[Ron Sutton]

Hey Brian & everyone on here,

David Pozzi, Jeff Swartz & I share a common philosophy ... buy the best shocks your budget can afford. There are places you can save money, but shocks & brakes are not the places to cut corners or scrimp. Having said that, if singles is what you can afford ... the Ridetech single adjustable coil-over is the best bang for the buck in shock performance. I like them so much ... and they're affordable enough ... that we use them on a lot of non-coil-over applications ... just without the coil-over springs obviously. I prefer triple adjustable shocks, because we can dial in the handling much easier at the track.

Advanced shock tuning, building & understanding can be a little complex, but basic shock tuning is pretty simple. That's where I like new guys to start ... with a basic guideline ... tune from there ... and learn.

My basic shock tuning tips are:

If corner entry is tight or pushy:
* Soften compression in front shocks
* Soften rebound in rear shocks
* Stiffen compression in rear shocks

If corner entry is free or loose:
* Stiffen compression in front shocks
* Stiffen rebound in rear shocks
* Soften compression in rear shocks

If corner roll through zone is tight or pushy:
* Stiffen rebound in front shocks
* Soften rebound in rear shocks

If corner roll through zone is free or loose:
* Soften rebound in front shocks
* Stiffen rebound in rear shocks

If corner exit is tight or pushy:
* Stiffen rebound in front shocks
* Soften rebound in rear shocks
* Stiffen compression in rear shocks

If corner exit is free or loose:
* Stiffen rebound in rear shocks
* Soften compression in rear shocks
* Soften rebound in front shocks

You can see why we prefer having both compression & rebound adjustments available to us in the guide above. You loose about half of your tuning ability with a single adjustable shock. That's better than no adjustment, but get the triples if your budget can handle it. Note: If getting single adjustable shocks, rebound adjustment takes priority. Compression rate can be compensated for by changing spring rates. But the spring doesn't control rebound. Only the shock can do that.

There is more to it than this, but this general guideline helps a lot of shock tuning rookies get their cars handling very well. Correct shock tuning can dial in a car from "in the ball park" to "awesome" ... but shocks are not magic. Shock tuning won't fix incorrect front end geometry, alignment settings, imbalanced spring & sway bar rates front & rear, etc. Think of having the optimum shocks & valving ... and tuning those shocks ... as the final frontier in getting your car to handle excellent.

What Lance was referring to as "secret sauce" is special valving we do to Ridetech singles & triples ... and other brands of shocks ... to make the valving digressive (instead of linear) ... increase the rebound valving by triple in the range that affects handling ... without increasing the rebound any in the zone that affects bump control. Plus we build "high zero number" capability into the valving range, which lets us tie down an end of the car for brief, controlled periods of time.

In autocross, or on a road course, when you brake into the corner the braking force compresses the front suspension & springs ... lowering the mass/CG ... and if set-up correctly ... arrives at the optimum camber/caster/bump settings for maximum front tire grip. When a driver lifts off the brakes for the short roll through zone ... releasing the force holding the front end down there ... the stored spring energy wants to push the front end back up immediately. This instantly raises the mass/CG & takes the tires out of their optimum camber/caster/bump settings ... reducing front front tire grip ... which is why most full size cars push (understeer) mid-corner ... unless you lower the cornering speed.

With our secret sauce shocks, my clients can tune the low speed rebound knob on the front shocks (stiffer) ... to increase the zero number ... and actually keep the front end of the car down ... through the roll through zone of the corner ... after they step off the brakes.

It is worth quite a bit of corner speed, but just as importantly, makes the car more fun to drive. I see a lot of newbies make the incorrect assumption that their lack of experience means they should just "buy whatever" ... bolt it on their car, go drive & learn. I see them struggling at the tracks & autocross courses ... and not having a good time. How could they? It's not any fun driving a dump truck that plows through the corners ... until the back end snaps loose.

I see some good intentioned guys advise them to "just drive & learn" ... probably because that's how they did it. But I disagree with that strategy. It doesn't make any sense to learn how to drive a poor handling car. All the driver picks up is bad habits, that are hard to break later on. Plus it's frustrating. The driver sees their times WAY down on the lap time charts ... starts to question their ability ... gets frustrated ... and quits the sport. No one wants that.

I'm not suggesting that newbies need perfect handling cars right out of the gate. I developed race drivers for 13 years. I found rookies learn better driving skills ... ramp up quicker ... have more confidence ... and have more fun ... starting in a balanced car that handles neutral, turns well & brakes balanced. They'll learn how a ill-handling car feels from time to time when the track is out to lunch. Fine tuning & small changes to the car come as their skill, feel, knowledge and desire to go faster all increase together.

So Brian, and any other Newbies reading along with us, I urge you to get your car set up right from the start. That is more than buying quality bolt-on parts. That means getting your suspension set-up ...
* Balanced front/rear spring & sway bar rates
* Complimentary roll center heights & track widths
* Correct tire bias for the car's front/rear weight bias
* Camber, caster & toe settings for maximum contact patches
* Scaling to corner balance the car
* Calculating your car's total braking force & brake bias
... worked out as part of your build.