More info on Penske shocks

[RBbugBITme]

Sorry boss, I've never seen the BRZ suspension in person and I definitely have not had it on a 7-post.

[xwd]

Originally Posted by Shankenstein

Hey Ryan. Thanks for bringing your expertise to our little community.

As a suspension guy who has probably had the BRZ up on a 7-post rig, did you identify anything heinous about the design or any "low hanging fruit" for the tuners to focus on?

From what I've seen, the camber and toe are relatively well-behaved (as long as you're not slammed). A few of the guys on here have had positive results from adding caster up front. Otherwise, the weight transfers are fairly smooth, and the chassis is pretty solid.

The supporting hardware seems to be the main weakness. With the "modern" approach to suspension design (bump stops, hefty sway bars, soft springs), it kind of puts damper quality and spring rate in the background. Packaging the suspension was a bit awkward in the upper rear and around the sway bars... but those are minor gripes.

What are some improvement you would have made?

The rear suspension is all about compromises to save money since they borrowed it from the Impreza and before that the Legacy. The original reason for that suspension design was to get more rear cargo room.

[Captain Snooze]

I really don't like my chances of trying to sneak AUD10k past the wife for the household budget.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I really don't like my chances of trying to sneak AUD10k past the wife for the household budget.

Change the wife out - keep on moving forward? After all, it's a short life.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Shankenstein

The supporting hardware seems to be the main weakness. With the "modern" approach to suspension design (bump stops, hefty sway bars, soft springs), it kind of puts damper quality and spring rate in the background.

I was under the impression that the standard dampers were quite good for a car at this price point. The standard sway bars are not what I would call "hefty".

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I was under the impression that the standard dampers were quite good for a car at this price point. The standard sway bars are not what I would call "hefty".

For the price of the car they are pretty good.

- Andy

[Kostamojen]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I was under the impression that the standard dampers were quite good for a car at this price point. The standard sway bars are not what I would call "hefty".

Ya, that comment doesn't apply to the twins. Tiny swaybars, good spring rates and dampening from the factory...

In fact, I bet if the car sat 1" lower from the factory, most owners on here wouldn't even touch the suspension.

[Shankenstein]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I was under the impression that the standard dampers were quite good for a car at this price point. The standard sway bars are not what I would call "hefty".

You're correct, the more I've paid attention to the dampers on this car, the more I've been impressed. They provide noticeable control without being overdamped and sluggish. Obviously, a motorsports damper would react more precisely and dole out higher forces, but the SHOWA units are great on the street.

As far as sway bars, I complain too much and I should get over it. My background is with off-road suspensions... so I feel naughty when something interferes with articulation (even when it improves handling).

If the world were made of Nutella and rainbows, our car would have come with wishbones and pushrods (and maybe a third spring setup):

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Shankenstein

If the world were made of Nutella and rainbows, our car would have come with wishbones and pushrods (and maybe a third spring setup):

Yeah, if I won the lottery I would buy just the Kirkham chassis and make a coffee table out of it.

[troek]

Originally Posted by Kostamojen

Ya, that comment doesn't apply to the twins. Tiny swaybars, good spring rates and dampening from the factory...

In fact, I bet if the car sat 1" lower from the factory, most owners on here wouldn't even touch the suspension.

yeah i agree, the only reason i got stiffer springs is i wanted it to sit lower( purely a cosmetic thing ) and to go lower, i needed stiffer.

[cdrazic93]

Originally Posted by RBbugBITme

an 8780 manifold.

Originally Posted by RBbugBITme

I've actually been told guys will shy away from us because we don't offer an all inclusive package including springs. There are too many options with pistons/springs/adjusters and calling us to discuss it is too intimidating if they don't think they know enough about shocks.

Care to explain what an 8780 manifold is? All i have seen on high end racing shocks like Ohlins TTX and such are external resivoirs.

One last thing; how should we endevor to find out about all those options and what they do if someone where to call you guys and get into the nitty gritty custom stuff?

[RBbugBITme]

An 8780 manifold is a housing mounted to the outside of a damper that hold various adjusters. There are many incarnations of this damper at this point. You can have thru-rods, inerters, solid main pistons or adjustable bleed on the main piston while the manifold can have dual-bleed adjusters, digressive, and regressive adjusters. Everyone of them independent in compression and rebound.

Here is a bad video with some guy mispronouncing thru rod. You can see the gold dual-bleed adjusters sticking out the bottom of the manifold. There is a silver high speed compression adjuster on the opposite end of the manifold you can kind of see.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enDKh-CqoMY"]PS-8780 from Penske Racing Shocks ID11637 - YouTube[/ame]

I'm trying to make a big push this year to kind of turn our website into something similar to the Garrett turbo website with the Turbo 101/2/3 tech info. Keep an eye on that every now and then, its slow going because we're so busy but it'll get done.

I started working on the BRZ shock package again today in collaboration with a certain company that makes well known camber/cast plates and rear shock mounts. The shocks will likely end up with options for single rebound bleed in the shaft, and 7500 style head valve for high speed compression adjustment, dual-bleed in the shaft, and the 8300 (single adjuster in the remote reservoir) or 8760 style (dual adjuster in the remote reservoir). The order of adjusters I just listed were basically in order of cost and you can read about them a little in our tech docs.

7500 double adjustable
http://www.penskeshocks.com/assets/T...A)%2008-10.pdf

8300 double adjustable
http://www.penskeshocks.com/assets/8...K%20Manual.pdf

8760 double adjustable
http://www.penskeshocks.com/assets/A...e%20Manual.pdf

Dual-bleed tech
http://www.penskeshocks.com/assets/E...-DB%20REV1.pdf

You can read about a growing number of topics here such as "what is pressure balancing", "regressive valve assemblies", and the "mustang strut manual" which should be renamed because all of our struts are the same. http://www.penskeshocks.com/technical/

Of course you can always call and talk to us about the basics or the uber technical. I'm working with an Evo guy now that didn't really know what he wanted so we actually saved him money by pushing him toward the same adjuster setup as most of our pro teams in the Tudor series and others.

Long winded but hopefully helpful.

[Kostamojen]

*Drooooooooooooooooool*

Thanks for the update Ryan!

[RBbugBITme]

Done. Designed with custom-for-Penske Raceseng 1" extended rear upper mounts.




We'll have a set on the Raceseng car soon.