Penske vs jri

[woodside783]

What are the pros and cons of both. I see just about everyone using the jri shocks, just wondered if anyone used the penske and how they come pair

[nokones]

I am using the Triple adjustable Penskes with the external reservoir. It is my understanding that the head engineer at JRI was the head engineer at Penske years ago and he started the JRI company. My shocks were valved and are serviced by Naake Suspensions. Mike Naake used to be a shock engineer for one of the Nascar Winston Cup (Now Sprint Cup) teams. The trick is getting the right valving for what you want to do with the car to match your driving style and the car's suspension system. If you road race, drag race, or autocross, the valving will be different for each type of racing. If you intend to just drive on the street, just throw on a set of Yellow Konis so you can hug the turns on your way to get the groceries.

[Cdog]

I am using the Triple adjustable Penskes with the external reservoir. It is my understanding that the head engineer at JRI was the head engineer at Penske years ago and he started the JRI company. My shocks were valved and are serviced by Naake Suspensions. Mike Naake used to be a shock engineer for one of the Nascar Winston Cup (Now Sprint Cup) teams. The trick is getting the right valving for what you want to do with the car to match your driving style and the car's suspension system. If you road race, drag race, or autocross, the valving will be different for each type of racing. If you intend to just drive on the street, just throw on a set of Yellow Konis so you can hug the turns on your way to get the groceries.



Good advice. A track car is dangerous on the street. A street car will be slower on the track. Expensive road race shocks do nothing for a guy who puts from car show to car show. Even the Ride Tech’s are more than what most need.

[nokones]

I am using the Triple adjustable Penskes with the external reservoir. It is my understanding that the head engineer at JRI was the head engineer at Penske years ago and he started the JRI company. My shocks were valved and are serviced by Naake Suspensions. Mike Naake used to be a shock engineer for one of the Nascar Winston Cup (Now Sprint Cup) teams. The trick is getting the right valving for what you want to do with the car to match your driving style and the car's suspension system. If you road race, drag race, or autocross, the valving will be different for each type of racing. If you intend to just drive on the street, just throw on a set of Yellow Konis so you can hug the turns on your way to get the groceries.



Good advice. A track car is dangerous on the street. A street car will be slower on the track. Expensive road race shocks do nothing for a guy who puts from car show to car show. Even the Ride Tech’s are more than what most need.

Yah, I would think that a set of Ridetechs would look a lot sexier than a set of Monroe's or Gabriel's.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Yah, I would think that a set of Ridetechs would look a lot sexier than a set of Monroe's or Gabriel's.

I would definitely agree :cheers:.

[woodside783]

The car is used for track days. Have pedders coilovers on now and looking at going to either jri or the Penske.

[nokones]

They're both good shocks. I'm not sure if the JRIs internals are different than the Penskes. The valving/shimming is the trick to make the shocks work for your set up and driving style. Just be patient in adjusting the bump and rebound settings and having the shocks revalved several times until you get it right.

[nokones]

I'm not sure what the price is on the JRIs. I think I paid nearly $5,000-6000 for all four shocks about 10 years ago for my Penskes

[Ron Sutton]

The car is used for track days. Have pedders coilovers on now and looking at going to either jri or the Penske.

For track performance, in my experience & testing, the JRI shocks will perform at a higher level than the best Penskes. The three big differences are piston design & light weight, internal shock design allowing lower rod pressure & the dual in-shaft rebound adjusters on the JRI. The JRI shock is much quicker responding, so it keeps the tire contact patch on the ground a higher percentage of time (proven on the 7-post machines by several pro teams). The JRIs operate at a higher frequency (about 25%) than the Penskes.

This is critical to grip. If we laid a tight string over 10' of asphalt on the track ... we would see as many as 10 minor undulations in the asphalt. In the corner ... say at 68 mph ... the car is covering that 10' in 1/10 of a second. So we need the suspension ... and the shock ... to respond 10 times in 1/10 of a second. OMG ... The faster the shock can respond, the better it can keep the tire in contact with the track. JRI's do this about 25% better than Penskes.

The other advice given is excellent. Getting shocks to perform at their optimum ... so the car can ... is very dependent on the valving curves. If we created identical valving in Penskes & JRIs ... the JRIs will provide more grip ... because they respond quicker & keep the tire's contact patch planted. But I find I can get meaner with the JRIs than I can with Penskes ... and maintain contact patch. If you get hardcore about your track performance & run high zero number valving to hold the nose down through the roll through zone, as all pro race teams do, the JRI shock will have better response & keep the tire connected ... even though the valving has the shocked packed. Again, proven on the 7-post many times, making the JRI shock #1 in NASCAR & Road Racing.

The final benefit of the JRI is the dual rebound adjuster in shaft. One tunes the low speed rebound valving (which is your handling zone) and the other tunes the bleed valving which is the route to high zero number valving to hold the front end down in the roll through zone of the corner. The way we do ours (called Track-Star valving) allows up to 800# of zero number ... all the way down to 0#. So you can drive it pretty comfortably on the street and then dial them up "mean" for very impressive cornering grip.

