What they called now? JRZ/Protrac suspension?

 

Cary, have you ever heard of ProPartsUSA in Canoga Park? I'm thinking Koni shocks and they are a Koni distributer and valving center. I don't need anything terribly fancy or expensive, just someone who knows what they're doing.

http://propartsusa.com/

-Steve

 

ProParts did corner balancing for my previous e36 M3, they did excellent job and very knowledgeable on race car!

 

The names stay the same. JRZ will be the road shock division and Protrac will focus on Rally and offroad so it will appear quite transparent on the JRZ side. A lot of things have already been addressed for the better. Looks like the mystry leaking problems could be gone. There is a new "Sport Touring" JRZ spring a shock package being finished up right now with a retail of around $2350 that should be getting released very soon.

I know of ProPart but have never worked with them so I don't have an opinion ... sorry.

 

I will second the mention of Johnson's in Torrance; they are well known in the area and have done work for me. Excellent and they will work with you to fine tune the suspension to your preference.

I have also used a gentleman named Mark Hergeshiemer of Hergeshiemer Motorsports in Lake Forest who did the suspension on my old 993 C2. He had jigs for the "Kinematic" 993 suspension and did a super job.

Lastly Andial of Santa Ana have done work on my TT and they are also excellent.

Any of the three would be recommended. What would be a factor is how "experimental" you were getting and that could color your choices.

 

Andial is stuck in the air cooled age, I would not go there for the newer cars.

 

New "Sport Touring"?

Springs and shocks only or fully adjustable coilover?

Can you share more info with us?

 

Sorry to leave that out. Yes, they are steel body front and rear, different "street" type seals, no canister but, still 15 positions for compression/rebound combo adjustment (one **** controls both)

 

id id get my car aligned at westend alignment in torrance, ca, the owner darrin.. does a lot of suspension work on porches in general.. only been to his shop once but i will definitely go again

 

Hey Gary,

The new "Sport Touring" is it going to look similar to this....(with remote reservoir)

 

HKE,

Those look like Triple adjustable aluminum racing shocks with silent block mounting at the bottom. They also have an adjustable billet anti roll bar mount.

The Sport Touring shocks will be without canisters and steel bodied with a fixed anti roll bar mount more like the PSS9 only higher quality, faster reacting, smoother and much more flexible.

They will look much different than the pictured JRZ's

 

When they gonna launch the Sport Touring kit?

That looks like something similar to Moton Clubsport!

 

Best is a pretty fleeting concept. The target is always moving. Obviously whoever sets up Alex Job's cars is pretty much at the top of the heep right now... but may not be by season's end.

Also, what exactly do you mean by setup? In my mind setup is a two part equation. The first part is "who sells the best stuff for model XYZ car". For the answer to this question, I usually look to the racer who is currently winning the most races in XYZ. I couldn't tell you who that is with regard to the 996 turbo. But, if you figure out who it is, then that person just might share information about what suspension bits they are running. (If not, check their car out while its in the pits. )

The second part of the equation is really up to you. You can have the absolute best parts put on your car, and still be slower than hell if you can't dial the setup in to suit your driving style, the tracks you run, etc.

There are some suspension guys who will actually do both 1 and 2 for you. Sometimes that can help if you're not great at 2. You kind of have to figure that one out for yourself. Any way, one of the best I've run across (who will do both) is Erik Messley of EMI racing in the LA/Orange County area. He mostly prepares Vipers for racing these days (for ex., Mumford's WC car). But, he's the kind of guy that can dial in just about any car.

 

When talking about “who” sets up a car like the Alex Job car, keep in mind there are the people that work on it but, there are the people that regulate what those people can and can’t do. Everything done to Alex’s car’s (which are owned by Porsche AG) is overseen and closely scrutinized by Norbert Singer and staff of Porsche Motorsport. I can assure you that not too many screws are turned without his blessing. And then, many of his decisions come from a company called OptimumG that is operated by Caude Rouelle that analysis all the data from the car. Regardless of whose final decision it is, the guy turning the wrenches is privy to a lot of information and undoubtedly absorbs a lot.

Now, while all of this who’s who of setup is very subjective I don’t get the Erik Messley craze. I’ve known of him for years and have had direct experiences with him as recently as about 6 months ago. I know a lot of people in the business and if you look back through this thread I don’t believe I’ve said a bad thing about anyone, however, when I hear the name Erik Messley, right or wrong, the only thing that comes to mind is complete and utter idiot. It amazes me that anyone would deal with more than once. I can give many poor examples of him but, not one good one.

We recently prototyped some bearings for a viper and the owner wanted Erik to align it The final assembly was done at the customers house and we were missing a couple spacers so I told him to tell Eric and figured he’d have something at his shop. Well, Eric was so flustered and confused that he refused to work on it. I’m not far from his shop so I offered to go down and he said he didn’t want me to see any of his secrets in his shop … what ever that meant. The owner needed the car for the weekend so, he had Erik write down the alignment specs and trucked it to Johnson’s alignment. I was then to go to Johnsons and show Steve what to do. I got there about an hour after the car did and without even knowing about the spacers, Steve had found it, fixed it and aligned it At that point his only concern was the alignment specs provide. Well, the specs where wrong and Eric blamed Steve and Steve had only done what he was told but, somehow Eric was the hero. I’m sorry but, even though he may be a very personable guy, he is a jerk and an idiot in my opinion. Every time I’ve ever heard him comment on anything it’s been either misleading or an outright lie. The only good work I’ve ever seen him produce cam directly from Clayton Cunningham, whom I introduced him to and I don’t believe will do anymore work for him. He also uses my fiberglass guy and has rented my molds indirectly and tells people my parts are junk. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken out about him but, I’ve heard a lot of things he’s said about others including myself. Even when he brings up that he’s a PK …. Be warned… he is bad news

As far as Mumford’s WC car, that was a factory car that all Eric did was check the tire pressure, Paul did the rest. Paul was a great guy and a very talented driver. What a shame it was to lose him. Just my $.02

 

Hi Cary,

I personally don't think it's really appropriate to trash a specific person (Messley) like this in a forum where he's not participating and doesn't have the chance to defend himself. But, it is done frequently on various message boards. So, maybe I'm in the minority.

Any way, I've found Erik to be knowledgeable and creative. He's also a very talented driver and knows how to set up a car. Whether he's the right person for Chad or not I don't know.

I obviously can't comment on your experiences with him either as I wasn't there. But, racers agree on who's good, what's the right setup, etc. about as often as economists agree on the 12 month ahead value of the SP500...

So, about all I can do is point to the fact that you refer to the "Erik Messley craze" - which implies to me he must be considered quite good by at least enough people to create a "craze"...