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You should really listen to the engineer. Have you driven a C5 or C6 with GOOD coilovers? It's a completely different car, and it's much easier to put the power down than before. Even if you spin, you will have more control on the spin than with a leaf spring.
Spending that sort of money on a non-coilover setup is a waste. You're gaining VERY LITTLE BENEFIT from it. A set of DRM shocks will do just about as much as those Konis for 700 less.
I would put the Ridetech coilovers in the lower tier category since they have Fox shocks which are "meh". They do have Hypercoil springs though.
Oh if I had the willingness to spend coilover money I would for sure do so and appease the engineer. Spring rate tuning is VASTLY cheaper than leafs and vehicle handling is better. The initial hit on price is worth it in the long run.So, we agree on that LOL. MAYBE there will be a day I am "out driving" the Koni/leaf setup....maybe. But I found Koni shocks with Sam's upgraded lower rod end mounts very lightly used for $800...new would be almost $1600 so I couldn't pass up the deal. Engineer says "dollar/performance benefit is in the green"
However, I went full coilover/Watts Link/rod ended the whole rear/decoupling torque arm on my 95 Camaro...I'm over all that nonsense. I'm taking the simple/effective approach. Single adjustble shocks, stock springs, bigger front bar. DONE. The engineer got the best of me on that car since everything is A LOT cheaper...the result was a very well balanced car but too much "race car" for the street.
I also agree that Ridetech is a "entry level" Fox shock...but that's exactly what the OP is doing...beginner getting into racing and suspension setup. There is a reason JRi/Ohlins/Penske cost what they do, but for the "average joe" Ridetech/Koni works well.
I figured i'd give them a try and i'm really happy with mine. They are low. well... i also added carbon all around it so that doesn't help haha.
But i'm super happy with it. rides great, handles great.
people also were saying that the wilwoods "were just for looks" lol. ya... they were wrong too.
My suspension setup is aldan coilovers with their "race" springs, hotchkis sway bars... aaaaaaand that's it. lol. the thing handles like a gocart and with the corbeaus in it now feels like one too.
i plan on HPDE and Autox as well. My alignment is set up for road race though with a less aggressive turn in so i don't die at HPDE haha.
I figured i'd give them a try and i'm really happy with mine. They are low. well... i also added carbon all around it so that doesn't help haha.
But i'm super happy with it. rides great, handles great.
people also were saying that the wilwoods "were just for looks" lol. ya... they were wrong too.
My suspension setup is aldan coilovers with their "race" springs, hotchkis sway bars... aaaaaaand that's it. lol. the thing handles like a gocart and with the corbeaus in it now feels like one too.
i plan on HPDE and Autox as well. My alignment is set up for road race though with a less aggressive turn in so i don't die at HPDE haha.
Perfect example explaining my point...many in the Optima series and or even National racers would never touch Aldans since they would see them as a cheap shock...it will be JRi/Penske etc. HOWEVER for people wanting to dabble in coilovers they offer a suitable product much like Ridetechs. There is a market for them.
Part selection is whatever YOU can afford that gives YOUR the desired outcome to inspire confidence while driving YOUR car. If you LOVE the Aldan setup and feel like you have the utmost confidence at the limit, what will move you to spend money on JRi? Probably nothing given the financial impact. You need to be realistic about your goals too. I won't pay for JRi (mostly because if I did, NOTHING else would be done to my car) and I realistically am not at a level (driving skill or competitive races) where owning JRi shocks will be the difference between winning and losing.
I considered the Aldans...but the compression FR adjustments and rebound RR adjustment setup had me hesitant since this was the only coilover setup on a C5 that was designed this way. I can understand the approach, but when companies like Koni/Ridetech/JRi offer REBOUND adjustment FR/RR I didn't feel like being the guinea pig at $1300-$1400. Next step up from those comapnies are a double adjustbale FR/RR and price almost doubles. Maybe Aldan is on to something? Just made me think that's all, but again I came across Koni shocks at a good price. Between Aldan and Ridetech...Ridetech has a very good reputation going for them which can be hard to ignore in a sport where shocks/springs get some abuse and a well known company willing to stand behind the product CAN be the only selling point. Maybe Aldan will grow in popularity for entry level coilover setup for the C5's.
Perfect example explaining my point...many in the Optima series and or even National racers would never touch Aldans since they would see them as a cheap shock...it will be JRi/Penske etc. HOWEVER for people wanting to dabble in coilovers they offer a suitable product much like Ridetechs. There is a market for them.
Part selection is whatever YOU can afford that gives YOUR the desired outcome to inspire confidence while driving YOUR car. If you LOVE the Aldan setup and feel like you have the utmost confidence at the limit, what will move you to spend money on JRi? Probably nothing given the financial impact. You need to be realistic about your goals too. I won't pay for JRi (mostly because if I did, NOTHING else would be done to my car) and I realistically am not at a level (driving skill or competitive races) where owning JRi shocks will be the difference between winning and losing.
