bushing or bearing mount for rear shocks?

[Flash68]

For those that run your cars primarily on the street with some tracking, what are you running and/or what do you recommend?

I have DSE 3" drop leafs on my car with some old soft drag style shocks that came on the car. Need to upgrade the shocks soon.

DSE offers the mini-tub Koni shocks for my application that are bearing mount. But another suspension guy I and many respect strongly recommends a bushing mount shock such as the Varishock for better ride on the street.

Used the search and couldn't really find anything on the subject. Curious what ya'all are doing and think. Thanks.

[MrQuick]

since your car is so loud to begin with i'd go bearing. LOL

[Flash68]

since your car is so loud to begin with i'd go bearing. LOL

Very true. I guess I'm less concerned with noise but wondering more about the big differences in vibration and harshness?

[Randy67]

I used bearing mount shocks on the rear of an Achieva SCX I autocrossed/drove daily. They were Bistein circle track shocks and I never had any noise from them. The rear beam axle was still using rubber bushings so nothing else to cause noise.

[marolf101x]

We had a ride meter developed for us that measures ride quality and gives it a number. In addition it also provides a detailed graph and numeric output in Excel so I can see exactly what is going on. The accelorometers reside in a stainless steel enclosure that sits under the seat so we can "see" what the driver feels.

Before switching all of our shocks over to solid mounts (bearings on the ring mounts and a delrin "ball and socket" on the stud mounts) I did a lot of research to see if the average driver could ascertain what was under the car just by the "butt dyno".

Bottom line: If you use a good quality bearing (with teflon or kevlar lining) and the shock mounts are machined with a tight tolerance you cannot tell the difference in a muscle car.

If the bearing is the low cost (no lining) type, or if the bearing is loose on the mount you'll hear a clicking noise. Sometimes you can feel it as well, but it's very light.

Remember, most adjustable shocks use a pretty solid poly bushing which doesn't give much.

[Bryce]

I run bearing mounts on my car with no noise. I also run rodends at every attachment point. So maybe I am just not sensitive enough, My wife would agree with that.

[Flash68]

thanks for the feedback guys - very helpful.