is the fact that “setup� is very subjective making it very hard to measure. While it’s an art to get to the high horsepower and torque figures, it’s easy to measure and repeat if once it’s accomplished. Then afterwards, pretty much anyone can “point it straight and pull the trigger.� Good handling differs from one driver to another by taste and driving style. I've done extensive setup for many very good drivers over lots of years and have never met one that didn’t want to change the others setup just a little. Asking, who is the best is much different then asking who makes the most power. I know and have work with all the people (with the exception of Stuart) mentioned in this tread so far and can say all of them are good in their own way. Your question is like asking who builds the “best� engine and most people will jump to say who has made the most power which wasn’t the answer to the question asked.

When you ask who is the best, what are you looking for? What is your criteria? Regardless of weather you use springs from 200 lb up to 1600 lb plus, the cars can handle well. The most important part is balancing the package. Example if you use softer rather than stiffer rear spring and depending on the ride height you want, you need to take the camber gain at that height into consideration and preset the rear bump steer rate accordingly. That will help determine your static toe setting. Now, if you change tires, pressures or driving conditions you’ll need to refigure and change everything again.

Having proper equipment (and I’m not talking about laser alignment racks) is obviously important but, more important is someone that knows how do more than just align a car well. I’ve found very few people that can read tires and way too many people that think you need equal tire temp all the way across to make a car work. Side wall roll is directly effected by the G force so, someone that doesn’t produce as much force in a corner won’t need as much static negative camber as someone that produces more G’s in the same car with radial tires.

Now, not to beat up on Hamann7 but, having driver adjustable shocks for the average guy is pretty much like have a fuel mixture **** and boost control **** that goes to 2 bar … bad idea. Actually driver adjustable shocks have been around for sometime. I drove a car several years back with driver adjustable JRZ’s. However, the reason for it was not for the driver but rather the engineers in the pits. The car had telemetry which allowed a real time data acquisition connection to the engineers in the pits. They could track all kinds of things like real time tire temps which are very different from tire temps in the pits. Most importantly though, was the ability to do shock speed histograms and radio the setting to the driver. Later on, they changed it so they actually adjusted the shocks from the pits and the driver didn’t have to touch anything.

Also Carrera has a driver adjustable shock that is magnetically adjusted. It’s primarily for drag racing.

 

I am way interested in this thread but without my car, can add nothing. Sorry but don't interpret my silence as disinterest. Pleas keep up the discussion. Also Chad and Tyson, can you two please comment about your suspension upgrade history, with reasons, results, costs, ...

Thanks.

 

Cary,

I agree that a suspension has to set up for a specific track or what you want it to do on the street. On the other hand, given the same car, a suspension tweeked by Greg Fordahl, in most cases would be faster than the names listed above.

Just out of curosity, does that name mean anything to anyone? What race team does he set the cars suspension up for during the race season?

In addition, what does everyone believe the cost is to race prep the 996tt/GT2, not including parts?

Tyson,

Yes there is a better suspension. It is the new four way adjustable which incorporates two way rebound.

 

Darren at West End Alignment seem to be very knowlegable and his prices are very fair.

 

Chad,

I do not know if your question re Greg Fordahl was basically rhetorical in nature or not, but Fordahl works with the Alex Job team last I heard.

 

Cary, I have my reasons for wanting the driver adjustable suspension. It is NOT so that I can screw around with it. It is so that my suspension guy can reprogram on the fly at the track OR so that he can set 3 preset modes, where I can just hit a memory button depending on road conditions. Obviously it is not as precise as specifically setting up for each track, but it is better than running one setting all the time.

You don't even know me, so how can you just assume it is a bad idea for ME? You make quite an assumption there.

Chad, I am sure Greg Fordahl is very, very good if he is with Alex Job, but how can you assume that his setups are automatically faster? Do you have any basis to prove this? Especially, when you've not dealt with many of the people mentioned in this thread?

And while the 4-way adjustable JRZ's sound great, that's not where I was headed. I'm thinking Ohlins, which I believe is superior to JRZ/Moton/Protrac.

 

The best for the job is going to have to have 3 criteria.

1) Be very knowledgable about suspensions and physics in general

2) Be knowledgable about the car he is working on

3) Be knowledgable about the driver's driving style.

A suspension perfectly set up for the way Chad drives may or may not be set up right for me. In fact it could be even worse than stock.

 

I remember a magazine story a few years ago where Micheal Andretti was matched against Al Unser, Jr in some street sports car comparos . One wanted all street cars to understeer, the other wanted all to oversteer , like their respective racers , so even drivers at that level have a style/set up that suits them best .