Penske vs jri

[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.