TPSMak

Matt,

OP actually bought the kit from me and didn’t receive any sponsorship or discount for the product he purchased from me

flash911

For the record: Tom is as good and honest a guy as you will meet in this hobby.

Period.

Dropspeed

Thanks for the replies as that is good enough for me!

As mentioned, I worked in the performance aftermarket for 10 years in a role that I had relationships with 75+ companies prior to moving to the OEM side of the world. The stories I could tell you about claims, misrepresentation (lies) and deceitful behavior has (unfortunately) made me a skeptic when products appear at a reasonable cost and actual perform the way they should.

I am glad these are working as claimed and will seriously consider these in place of the LGs I have been planning on picking up this winter.

Thank you,
Matt

Tomswheels

Thanks Ron, it’s always a pleasure racing you!

I’m not 100% sure what could be mis-represented, the race results are the results.

The subjective part of my review is how well the Aldan Coilovers ride. Maybe people don’t believe an American company is capable of producing a quality product at a low price point, but they seem to have done a nice job here.

I introduced myself to the owner of Aldan, Garrett, because he was at the V8builds Autocross and I thought he might like to know how much I was enjoying setting TTOD on his product. He never asked me for anything other than to keep him advised on what he could do to help make the product better.

555ss

Sorry I missed this yesterday.
NHMS south oval and Chicane/Chicane. we run all around New england but this testing was at NHMS, I beat the car pretty hard and have run 2.02.49 at WGI long course with a stock engine.. I have run this C5Z for 8 - 9 years so I know how it handles.
I put the OTHER MANUFACTURERS shocks on it and 4-5 laps in the back was loose and bouncing and bottoming out, came in and got in trunk jumped up and down, car had almost 0 dampening. sent shocks back they tested refilled and we tried it again same issue also tried using a softer and harder setting this only moved the fade +/- alap or so. Pulled the shocks at the track and put on used bilsteins and it was way better. They finally refunded the $. the shocks were hot to the touch but not really crazy hot. But when cold jump in the trunk they were tight full dampening. This OTHER shock Co. makes a pretty good drag shock I use them in the front of my SS but as a R/R shock they sucked and when asked they said they should be fine.
I went to the T1 shock and have a bunch of fastest laps of the day my issue now is the T1's are getting tired and I really don't want to spend the $ for penske's.

jumpmanmb87

Anymore experience's? or only three people run these coils?

TPSMak

Send me a Email to Mikem@TPSMotorsports.com and I can send you some references of our customers who have used them. Most of our customers DON'T go onto forums much. We are Aldan's largest reseller and can take care of you

TPSMak

I would give the Aldan's a try... you won't be disappointed. The units you had, QA1, are NOT the same shock as the Aldan's... we've had nothing but great reviews from customers about them. Give them a try and you'll be VERY happy with them

96GS#007

Just to confirm...

Looks like adjusting the compression (F) and rebound (R) requires the wheels be pulled? Not a big deal, just checking.

Would also like the thoughts of going with 550lb (F) / 600lb (R) setup. Specifically, I use the car as a semi-daily driver so although ride is subjective, just how "stiff" would this be vs the stock leafs? Subjectively is it a 20% firmer ride or a 50% firmer ride or ? Digging through some old threads, it looks like the wheel rate will be substantially higher than stock.

Having said the above, on my '96 I had double adjustable Koni shocks and changing shock settings led to quite a difference in ride.

Tomswheels

You can adjust both front and rear with the wheels on the car, but it helps to at least Jack it up in the rear so I can fit my arm between top of tire and fender.

I’m coming from Koni Yellows to the Aldan Coil Overs and the ride is hugely improved in the stock stiffness settings with the 600/550lb setup I run. You can soften them more and make it even more luxurious but I haven’t tried that. There is no way my 77yo Dad would have made it from Lincoln NE to San Diego on those Konis, no matter what setting they were on. That is the biggest benefit I see from the Aldans, the ability to go fast and ride nice, compared to any racy leaf/shock setup.

96GS#007

Thanks Tom!

Two more quick questions....How is the ride height adjusted and can that adjustment be performed without needing to remove the shocks? I'm assuming the more I would compress the spring, the higher the ride height.

I've never had coilovers before, so I'm trying to make sure I understand all the subtleties.

Tomswheels

Jim they supply a wrench with the Coilovers that allow you to adjust height with them on the car. There are threads on the shock housing that allow the bottom of the spring to be moved about two inches. Technically you are not compressing the spring, just moving where on the shock it is positioned. I just did this last Sunday test fitting some 355/30/19 on back. Takes just a couple minutes.

96GS#007

Tom,
Did you corner weight your car? If so, did you do it or take it somewhere in LA that you can recommend? I can do the install but will need a shop to corner weight the car for me.

a_ahmed

any updates i know its winter lol

Tomswheels

Perfect timing, just finished 1st event last weekend. The NMCA Nitto Autocross is a 4 race series held on the bigger lot at the Autoclub Speedway in Fontana this year, and there were some very fast cars there for the opener. Very few offseason changes for my 02 C5Z, still Stock drivetrain with Aldan American Coilovers and a larger Strano front bar. Upgraded to urethane control arm bushings this year. 315/335 Rival S. Finished 3rd Fastest (out of 80 cars) both days. Lost to Jake in his Lingenfelter sponsored C5Z and Jordan in his JDP development C7GS. Both those cars are much further from stock and have 200+ HP on me. I went soft on the setup for the Alden Americans this race because the track surface was slippery, and the car felt outstanding. The tire rack hanging off the end with no wheels didn’t really work as I’d hoped....

01badvette

Tom well done, that is a great start to the season and being able to hang with cars of that caliber is a testament to car and driver.

a_ahmed

do u have the shortened shocks? I saw on the site there is choice between shortened and non shortened

Tomswheels

They sent me a pair of those to try and this was the first event on them. I didn’t really notice a difference, with the non-shortened Fronts adjusted as low as they would go, ride height was pretty low, about the same it’s at now. The difference now with the shortened versions is I’m not down at the bottom of the adjustment, so I could go lower if need be.

01badvette

I have the shortened shocks and the ride height is pretty low. Depending on how much daily driver type use that you plan on you may want the normal shock body. This is a higher coil placement setting with the shorten shock body on 275/35/18 square setup. I would say around 2" lower then factory ride height but still has full shock travel.

a_ahmed

I'm going to dive and go for the short bodies, I'm up here in Canada, going to msg the vendor who msg'd me a while ago... looking forward to comparing this to the stock suspension to the coilovers I have on now (HSD - Personally not happy).