Shock talk

[DirtRacer9x]

Lets hear it

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Who prefers linear and or digressive and why? What adjustments are you making trough the night and what are some of the cons you're seeing as the night goes on with times or handling?

If you are using a shock to control car attitude, it cannot be linear. Or else it is ridiculously stiff at high velocities.

[Brian Gray]

These are the devices you use to time your weight transfer. What goes for one may not for another. The use for each depends on too many variables . You can use digression to hold a suspension component at a particular wheel rate so it instantly loads during transfer or linear valves to slow or speed up the loading. Then there are the high speed controls you must attain for stabilizing over bumps. This is just the surface of what shocks are used for. This is also the reason good shock builders charge a fortune for their services.

[hucktyson]

A fortune ??? $100.00 plus parts for a shock and you call that a fortune ???

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Well obviously we know what's going on in shocks I'm wondering if you guys actually look at what one set up versus the other is doing to your car over the course of a race. Don't see many doing it.

Dont know what you know. It is pretty simple. If the car is balanced, tire temps show it and the car stays consistent. Your setup can be balanced with anything being used today.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

I already answered.

[save the racers]

When we were in the camaros we switched from linear to digressive.At the same time we started running more rebound than compression.The car was more stable and consistent.We found that leaving the dig. on the front but switching to a linear on the r/r would give us tuning options on corner entry.I could see that on a very slick track the lack of low speed that a linear has could be a plus.
With the l/m when you are trying to hold the body at a certain attitude, completely different game .I am using a dig. piston but the valve stacks are more like a linear.

[gatorade]

As stated above, it really depends at what wheel rate that corner of the car is moving at to "perfer" one or the other. I believe that lm mostly operate at shaft speeds of 0"-3" so i would tend to lean toward a digressive model. Having said that, i have lots of guys on linear rr to compensate for spike in shaft speed when the track is rough or there is a big cushion to help handle wheel weight spikes of 10+" per second. Being linear, it also has no low speed, so it gives the driver a lot of feel as the track slicks off

As far as adjusting from one to another for specific applications.... The conditions would have to be a really big shift. Most of the time i want to keep the profile of the shock, i would just like to be able to move the high speed and low speed to the prefered areas

[Matt49]

Low speed versus high speed is a big deal in certain conditions. In 5-10 years we'll all be on quadruple adjustable shocks. The guys that know how to tune them will be winning (same guys that are winning now) and the guys that don't will be complaining about the outrageous cost of racing and that we need stricter shock rules to fix it.
Stupid is as stupid does.

[grt74]

Low speed versus high speed is a big deal in certain conditions. In 5-10 years we'll all be on quadruple adjustable shocks. The guys that know how to tune them will be winning (same guys that are winning now) and the guys that don't will be complaining about the outrageous cost of racing and that we need stricter shock rules to fix it.
Stupid is as stupid does.

its already happening,just saying,but you'll need a dyno @ the track

[MachineMasters]

Here's my picks:
LF linear compression, digressive rebound
RF linear compression, digressive rebound
RR linear compression, linear rebound
LR linear compression, linear rebound (LR behind shock)
LR2 digressive compression, linear rebound (LR in front)
5th coil linear compression, digressive rebound

[Matt49]

Anyone linear rf on rebound?

Most of today's setups require quite a bit of low speed rebound control on the RF. Linear is going to create a huge amount of high speed rebound which will cause the RF to literally come off the ground as you go over bumps in the track. If there was ever an argument for digressive shock valving on a late model, I would think the RF rebound would be the strongest.

[save the racers]

What would be the better combination ? 375 spring with a 850lbs at 3" shock or 250 spring 650lbs shock.Do we just keep putting rebound in to get the car to the right attitude or should shock and spring be worked together?