motodog

how much better are they compared to bilstien HD. they would be on a z51 sprung and bared 85 coupe. penskes are lots of $$ so i wanted opinions before spending my hard earned cash. thanks for all the input guys it really helps

drivinhard

Owner rebuildable, great support, first class quality construction, you're talking about a hand made CNC piece vs a mass produced unit, no comparison in quality. They do not have a "street car" division and a "race" division. If they build you dampers, it's by the same guy(s) that build their Indycar and NASCAR, sports car dampers. All this happens 30 ft from where they build their F1 hardware. You don't play in F1 unless you know what the heck your doing

63Corvette

However, from your post I would assume that you are planning on putting them on a street car, and I'm not sure that the Penske shocks are a cost effective solution to your suspension problems. Most people here on the Forum recommend the Bilstein SPORT shock over the Bilstein HD (for street Corvettes with track aspirations). My personal opinion is that suspension should be treated as a "package" and thus all of the components (shocks, springs, bushings, and sway bars) should be engineered to work together......like the GM "T1" package.

rasrboy

and second that 100%.

BrianCunningham

What are you doing with the car?
autocross?
road race?
Will it see street use?

I went with their adjustables because I plan on driving it on the street.

John Shiels

T-1 in 1985? Dollars could probably be spent wiser on the 1985 for improved performance.

motodog

70-80% street, 15-20% autocross, 1-5% road race. the main reason i was looking into the penske non adj was tuning. mx, sx, gp setup was a time consuming job. example? set rider sag= how much the bike sinks in its travel. this is a millimeter thing, the differance between two millimeters can be worlds in stability and cornering. next is static sag= when the bike sits wheels on the ground, again how much the bike sinks in its travel, this is a millimeter thing as well, and guides a base line spring rate for the rider. then we ride it. this is where all the magic happens= whats happining? is the bike working or not does it deflect off of a garden hose or blow through the stroke like it was dropped off a hi-rise building?. then we start to valve it, and there are a million different shim combo's to get to the holy grail of what works best for you. after forever, you settle on a base valve, then there's oil height in the forks with a compression adj and a rebound adj. going to deep on any of these adj"s will bring you back into the base valve tuning again so you have room to fine tune as track conditions change. then the rear, no oil height to deal with but you have a hi-speed compression= fast hits to the shock shaft, and a low-speed compression= jump landings, pre loading or packing the bike on jump faces. then rebound adj= the shock has to be able to compress on a hit then rebound or "re-****" for the next hit. to slow on the rebound and it will "pack" the shock in the mid-stroke, if the rebound is set too fast it will kick. all of this is just the begining of getting a setup done. also with the setup it has to be able to transmit so you can "feel" whats happining without it being vague or harsh. again this is just the front half of a suspension setup for me. knowing this by narrowing my tuning range by way of a non adj shock, spring rates "stock z51 non adj" i guess the only thing i would have to tune would be my sway bar?. i have never tuned suspension for a car before. non adj keeps me from going way off in left field and gives more seat time untill i know what i am doing as a driver ect. with all that said LOL i want to know if i am going in the right direction or not. Thanks Travis

mountainbiker2

I would talk to Guy Ankeny. He has setup many National winning autocross cars. Easy to talk to and always returns phone messages. 818 279-1338

Steve A.