Replacement Shocks /Ride Height ?

[Grey 65]

Originally Posted by cbreez

I have tracked my car hard on a full race course several times for several hours and found the car to be pretty good and about right. Funny, it's one of the few compliments that I have about a Backdraft. I checked suspension travel, front and rear, and it was at an acceptable range.

Many folks think that they automatically have to stiffen everything up and it just isn't true. There is a science to it. You say they are way too soft...please tell us what you mean by that and how you determined this...

Suspension 101 is that you determine a proper spring rate and match the shock to the spring, not the other way around. The first tweaking one might do is with the anti-roll bars...which is more difficult with this car...all depends on how serious you want to be. BTW, check your ride heights with the driver in the car or the appropriate number of cinder blocks in the front seat and floor.

Check my gallery for a pic of some fat Goodyear stock car tires in my rear wheel wells under load...stock springs and shocks and no rub. A stiffer anti-roll bar would be the first thing I work on if I were still doing this.

I'm not going to argue with you. If you think you know more about suspensions and racing than me lets meet at a road racing track that neither of us have been to and race for titles. Granted you will have to add cash as my car is worth quite a bit more than yours.

I race my car, the shock and spring rates on my car were determined by actual racing engineers. I have JRi racing shocks that were built for MY car, not a BDR, they were valved for MY exact car. I don't have a pair of front struts and a pair of rear shocks, each one is valved for a specific corner of MY car, the left is not interchangeable with the right. What shocks are you running $30 KYB's? Go to the JRi website and see how much their shocks cost.. They don't list the price, why because they are expense custom built for YOUR car racing shocks. You can adjust spring rates at a track via racing rubbers inserted into the springs.. aka NASCAR, road racers have nitrogen filled shocks where you can add and subtract nitrogen to the shocks at the track to effect small spring rate changes to suit the track surface. Cinder blocks? Seriously? My car gets corner balanced on a $4,000 Longacre machine. As a matter of fact I re-corner balanced it yesterday.
My entire suspension is either heim joints or poly, I have adjustable front and rear sway bars, I have adjustable caster lollypops on my car.

The springs rates that come on the BDR are for comfortable cruising only. The car as sold by Backdraft is NOT setup for racing, it is setup for people like you.

BTW: I have been racing in the SCCA since 1996 and I am an aircraft engineer.

This conversation is over. I will not respond to anymore of your posts as you talk like you are an expert on racing and suspensions and you are not.

Kevin.....

[cbreez]

Man you get ugly quick! Too bad...

A smart man will listen and learn. BTW, adding blocks when scaling a car to compensate for the weight of a driver is an old method still used today, it doesn't matter what your scales cost, either!

You never answered the question, which is fine...but it does sound like you got sold a bunch of stuff! Your $'s!

I am sure I have forgotten more than you proclaim to know about making a car handle.

[cbreez]

Originally Posted by Grey 65

What shocks are you running $30 KYB's?

Actually I run $24.99 Gabriel's!!!!

[Sledge]

A difference of opinion turns nasty. Haven't seen that before.

It would help to keep the egos out and the facts in, so we can all learn something. Just sayin'...

[MJC]

Originally Posted by Grey 65

I'm not going to argue with you. If you think you know more about suspensions and racing than me lets meet at a road racing track that neither of us have been to and race for titles. Granted you will have to add cash as my car is worth quite a bit more than yours.

I race my car, the shock and spring rates on my car were determined by actual racing engineers. I have JRi racing shocks that were built for MY car, not a BDR, they were valved for MY exact car. I don't have a pair of front struts and a pair of rear shocks, each one is valved for a specific corner of MY car, the left is not interchangeable with the right. What shocks are you running $30 KYB's? Go to the JRi website and see how much their shocks cost.. They don't list the price, why because they are expense custom built for YOUR car racing shocks. You can adjust spring rates at a track via racing rubbers inserted into the springs.. aka NASCAR, road racers have nitrogen filled shocks where you can add and subtract nitrogen to the shocks at the track to effect small spring rate changes to suit the track surface. Cinder blocks? Seriously? My car gets corner balanced on a $4,000 Longacre machine. As a matter of fact I re-corner balanced it yesterday.
My entire suspension is either heim joints or poly, I have adjustable front and rear sway bars, I have adjustable caster lollypops on my car.

