Bilstein Damptronic pics.

[DougW]

Damn that testosterone, once you get old you will be able to stay on the point. ha ha it's joke. If you get air tires, springs, shocks etc don't do much just gravity. I guess I need to add a Z sensor for my rally customers. Here is a link from a Porsche test Randy did for us. [ame="http://vimeo.com/35957249"]TPC Racing: DSC Suspension tested by Randy Pobst on Vimeo[/ame]
DougW

[ft_sjo]

Thanks for posting the video Doug. How do you feel your system affects the rate at which the vehicle can change direction? E.g. if you're hitting a tight chicane and the dampers go stiff for the first part, from experience does this slow down how fast you can complete the chicane due to reduced available damping at that point?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Calum

Is that what you would pair with them? Or would your newer 280 lb/in springs be a better match?

Too early to tell, but I'd like to try them both.

Nice link Doug. Z sensor would be awesome.

- andy

[DougW]

We have in the software a change rate so if you are going from right to left at a rate greater than x it holds the last value through the 0 G just for that. We have about 3 years of testing so far and I'm sure more to come.
DougW

[DougW]

Got a chance to play on Tail of The Dragon, the more I drive this the better they feel. I got a chance to meet with Austin and let him test drive as well he can give everybody feedback from his point of view. I hope to get another set together to get some more data in the next few weeks on his car as I start finalizing the package.
DougW

[7thgear]

awesome stuffs.

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by DougW

Damn that testosterone, once you get old you will be able to stay on the point. ha ha it's joke. If you get air tires, springs, shocks etc don't do much just gravity. I guess I need to add a Z sensor for my rally customers. Here is a link from a Porsche test Randy did for us.
DougW

Very nice. When Randy talks, I listen. Very good endorsement for this product.

[DougW]

We use Randy for a lot of testing, I hope to get him in my FRS at VIR soon to really wring the shocks out before we start finalizing everything.
DougW

[aCab]

On the road home now. Will post thoughts tonight. Very impressed with the system to say the least. Thanks for taking the time to come out and show it to me. For those interested, Doug is a very knowledgeable and brilliant individual who really knows A LOT about cars and racing.

[Captain Snooze]

@DougW
When this product is released would the damping be optimised for one spring rate or would the software allow for different spring rate optimisation? Regardless of the damping capabilities I can't but help think that a stiffer spring would be better than a softer spring for track driving. (Or am I still still thinking old tech?)

[robot]

Awesome.

I wish this was within my budget. I'd love to play with the programming involved.

Bunch of questions spring to mind...some of which I know you can't answer for proprietary reasons:
-What processor are you using?
-10-30ms seems about right and I'm guessing it varies based on the number of variables taken into consideration when making a change determination?
-I saw a bunch of variables listed, but what's the exhaustive list? G's, brake conditions, throttle position, yaw?
-If I were to design the system I'd make it much like a car ecu. It would use fuzzy logic and a closed loop to try to achieve some multidimensional value of happiness (table based, like an ecu). I'm struggling with what "happiness" would be here. It could be overall grip given a simplistic physics model of the car (which would have sub tables for launching and panic braking and such).
-What kind of heuristics does it use at the moment for determining where and how much change to apply? How much access does the user get to the algorithms and inputs involved?

-Longevity: Does the amount of changes over time weaken the system and decrease its time between services? Could one set the system up to be static for driving to the track and dynamic once you get there if this was the case?

-I didn't see mention of mechanism but ferrofluid?

I remember I got really interested in this a number of years ago with some discussions on iwsti. I had a microcontroller project and some people were asking if I could do something similar with the EDFC. The answer, was of course "no".

(Hi Myles, its Justin aka "sti robot" from iwsti from many years go.)

[robot]

This answered one of my questions: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjBCpsmQNMg"]BILSTEIN DampTronic B16 - YouTube[/ame]

It's a change in the shape of the piston in the damper not ferrofluid. I figured it wouldn't be FF at this price point.

[DougW]

While MR fluid is fun even the new Corvette is going to these shocks because of cost and warranty issues. I have produced many products for the automotive market and have found less is better for 99% of the market. I give you plenty of rope what you do with it is your choice. This is not an engineering experiment it is a tool for reaching the compromise between track and street without a major chassis change. The shocks have enough range to control a 4000lb GTR with 1200 lb springs.
DougW

[DougW]

Here is a snap shot of just some of the datalog going through a corner.
100Gcnv = 1G, the less the current is the stiffer the shock refer to the shock dyno graph for the range. Once I get back to the web site I will get some demo stuff up to look at.
DougW