Penske Coilovers.
 

Hey, just in case anyone was interested in if Penske is making anything for the car, i just emailed them and this is how they responded.

Thank you for your interest in PENSKE Racing Shocks and ANZE Suspension, the best racing struts and shocks in the world!

We are currently developing a new package for the FR-S/BRZ twins, CAD modeling is underway now.
First to be released will be a double adjustable remote reservoir coilover package based on PENSKE Racing Shocks 8300 series.
We expect these to be available late this year or very early next year, followed by a triple adjustable package based on PENSKE 8760.

Preliminary pricing is attached as well as more information about ANZE Suspension and ANZE Racing Struts.

Also attached is a customer data form. Please fill it out to the best of your knowledge and that will help us create a package customized just for you and your car.
Please call us or email us with any questions. We are out of the office this week for the SCCA run-offs but we will respond to email as promptly as we can.

We look forward to the opportunity to help you make your car faster!


I was hoping for them to make something more like the 7500 series for the car so that it would be cheaper but it doesn't sound like they are working on that at all at the moment. In the sheet they sent me, the base price just for the shocks is 5,600 and the complete kit with springs and all the mounting hardware for the remote reservoirs came out to 6,845. Not exactly cheap, but I know some people will be interested in these.

Pimp $hock$

I bet they smell like vanilla and make you lose 10 lbs.

They do realize that this car does not exactly cater to rich people right?That is crazy expensive

It does cater to track/autox junkies, and the serious ones will shell out big $$ for shocks. That is pretty much the going rate for the high end shocks (Moton, Ohlins, Penske, JRZ, AST, Motion Control), regardless of what car they're for.

Penske is a racing shock manufacturer and does not cater to the general public. If you want cheap coilovers, there is a mindblowing number of options out there.

When you realize these are no holds barred racing shocks, and compare prices to other racing outfits, they are reasonably priced.

People spend massive amounts on 20 year old cars like the Miata, civics etc

this IS the business,

there is hardly a coilover currently on the market that i would ALLOW to be installed on my car, there's lots of stuff out there for the hard parkers and rim tuckers, fan boi's and posuers but not much that is of caliber to be placed on a car this balanced from the factory

BUT...PENSKE, turns out those guys have it, the stuff works

short list: Penske, Moton, Koni, Bilstein, JRZ, Sachs, Ohlins...I'm missing somebody...

KW is somewhere in the bad lands between good and mediocre...

I'm actually the one working with Anze on the suspension. I sent them a complete FR-S stock setup and also sent them a complete set of BRZ springs.

Obviously Penske shocks are not cheap. However they are fairly easily user revalvable, rebuildable, work well on the street, and the adjustments actually make a difference.

The issue with our cars is the front struts. Anze is not just using an off the shelf 8300 for the front they are building a completely custom strut using Penske internals... which requires modeling everything, building a new strut housing, etc. When it's all said and done they will have a setup which is Stock autox compliant and can also be used as a standard coilover since the bodies are threaded. There may be some ways to make them a bit cheaper in the long run, but you can't get away from the cost of the shocks/parts themselves.

Cusco has some really nice/affordable coilovers and so does Tein if you don't go for the base models

lol i think the guy was saying he wouldnt run anything but a high end shock. Granted Cusco and Tein does have their high end stuff, they still dont compare to the likes of some of the companies he listed.

Anze makes top notch stuff, cant wait to see the outcome!

I went the route of "high end" JDM coilovers some time ago, and will never do that again because I ended up spending more money buying something else later on when it turned out to suck.

Which 'high end' system did you get?

Penske quality and the like would put most 'tuner' options to shame on a dyno.

Just go for the e-bay stuff. You'll at least save a few bucks over the Cusco and Tein both of which are... well....:barf:

When you go to this level of tuning, it's not just a bolt on and go. You need to address the entire suspension system. They are designed to be fine tuned so just adding the high dollar coil overs will not necessarily get you a good set-up. Bushings, sway bars, links, tires etc will all play a major role.

Of course. That was many years ago when I was much more of a newbie. :) If I had known much I would not have bought a set of "high-end" JDM coilovers. The nice thing about good shocks is you can make the fine tuned adjustments with them you can't with the cheaper stuff. The "high-end" JDM stuff turned out to not work well on our streets or even bumpy autocross lots, the real adjustment range wasn't very good, and the support when one blew was terrible.

Penske? Sweet Jesus...

im thinking the problem here is that alotta people including me come from previous "scions" im sure 6-7k coilvers are worth its price but maybe not for everyone specially ... scion posers:bonk:

every brand has the same reaction. You'd be suprised about the number of Porsche, corvette, and ferrari owners that balk at that pricing as well. The target market for the top end dampers is relatively small. doesn't have a ton to do with the MSRP of the car.

You can not compare these with the types of suspension being discussed here. Even the "high end" Tein coilovers pale in comparison to Ohlins, Penske, Moton, etc.

Another thing to look at is serviceability. Who is gonna service and setup your "Tein super fukishima grand master touring" coilovers here in the US? Penske and Ohlins have tons of knowledgeable service technicians and lots of data available here in the states, as well as many facilities that can service your suspension and get it turned around quickly.

Our late model has Penske double adjustable on it and we have been running them for over 5 seasons with great results.

AST?

I don't know about AST. Since the merger of AST and Moton, I've heard there's been a dip in product quality. Is there anyone else that has heard the same?

I've actually heard the opposite, that the standard AST shocks are starting to get some of the internal parts that were previously used in the Moton line. I've got AST's on my Miata and Mustang, trying to decide of that is the route I want to go with my BRZ or not.

Motion Control is gaining a lot of buzz lately. They certainly have the pricetag to back it up anyway.