I considered the Aldans...but the compression FR adjustments and rebound RR adjustment setup had me hesitant since this was the only coilover setup on a C5 that was designed this way. I can understand the approach, but when companies like Koni/Ridetech/JRi offer REBOUND adjustment FR/RR I didn't feel like being the guinea pig at $1300-$1400. Next step up from those comapnies are a double adjustbale FR/RR and price almost doubles. Maybe Aldan is on to something? Just made me think that's all, but again I came across Koni shocks at a good price. Between Aldan and Ridetech...Ridetech has a very good reputation going for them which can be hard to ignore in a sport where shocks/springs get some abuse and a well known company willing to stand behind the product CAN be the only selling point. Maybe Aldan will grow in popularity for entry level coilover setup for the C5's.
OK...ranting over.
This may sound crazy. But i wanted single adjustable. and here's why. I'm not a chassis tech. I've built lots of cars/jeeps on various types of suspensions. But the reality is. sometimes you have too much adjustment for your own good. When you have one constant. it's easier to dial in the adjustable side. you might have the car 90% where you want it. and if you had just added more rebound you'd be golden. But then you're messing with bound and getting it further from where you wanted to be.
For the weekend warrior these are quality.
If someone wants to have a shop slap some $6,000 coilovers on their vette and then have that shop tune them and what not... ok...
i do everything myself. you should see the ancient scales we used to corner balance lol. i mean they were digital... but they had to be 20 years old. The price aspect does come into play. If this were a full on race car it wouldn't. But the reality is it's my toy. and putting 5 grand or more into a 10 thousand dollar C5... just doesn't make sense. I get a HUGE upgrade in performance for the 1100 bucks i paid for these. it handles like a gocart. it rides great. only downside is it's really low. which i love. but i could never DD this with it this low.
there's always a "better shock out there". When i was doing my tuning on my rock crawler i was running the rock krawler RRD 2 5/8 coilovers. Guys were like "omg why didn't you do triple bypasses" or "why didn't you do the new fox triple bypass".
The reality is most of us don't need that much. I wasn't building an ultra 4 buggy. Same goes with the vette. I'm building something that'll do some high performance driving. But if you're going to go run your vette out ont he track consistently, you're probably not going to be looking at entry level coilovers. You're going to be looking for ones you can valve/tune/rebuild, and ones that will take that type of punishment.
My jeep driving down the trail on those RK coilovers is still lightyears better than it was on springs/shocks. Just like my vette is WAAAAAAAY better and way more fun on the coilovers than it was on the stock springs/shocks. There is a point of limited return on the investment for many of us. I doubt i'll ever see the limits of what these Aldans can do. But that's me. I'm not into bench racing.
Viking coilovers are also pretty affordable. As often happens in the industry, they're very similar to QA1 due to the people leaving from QA1 to start Viking.
With regards to adjustability and all that, I'd say just call LG (or Pfadt) and say, here're the specs of my car, here's what I want, sell me a shock. They may well say to buy the non-adjustable coilover, because it's tuned perfectly for your needs. Problem solved. Otherwise, I do agree that a single-adjustable "stiffness" setting often makes more sense than a double-adjustable rebound-and-compression setting. You get more tunability with both ways, but then you have to actually go tune it.
One of the other issues is that, as anyone with a shock dyno can attest to, there are some companies whose shocks (both smooth and coil-over) are horribly mismatched. When it comes to all of these lower-priced companies, unless I am paying relative bottom-dollar prices, I wouldn't get anything unless it's super reputable and/or came off a shock dyno with good numbers. The super cheap coilovers people put on commuter cars are often so bad that the stiffest setting on one is softer than the softest setting on the opposite side.
I'd just go with LG on the low end, or if you have a ton of dough, Penske or similar.
Pictures of the stock springs & Hyperco 7" springs, Hyperco recommended a longer spring for better ride & less stress on shock shaft.
Stock rubber bushing & poly bushing.
I marked my shock stroke 40/50/60% marks so I could set my stroke at 55-60% mark for more stroke on compression at ride height, just adjusted my preload to get close to my mark & then set my final ride height after.
No rubbing or scraping on any of the components after install, even with the longer & larger diameter springs, I can adjust my ride settings when the car is on the ground, do not have to raise the car to adjust.
Only install issue was the top front mount shaft the threads were what I would consider short, so I added extra washers I had from an extra sway bar end link set from my Chevelle so I could get my torque spec & not bottom out on the threads.
Here is a thread that I put some info in on coilovers based on what I researched when looking for coilovers. I had a set of Ridetech but the issue I had was with the drop spindles & these coilovers which have a 1-1-1/4" drop designed in was my car sat too low about 1/2"-5/8" if I raised it back up to where I wanted to be then I was putting the shock stroke out of the range it was designed for & would over time damaged the shock.
I cover as many as I had considered for purchase, there are lots more but just didn't have the time to research that many options, I am not saying in this thread that one is better than the other just what options are available.
01-15-2019, 12:15 PM