The springs rates that come on the BDR are for comfortable cruising only. The car as sold by Backdraft is NOT setup for racing, it is setup for people like you.

BTW: I have been racing in the SCCA since 1996 and I am an aircraft engineer.

This conversation is over. I will not respond to anymore of your posts as you talk like you are an expert on racing and suspensions and you are not.

Kevin.....

And D-bag of the year award goes to......

A simple "I disagree, and this is why....." would have sufficed. Sucks cuz I'm sure a lot of the info is valid and informative, but I tuned it out when you said the car was soft.

This car rides like a car with no suspension at all. I blew out 2 glass windshields due to vibration and bumps in the 3.5 months I've owned the car before switching to lexan. I would consider this car rather hard, it has the compliance of a woman on the rag. A road or track anything other than glass smooth will have it chattering along the surface outta control...yes I'm aware a tuned suspension will solve this but the stiffness is not helping anything.

Anyone else have some actual "non-racecar budget" style suspension mods? Not everyone wants to drop 5-10k on suspension on a car that rarely every sees track duty.

[itstock]

Originally Posted by MJC

And D-bag of the year award goes to......

A simple "I disagree, and this is why....." would have sufficed. Sucks cuz I'm sure a lot of the info is valid and informative, but I tuned it out when you said the car was soft.

This car rides like a car with no suspension at all. I blew out 2 glass windshields due to vibration and bumps in the 3.5 months I've owned the car before switching to lexan. I would consider this car rather hard, it has the compliance of a woman on the rag. A road or track anything other than glass smooth will have it chattering along the surface outta control...yes I'm aware a tuned suspension will solve this but the stiffness is not helping anything.

Anyone else have some actual "non-racecar budget" style suspension mods? Not everyone wants to drop 5-10k on suspension on a car that rarely every sees track duty.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as a dbag, but if you want a smooth ride, why did you pick this car? I have a couple of roads around me that I literally have to avoid do to chatter, but I understand that and it's not an issue. If all of your roads are like the one road that I absolutely despise that is right outside of my neighborhood, then I would sell the car and never consider driving it again. The car as it is stock, is a good mix of road/driveable and race IMO. If you don't like the quirk of having a somewhat stiff suspension because of roads, I guarantee you a million other issues are going to come along as well do to ****ty roads.

[MJC]

Originally Posted by itstock

Hopefully this doesn't come off as a dbag, but if you want a smooth ride, why did you pick this car? I have a couple of roads around me that I literally have to avoid do to chatter, but I understand that and it's not an issue. If all of your roads are like the one road that I absolutely despise that is right outside of my neighborhood, then I would sell the car and never consider driving it again. The car as it is stock, is a good mix of road/driveable and race IMO. If you don't like the quirk of having a somewhat stiff suspension because of roads, I guarantee you a million other issues are going to come along as well do to ****ty roads.

It isn't my only car to hobby around in. I just like to take it out when I get bored of creature comforts. What I'm really complaining about is that it feels like something on the car is gonna break considering how stiff it is.

I know some tuners sell a suspension upgrade to soften it up here in the northern states. However they all want you to ship them the car and thats not an option as I'm tearing it down for a built motor this winter. Apparently the only people qualified to work on cars is the tuners....they dont like to sell you parts. lol

[Cashburn]

Originally Posted by MJC

It isn't my only car to hobby around in. I just like to take it out when I get bored of creature comforts. What I'm really complaining about is that it feels like something on the car is gonna break considering how stiff it is.

I know some tuners sell a suspension upgrade to soften it up here in the northern states. However they all want you to ship them the car and thats not an option as I'm tearing it down for a built motor this winter. Apparently the only people qualified to work on cars is the tuners....they dont like to sell you parts. lol

Our system requires some machining and some welding to fit given the current Backdraft factory spec... 2 things you are not going to do without complaining

[MJC]

Originally Posted by Cashburn

Our system requires some machining and some welding to fit given the current Backdraft factory spec... 2 things you are not going to do without complaining

Haha true.

Are the stock springs a linear or progressive rate? What is the VMS suspension?

[Cashburn]

Originally Posted by MJC

Haha true.

Are the stock springs a linear or progressive rate? What is the VMS suspension?

Stock are linear. We have done the progressive fronts. Our suspension upgrade includes springs, billet saddles, front struts, rear shocks, and sway bar mounts (front).