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A proper street car suspension should ride well, whether it has sporting intentions or not. It can be firm without being harsh, and to do so it needs quality dampers.
A race car's focus is not comfort obviously, but it should be able to soak up bumps without launching the car off the line. That certainly helps with ride quality on the street. This can be difficult to do with very firm spring rates and shorter travel compared to a long travel, soft spring set up. Meanwhile, the race car shock needs to generate a lot of low piston speed damping force in body roll. Doing that with many shocks means you're stuck with a ton of high piston speed damping, meaning bumps will be harsh. So you need a good shock that is not linear, but rather digressive (especially in bump/compression). Good race shocks can do this...and you get the great handling with the ability to soak up bumps. And they cost money.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that all "good" race shocks ride like a dream. They may not have a lot of travel and they use firm spring rates. Valving is part of the equation, but not all of it. Race shocks can soak up mid-corner bumps on the track and even let you use the kerbing without upsetting the car. They can hit small and medium bumps on the street and you'll be amazed. And yes, they have a lot of low speed but depending on where the knee is...also a lot of mid speed damping. This can be felt on the street. It's not "harsh" like tons of high speed damping is but it can be noticeable.
Another note: there are reviews of coilovers out there that are absolute trash, and yet the reviewer claims they ride like stock. Well, they ride like stock on the perfectly smooth roads where they happen to live. That's not hard to do. Riding like stock in Baltimore City while still increasing performance IS hard to do.
I've been on JRZ, Moton, high end KW Competition, AST, whatever...and yes they can ride well. Really shockingly well (no pun intended). Better than stock in some cases. But there are limitations. I've been in many track cars with "good" suspensions that eat-up big bumps like they're nothing, but are a little choppy on roads that are just a little less than smooth. Some of this is fine-tuning, but some of it is reality. On car-swallowing potholes in the city, nothing is going to be great.
Just trying to temper some expectations. A good track car setup is not necessarily a good street car setup .
- Andy
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