Ned,
Bummer you don't get Speed! They are filming the entire development and engineering process for our cars and will be showing the tools and techniques we're using. There will also be some of the engineers explaining what these things are and how they are used. It was a really good timing thing that they were able to get this when it is being done up front. Anyway...
I'm about three weeks away from having five sets of prototype Level II suspension components. Once we have them in hand I will post some pics here for you guys. It will still be a while on pricing as we are still a bit off on getting production prices for making these in quantity. We are also exploring different manufacturing methods for some of them to have them produced as cost effectively as they can.
I won't speak to what else is out there or what others are doing, but I think if you look in detail on how our suspension is being engineered, I don't think anyone else has done aftermarket products to the level of engineering and testing we have, either for new or old cars. If you look at the development process of the suspension on our web site, click on the steps and it has detailed descriptions of what each of these are.
The four post testing is an integral part of the suspension development. I believe there are only two of these facilities in North America. I can't name names, but OE manufacturers use this facility for some of their high performance suspension development and competition vehicles. In addition professional race teams use it to set their cars up. It is literallly F1, IRL, Champ, Grand AM and NASCAR that do this. I was told that teams have taken fresh built cars, set them up on the four post and won the following wekend without having had time to do any real track testing.
When we bring the cars back for dialing in on four post, we have a shock dyno, a shock engineer and a set of rebuildable shocks on hand to try different combinations to optimize the setup based upon computer models derived from data collected on each run. Spring rates are also changed in this process. How precise is this - well it gets dialed in for the specific tires we are running as they each have different qualities in terms of stiffness and inherent spring rate. We also did this with ballast on board to simulate the driver and ballast to simulate different engine packages - i.e. big blocks.
The suspension development software used for modeling the geometry etc., is the same package the OE's use. I was shown demos of complete vehicles running on virtual road courses or slaloms courses, with the software learning to drive the vehicle better on each lap. That is used to validate the design as well as determine spring rates, sway bar sizes, base damping etc. We have also had them run models to ensure the components designed are strong enough for the intended application - for example our K-Member design was evaluated for impact and tearout loads for the lower control arms - and we will beat the crap out of it at the track during testing as well.
We also did full torsion tests on the car, before and after we made chassis stiffening components and this multiple times to optimize that as well. This is an evaluation of the torsional rigidity of the vehicle chassis itself.
The four post data and the torsion data gets compared against known performance vehicles so we can be sure we are in the target zone relative to the class of vehicles we want to be in with. 4-post tests were plotted against 250 production vehicles for comparison.
After all of this we track test the cars to make sure we are happy and validate what the models show. At the track we have a shock engineer and shock dyno and go through the same process as with the four post to dial it in too our desired level of balance between pure track performance, and comfort for the street.
You have no idea how fortunate we are that we got access to this level of technology and expertise. Best of all, the guys doing this think it is the coolest project and were totally digging the cars - as opposed to the race cars and such they typically work on, which I was really surprised by.
So, I will leave it to you to evaluate that process versus how others develop and test their products. I 'think' we are taking this to a level that has never been done before in the aftermarket, especially for cars of this vintage. If the guys who do all of this for a living really are amongst the best at what they do, I am pretty confident that our setup for these vehicles will be about as good as it can be, given the state of technology available today.
One thing that has been re-emphasized over and over through this process, is that the best performance is driven by the quality of the dial in on the dampers - and obviously everything has to all be matched to work together - so dampers relative to the rest of the setup. Damper technology has come a very long way and the guys we are using are amongst the top of that game.
Brakes are also being designed specifically for the cars - not off the shelf slap em on and call it great. The deal with that is getting proper front to rear balance using simulation and testing. That gets dialed in by sizing the caliper pistons to the specific application, again running models and then validating them on the track.
FWIW, my philosophy on all of this, is that at the end of the day we are doing this with best that is available and from my perspective we are REALLY trying to do it the right/best (choose your word) way. As much as we can, it's all the real deal.
One last thought on this setup -it's all being done in aluminum to lighten everything up: upper/lower control arms, front spindles, K-member, rack(no big deal on that one), rear lower links, rear upper link and the panhard bar. We also chose the new Hemi because it is very light. If you really want your car to handle, irrespective of what suspension you run, I don't think a big-block is the way to go. I'll qualify that by saying I don't know what your overall performance objectives are. My head generally comes at this with a road race mentality.
The TV show really lets you take a look under the covers, and we've spent alot of time putting as much of this on our web site as well. From my perspective the value added in what we are doing is that it is all being professionally engineered using the best technology and tools available.
We're really trying to take this to another level - irrespective of doing it on Mopars. I don't expect that everyone will get it, but we're doing our best to make sure it is clear on what and how it is getting done, but I do think many will. At the end of the day, you guys will be the judge of whether or not we've succeded.
John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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