Just a hundredth or so is what I need for the 11's!

Great photo, Edgar! Thanks for the insight!

 

Dave I have really not been able to do, what I felt comfortable with, sufficient testing to measure the benifit. The car has changed so much in the past year from race to race I cannot say it was a big benifit.

Maybe a couple hundredths

 

If I ever get a chance to just blow a day testing the shocks, I will try them with very tight setting on the fronts and then down to my normal setting and I can tell how different they are withing their own settings.

 

Good to hear you are getting it up.

 

Thanks to you in part

 

Wouldn't of told 'em that. :o

 

 

I run QA1s on my GN and while you can loosen the 12 position models up in the front for better weight transfer, they don't perform like a drag shock, which allow the front to rise for weight transfer and are then stiff on the rebound-- the QA1s are loose on the way up AND the way down.

They do offer a double adjustable model that you can set up to more closely mimic a 90-10 drag shock, but I have no personal experience with those.

I replaced a set of Bilstiens with these and, IMHO, wouldn't do it again. The adjustability as above didn't give me what I was looking for at the track and I thought the Bilsteins performed better in day to day driving (but then again, that's on a G-body, not a C5!).

-S.

 

That's about where I came down on them. They're a decent budget adjustable but what I really want is a budget double adjustable. Mark, have you got enough time with those to comment on how they compare to the single adjustables? If I have a set of single adjustables can they be rebuilt as doubles economically? I hate eating $850-900 worth of shocks.

 

We do have a few of the twin **** double adjustables on road race cars and autocross cars and our customers are very happy with the results. The Dyno numbers on the twin **** double adjustable QA1 is really awesome when you take into consideration the price. I'll agree that they are not a Penske or Ohlins, but most of our customers doing track days and autocross can't realize the full benifit of Penskes because they just don't have a grasp of how to set up a shock. If your experience is limited, or you just don't want to take the time or have the desire to figure out how to dial in an adjustable shock for your particular driving style, then I would stick with a single **** shock or an unadjustable shock. I don't mean any disrespect at all by making that statement, I have alot of customers that would prefer to simply get in the car and drive it. I happen to be more of a tinkerer, and am always searching for that elusive improvement in performance, so the only way I'm going to find it is to keep trying to adjust things, while measuring whether they got better or worse. I do this with a stop watch not the seat of the pants as I have found setups that were really comfortable to drive 10/10ths, but they were slower than some set-ups that required alot of attention as you approached the limit but were much quicker lap times. For track days in street cars, i'd go for a more easy to drive set-up rather than one that is a bit twitchy.

As for converting your single **** to a double ****, well the shock body internally is totally different with respect to oil passages, so unfortunately, they can not be converted. I can check with my shock guy, but I think we can rebuild them and change the split between Compression & Rebound so perhps we can get you closer to where you want to be. If your QA1 shocks have few miles on them, then you can probably recoup 2/3 of their purchase price by selling them here or on ebay. If they have alot of miles on them, we can rebuild them for $60/each plus parts to "Good as new condition". We can even provide a dyno sheet for each one and we use better shock oil than the stock ones that resists cavitation.

 

Shocks won't make up for track time troop!..........
Really I have bone stockers on all my cars and for you occasional racing IMHEO I would suggest you save that $$$ and play with tire/pressure to get your 11's and the max perf from your current combo . Our 00' vert is a 12.29 @ 111.33 with a 1.72 60'........w/o LTs and a cam.
I suggest you try a track rental to dial in what you have prior to new shocks You may find more/less gas will help as well

 

It's funny you mention this because I'm fairly certain now that it's not coincidental that I only dead hook on days when I arrive with closer to a half tank of gas rather than a quarter tank. This is one reason why I've been thinking the HAL adjustables might help via better/increased weight transfer, but I admit it is a fairly expensive experiment.

Regarding tire pressure, I take a tank, pressure equalizer, air compressor, etc and have pretty extensively tested different pressures in my drag radials. They seem to do best when set between 16-18 psi.

I know I could just buy a CCW drag pack wheel/tire combo and likely run in the 11's all day long, but my goal is to do it with the car setup exactly as I drive it everyday on the street (expecting the tire pressure, of course).

 

Just covering all the bases I know
I am the same, I run what I brung. I know the 97' would run mid 10s and the vert 11s with the CCWs but we like driving them up and taking the back roads

 

I am looking for a shock that provides better handling and my car will probably never see a drag strip. Sounds like I shlould look at some Konis. Does anyone know where to get them at a good price?

 

I'd like to see that '97 of yours run sometime!

 

Steve, I think the QA1s start making sense when you're scratching your head thinking the only thing left is suspension tuning. (IMHO not enough people pay attention to this area.) Adjustables make sense because they let your car have multiple personalities, extending the envelope of "what your brung." Dual adjustables are a better option than the singles for drag racers because one of the personalities you want is something more like a drag shock, at least for the front. The single just doesn't do that. I doubt I'll be shaking any coin loose for them just now, but it is nice that they're an option now. Also, you might pester Redgar with respect to experimentation cost control strategies.

Mark, thanks for the info. I may take you up on the rebuild if I decide I want to sell mine. I don't think I really want to alter the split significantly as that would affect daily driver performance. Sometimes it's hard to have your cake and eat it too, even with adjustables.

 

You are so right.

let me know if I can be of assistance.

 

Mark,

Does HAL make a double adjustable front shock for the C5, is it a direct bolt-in, and, if so, what would a full set of shocks cost comprised of a pair of double adjustables for the front and a pair of the single adjustables for the rear?

Thanks!

 

 

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably look into double adjustable shocks cause then you could work with a multitude of springs rates. I don't understand single adjustables cause I would think that if you're (for example) going to stiffer shocks, I'd think that you want more rebound control and less or the same compression...