Originally Posted by grumpysnapper
You know what, after I commissioned them about 6 months ago, I spent most of the time worrying that they might be good...but not sooo good that I could actually tell the difference in any meaningful way across a broad spectrum.
Suspension is a bit of a 'black art' that very very few people fully understand...and I'm that classic numpty who has some idea and no idea all at the same time.
Luckily I have some very talented professional driving friends that I can bounce dumb ideas off, or seek assurances that I'm not stark raving mad.
Its important to remember that I'm primarily talking about hard road use, back roads, dirt roads, rough roads....( I have zero track based experience, I grew up in the world of rally)
To me, WRC rally suspension (generally) is the best real world point 'A to point B' suspension there is. Everything I have ever read about anyone who has experienced it first hand are simply in awe at its capabilities...
I wanted as many of those capabilities as I could realistically get squeezed into the huge compromises of our BRZ/86 underlying fundamentals. Basically that means having to work with very limited travel.
But, it is possible to have amazing control over that short travel...and that control then allows you to be able to use all of that available travel to its best advantage.
To cut a long story short.... they are truly phenomenal. Mid corner vicious bumps, dips, ridges, undulations, are now simply driven over with almost zero effect on what you want the car to do. Suddenly you can actually feel that the tyres are able to do more of what they are supposed to do. To me, thats where (beautifully controlled) compliance comes in.
A vastly experienced driving friend once told me that the definition of good suspension...is simply that you shouldn't have to actually think about it at all while you are driving. I finally understand this.
But the dampers should be phenomenal, they were hideously expensive and took a huge amount of development time, by world experts. Valving was carefully chosen and testing was critical. Leo at Madeno Racing understood completely what I wanted, and could interpret that. (But being in Holland, I had to send him photos of the sorts of back roads that are common in Australia).
As an interesting aside, when I first spoke to Leo about the dampers he obviously asked me about the rest of the suspension components, I explained to him that it was fundamentally standard (save for an adjustable stiffer rear anti roll bar) but refreshed often, and I then explained my reasoning ...so I was prepared for a lecture about bushes, rose joints, arms, links, pick up points, etc etc! But, no... instead he said that actually sounded perfectly fine for the cars intended use, and would in fact offer some real benefits. He also said that world wide among the serious damper manufacturers there is a concerted move back to softer spring rates.
None of this is intended as a criticism of people who do things differently to me, and I stress this set up works for me and my uses... I am sure that it would not be ideal for others and their particular uses.
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