Project Bad Penny - more changes because done is boring

[John Wright]

other shocks in thier lineup are over $800 each.....$2500 a set on up

[j-rho]

Yea, that's a good deal.. still hurts in the wallet though.. lol

It's a benefit of my job for sure.. but to be honest I would have paid full price.

The dyno sheet looks pretty impressive, but I'm sworn to secrecy..

Impressive how? It's not like an engine where more output is generally better. It is possible to have too much bump/rebound at high or low speeds. The right valving will depend on the chassis, sprung and unsprung weights, spring rates, tires, intended use, etc. It would be interesting to see how Penske (or whoever it was that spec'd the valving) interpreted those parameters and decided on an initial setup for you.

Even if everybody saw the secret valving, it wouldn't necessarily be helpful to them unless their car and use profile was exactly the same as yours, and it was even right for that situation in the first place. Not to mention, the forces and curves might not even be reproducible in a lesser shock.

[strtlegal]

lol, It's kind of funny to finally read about shock valving on a street car, or in this case race/street..

I'm used to talking about shocks with 14" of travel not 4". Especially bypass shocks. To bad Penske doesnt make compression clicker's like King's do now. Have a range of valving that would be a 1-2 street 3-4 street/track 5-6 for race. Allowing the driver a nice soft ride on street mode and clicking it up for race

[Steve1968LS2]

Impressive how? It's not like an engine where more output is generally better. It is possible to have too much bump/rebound at high or low speeds. The right valving will depend on the chassis, sprung and unsprung weights, spring rates, tires, intended use, etc. It would be interesting to see how Penske (or whoever it was that spec'd the valving) interpreted those parameters and decided on an initial setup for you.

Even if everybody saw the secret valving, it wouldn't necessarily be helpful to them unless their car and use profile was exactly the same as yours, and it was even right for that situation in the first place. Not to mention, the forces and curves might not even be reproducible in a lesser shock.

It just that is seems like turning the knobs actually changes the shock. We seen some where the difference between 1 and 10 is almost nothing.

Lighten up.. the "secret" part has nothing to do with Penske.. was just playing race team

[Steve1968LS2]

other shocks in thier lineup are over $800 each.....$2500 a set on up

The four-way adjustable shocks for something like a 911 are over $14,000.. so I guess these are almost the "cheap" ones in thier catalog.

Imagine what the F1 shocks run per a corner.. :faint:

Install is going good.. decided to run the fronts inverted to make access to the remotes (for adjustment) easier.

We are running the exact same springs so our testing should give a good comparison to what was on the car.

[Nessumsar]

Remind me, what did you have on there?

[j-rho]

It just that is seems like turning the knobs actually changes the shock. We seen some where the difference between 1 and 10 is almost nothing.

Lighten up.. the "secret" part has nothing to do with Penske.. was just playing race team

No worries, am getting ready to get started on a build and was interested to see what you guys went with. I've valved a few shocks in my day, but never in a car quite like a Camaro, and wouldn't mind seeing what they provided as a baseline. I'm sure it'll work out great.

[DFRESH]

I can't believe you didn't go with something more expensive. What about Penny's image?

LOL

Doug

[Steve1968LS2]

I can't believe you didn't go with something more expensive. What about Penny's image?

LOL

Doug

The gold plated four-way adjustable Ohlins were on backorder... dammit!



The only way I could afford these is that I snuck into your house, stole a lock of your hair and sold it on eBay for $$$$... I hope you don't feel violated..

[Steve1968LS2]

No worries, am getting ready to get started on a build and was interested to see what you guys went with. I've valved a few shocks in my day, but never in a car quite like a Camaro, and wouldn't mind seeing what they provided as a baseline. I'm sure it'll work out great.

No worries..

The guys at Global West are all ex race car guys.. they never share any info (that competative edge and all)

email and I will shoot you over the dyno sheet.. hell, at least you would be able to comprehend it.

[email protected]

Just don't go postin it online.. my competition has spies everywhere.. lol

[Steve1968LS2]

Remind me, what did you have on there?

Bilsteins but they were non-adjustable. Obviously they were good since we won some big races on them but we made changes to the car and rather than have these re-valved we decided to just get some double adjustables and be done with it.

Global West offered to help me and David Pozzi take some measurements and come up with a shock length that would work. We were having a problem where the back shocks would bottom out and we didn't have enough rebound.

We are raising the mounting point on the rear shocks and we inverted the fronts. The remote reservoirs gave us some much need shock travel in addition to thier adjustability.

We are running the same 500/275 Varisprings as we did before. We might change spring rates based on what the shocks tell us.

[compos mentis]

The gold plated four-way adjustable Ohlins were on backorder... dammit!

The only way I could afford these is that I snuck into your house, stole a lock of your hair and sold it on eBay for $$$$... I hope you don't feel violated..

Renner collectibles are big with the polka crowd; congrats on your windfall.

[Steve1968LS2]

New 8300 RM shocks are now installed and ready to rumble.

BIG thanks to the guys at Global West (Doug and Eric) who worked their asses off to get these on and get them on right. The front was pretty straightforward but they still had to make some spacers and shims in thier machine shop.

The rears were a bit more challenging since we were moving to the upper shock mount. Doug didn't like the load that would be placed on the bolt in that location so he and Eric came up with a way to brace the bolt off the roll cage. Double shear for all you nerdy engineers out there. The cans are in the trunk so adjustments will be a snap.

Took an initial guess at the settings and so far I'm pretty happy. The car road a ton nicer on the 40 mile drive home and the 215/91 is one of those plate freeways which can be a real kidney killer. We have tons of compression and rebound and overall everthing looks good.

Rear upper shock mount and canister mount: (Thanks to Cris at JCG for the super cool reservoir mounts.. they worked perfectly.

[69496]

Friggin sweet!!

[Steve1968LS2]

One issue we had was not enough travel (especially bump).. now with the higher mount and reservoir we have tons. It also helped that Doug at GW nailed the shock length.

More than enough.. this is at static ride heigth.

[David Pozzi]

Looks a LOT better Steve!

[Steve1968LS2]

Looks a LOT better Steve!

You can try it out tomorrow.. gotta break in these new tires.

[compos mentis]

Steve, will all this good tech be in a mag also?

[Steve1968LS2]

Steve, will all this good tech be in a mag also?

Yea, but the story is going to focus more on shock technology and show why the higher end shocks are so damn expensive.. I've really been fasinated by how these function and the tech involved.

As a side bar I will talk about the install on Penny a bit and more on the 2010 since that's more interesting. After all, any monkey with a banana can install a set of shocks so I will show a few tidbits like the double shear deal and the canister mounting.

But I want to focus more on how the stuff works and how a company like Penske comes up with thier valving and how that ultimatly effects how a car performs.

That was the short answer

[compos mentis]

I've really been fasinated by how these function and the tech involved.

But I want to focus more on how the stuff works and how a company like Penske comes up with thier valving and how that ultimatly effects how a car performs.

Thanks for the preview.

I would think it will be a very popular article.