Disclosure: I sell 12 brands of shocks, including: Ridetech, JRI, Penske, Advanced Racing, Ohlin, QA1, Viking, Pro, Integra, Koni, Bilstein & Varishock.


:cheers:

[woodside783]

penske just came out with what they call a dual bleed . Did not know jri came out with it first . Looks like jri is the way to go.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Are you open to using other shocks? or only Penske or JRI. Ron Sutton has some good advice when choosing between those two, but what about other brands? Ridetech?

[woodside783]

Can get those 2 little cheaper than the other brands. Dose ridetech have a dual bleed type shock setup

[Ron Sutton]

Can get those 2 little cheaper than the other brands. Dose ridetech have a dual bleed type shock setup

No. I recommend Ridetech triples as a great shock for street, autocross and occasional track days .... especially if we rework them with digressive valving and a high zero number. For optimum road course performance the JRIs ... again with the right valving ... will be best.

[ace_xp2]

Does holding the nose down remain a big deal in situations where aero design isn't restricted? I understand the appeal when you're saddled with a design which has limited downforce because you can't get the nose close enough to the deck, but if you aren't saddled with those constraints, what's the gain? Wouldn't it be better to not have to set up the shock that way and run more aggressive aero from the start? (assuming that, like us, you can)

[nokones]

If you are going to pick a high dollar shock like the Penskes or the JRIs for autocrossing with some open track events, you better be a serious autocrosser that is looking for a championship title and bragging rights and want to hang with the best of the best. Please make sure that whoever designs and builds your shocks have the correct data for autocrossing. Autocrossing and Road Racing are totally different animals. There are a lot of great Shock Experts and Builders that are/were racers themselves and will know how to design and build shocks. But, if they do not have any data for designing and building shocks for autocrossing, the shocks will not perform they way you were hoping. They may work great for road racing and open track events but, they will suck big time on an autocross course especially in the sloloms or any quick transitions that you would never see on a road course. The only place were a shock designer and builder can get the autocross data, is from a hotshoe autocrosser. If they autocrossed or have old autocross data from many many years ago, that may not work for you either. The tires and the suspensions were different back in the days. Make sure that the data they have is current data.

Whoever you select to design and build your shocks, ask where he/she got his/her autocrossing data. Ask them how they obtained this information and when they obtained the information. Ask if the shocks will be designed inverted.

I don't have the expertise to talk shock numbers but, I definitely have the experience of autocrossing and know what a good shock setup is as compared to a bad shock setup. I also learned that a good shock designer and builder with only road race experience will not have the correct data to build the shock you need on an autocross course. In an autocross environment, the shock has to do its thing a lot faster than on a road course.

Believe me, when a Road Race Shock Designer and Builder finds out what data they need to build a shock for autocrossing, the first thing they will say, these won't work and these shocks will break my shock dyno. But, they will be amazed when you tell them how bitchin they work in the sloloms and quick transitions.

I do not have any experience with the JRI shocks. They appear to work very well because a lot of the hot shoe drivers are on them. If you can go directly to JRI and have them build your shocks, there is no doubt that they have a lot of autocross data needed to build the right shock. And I don't know if anyone at Penske will have good data for autocrossing since the head shock engineer left Penske and went to/started JRI.

Also, I don't know a thing about the Ridetechs. On TV (Optima Search For The Ultimate Street Car) I see a lot of people competing on them and it appears that Ridetech has the knowledge to build a good autocross shock for your ride. I just don't know how they compare to the Penskes and the JRIs when the rubber meets the course. They may work great for some driving styles and car setups better than the Penskes and JRI's. I just don't have any experience with the Ridetechs or know anyone who has them on their cars. Next year, I will have a lot experience competing against the Ridetechs and we will see what happens.

Right now, I am sticking with my triple adjustable Penskes because they work very well for my setup. I do not have any handling issues especially through the sloloms and quick transitions. No, the current valving/shimming in my Penskes are not the same valving/shimming that I started out with 10 years ago. They were revalved/shimmed 2 years ago and I'll be taking them in for service here shortly after I get my car back from the engine builder.

Also, I am looking forward to running the BFG Rivals next year. Hopefully, all I have to do is just dial the shocks in with some minor adjustments and slight alignment change on the camber.

[Ron Sutton]

^^^ Excellent advice.

[woodside783]

No. I recommend Ridetech triples as a great shock for street, autocross and occasional track days .... especially if we rework them with digressive valving and a high zero number. For optimum road course performance the JRIs ... again with the right valving ... will be best.

Thanks it had helped a lot going to go with jri

[woodside783]

The pedders I have now are just single adjustable. I feel that I can go in to a corner fine the car feels planted no body roll it feels neutral. It is coming out and trying to put the 500rwhp to the ground. On a 305 re-11 bridgestone tire. If I had a dual adjustable shock I could tune it a little bit better than the one I have better