Hotchkis Sport Suspension has joined Team Honor Flight in our pursuit of the 2013 One Lap of America!
Since 2002 I have had the pleasure of knowing John Hotchkis and the entire team at Hotchkis Sport Suspension. They are gentlemen and gearheads to the core and I am very happy to have them in our corner for this adventure.
The latest suspension changes to the car were tested back in October at Buttonwillow Raceway Park when we ran the newest version of the Hotchkis-tuned Fox shocks. There was a noticeable change for the better when swapping from the Bilsteins to the new shocks when driving on the street, but they really came alive on the track. My OLoA co-driver Jon has a C5 Z06 that he drives and we regularly dice it out on-track being very evenly matched.
With the new shocks it was a whole new race. The new valving is fantastic. After Jon too her on-track with the new shocks his reaction was that the car is "Un-natural", "Don't change a thing in the steering or suspension", "It's more fun to drive than the Corvette." It works very well for such a simple recipie.
So there are a few new Hotchkis parts that need to go on the car. New swaybar main brackets and end links are on the list. There are also a few ideas I want to run by Aaron Ogawa, the Hotchkis Chief Engineer, to do after OLoA, but until then I'm heeding Jon's advice about leaving it alone.