I have AST's on my FR-s. I've owned or raced cars with most of the names mentioned above. It obviously depends on the series damper you are evaluating, but for me it was between JRZ and AST. I'm happy I made the decision I did.

In my case I was looking for someone to develop dampers to be used in CS autocross class, and the amount of folks willing to do it is fairly small. Koni inserts and shocks work for most people and was my initial choice but I've read and talked to a lot of folks who have had serious issues with quality. The winning RTA WRX at nationals this last year was running stock struts in the front because they have had so many Konis break they didn't trust them to make the drive and compete on them. I looked into the new ASTs and I think someone will do it eventually since Vorschlag has built stock-compliant shocks using them in the past. Vorschlag was actually looking into Bilstein options to build a stock compliant strut and shock, but the timeframe is further in the future.

If I was just looking for regular coilovers I'd probably run the AST 4150s or the next step up. However the Penske ones can be converted to coilovers fairly easily like I mentioned above.

To give some perspective on Penske, the company has moved past 4-way adjustability for some of their top-level offerings. They have developed a regressive damper curve whereas most are using digressive curves. What this does is allows very high damping slopes at low shaft speeds for body control, but then can actually drop at higher shaft speeds for comfort, rather than the digressive curve that can just try to reduce the slope.

These guys are orders of magnitude better than the basic Japanese brands, and possibly even a class up on the usual named top level guys.

Did I read that right, $5,000+ for shock absorbers? Enjoy paying $1,000's more for only a few tenths of a second compared to an OTS shock. More often than not, the driver will make up or flub the difference.

For someone who autocrosses, you know what the margins are in serious competition racing. This suspension is not for people who race locally as a past time hobby, we're talking nationally competitive people and pro series.

I don't see why people are complaining about the price. This will be a serious racing suspension, for... serious racing. Slamming your car to the ground (the reason the far too many people buy coilovers) will make it handle like turds no matter what suspension choice you go with, might as well buy the cheap shit and save money. If you just want better handling or adjustability but don't need the capabilities of a pro, there are already lots of options, and likely to be many more on the way.

Sure, for the vast majority of us out there, this money would be far better spent on driving lessons and track time. If you're going to be racing with pros however, (ie: when a few tenths means the difference between winning and losing) then expect to pony up. Realistically, this suspension is probably only going to be meant for a select few on this forum.

Building a competitive race car is not cheap. When you dump all of your heart, soul and bank account into a season to try and win a championship, you might understand.

This type of suspension is not being marketed to the occasional trackday or auto X enthusiast.

$5k won't buy you top flight suspension. Not even close.

The difference is staggering, but there's no point trying to explain to the majority of people on this forum.

Very true. $5k is just scratching the surface when it comes to suspension. I cry when I think of how much a proper GT setup costs because I will never be able to afford it. (or the car for that matter)

I don't doubt that Penske makes a great product, there's a reason people buy their shocks/coilovers, and I agree with everything you have said, but as an autocrosser (and the odd track day driver) I know that coning in AX, or "traffic" at track days, or any other tiny variance in runs could make or break the difference, that's all I'm getting at. I feel that more often than not, people just throw parts at their cars hoping it will make them competitive when more often than not, the car could exceed the driver's capabilities from the get go.

Sorry to revive an old post. But has anyone heard more news as to how far closer Penske have come with their struts?

Penske themselves are not building anything for this car afaik. I was working with Anze Suspension who has finished all of their modeling/measurements they need to produce a setup built with Penske parts, which is fairly common. Penske builds their own suspension parts for very few cars. This would include a custom front strut and rears based off an existing Penske shock.

Oh ok, at the top of this thread miwialex says that he emailed Penske asking if they planned to develop a set for the 86/FRS/BRZ/and so on.
I had the impression they still where in development. I guess they may make some in the future.
Oh well.

JRZ has a 3 way that is developed for road racing. Its based off of their latest 1231 piston.

We just took these pictures a few days ago.

http://www.racecompengineering.com/i...t-dampers.html

Why Penske > most other dampers*

http://www.penskeshocks.com/files/Picture1.jpg

Because raceshock.

* edit:

Damper companies. Their regressive curves are not exactly standard.

:wub: How much fun would it be to add a regressive spring setup to that? Were those spring setups a DTM thing or a BTCC thing?

I wish more companies would publish damper maps for their products. It makes me wary of brands I don't know. I have been lucky enough to get to use Penske dampers (and Ohlins race dampers during FSAE). The dampers aren't necessarily better but they are inherently better. The tradeoff is lots of ways to get truly lost. That tradeoff is inherent in ANY fully adjustable shock. It is a risk/reward thing...more opportunity to tune to perfection, more opportunity to tune away from perfection. Honestly...go buy 'Tune to Win' and start reading.

If you are interested in actually using adjustable shocks I would suggest you just dedicate a track day or AX day not to racing but to practicing. Go set the shocks to the extremes, and then the other extremes. see what the difference is between full soft and full hard, hard compression with soft rebound and vice versa. From working with a lot of newer drivers over the years most don't even know what to feel much less how to feel it or what to do. Sometimes using those extremes is a really good way of teaching that feel and is a dual opportunity to develop that feeling and become a better driver by becoming a more knowledgeable one.

$9000? :confused0068:

I have a Koni process somewhere. It's actually simple (if you have testing time and place). I think Carroll Smith had it in his books, too.

Starting point is they have valving and shimstack recommendations for the frequency/wheel rate, then follow their instructions for comp/rebound. I'll see if I can dig it up exactly. Penske also has a good flowchart for handling tuning, too.

With the real-deal companies, your money isn't just for their product, it's also for them to share their collective expertise with the customer.