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Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:30 pm

I would like some opinions on shocks for my drag car. I hope to be running 11's. Any advice is appreciatted. I am also on a tight budget.
Thanks :D

Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:52 am

I would also be interested in some nice shocks or perhaps coil overs for a drag and perhaps some road racing car. Hope to be running low 11-high tens, also I am on a budget, hopefully under $100 or so per shock or under $200 per coilover.

Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:13 am

Unfortunately, racing and budget are typically not used in the same sentence.

But with that said, it really depends on what you really want out of your car.
you can use your stock configuration and make it work. For the longest time i could run mid and low 12's on stock torsion bars, fresh stock shocks and a bus snubber. But this leaves vehicle reaction time a little soft and you cant hit the suspension as hard. For bracket racing, best ET is not as important as a consistant car.
As far as the front is conserned. again, depending on what you want to do and how your car is set up. as simple as a stock shock or even a 90/10 shock that assist in weight transer into the car to make a less then perfect tire work. (street tires)

Then if you want to get into hitting the suspension hard, then you can move into larger torsion bars, But need a good adjustable race oriented shock to control compression and even rebound for more money. you would also loose the snubbers at this point. Front is the same way, an adjustable shock would allow you to adjust how fast or slow the front end comes up and taylor it to track conditions and car set up.
The shocks i run on the rear of my car cost $350-400 for a pair. But they were custom valved by one of the high end vw chassis builders too.
Here is a picture of the shock i run. This is what we put on Burn out King's car a year or so back. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=60696

there are some options you can explore, but i am not sure how they woudl work. Competition Engineering makes a 3 way adjustable shock for their rear coil over set up that would fit the rear of our cars.
I have even looked into an offroad shock. Rancho 9000 shock is adjustable and makes one for i think its a Jeep Cherokee that would fit the dimensions. But also unproven at this moment.
If you got an off the shelf adjustable shock like from HAL/QA1, your still looking at close to $150 a piece.

Add more for a coil over.

Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:13 pm

I remember someone saying that they were running coil overs but didn't like them. Do you remember who? Also, how difficult would it be to set up a coil over system?

Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:22 pm

if you were going to do a coil over, you would end up just gettign rid of the torsion bars and spring plate all together. and use a ladder bar configuration and the coil's hold the car up. Similar to what one might find on a tube chassis car.

a picture of a chassis car rear set up. long bars go to the swing axle and normally would have coil overs at the ends to hold it up. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/pix/712371.jpg
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/pix/712370.jpg

Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:56 pm

:o Those Hal shocks sound like the way to go. Where is the best place to get them. Thanks

Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:15 pm

the ones we use (HAL/QA1's) are from JCL race cars.
the donw side, it can be hard to get a hold of Jimmy.

Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:11 am

Thanks MufflerMike, do you have a url for JCL?

Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:24 am

no web page but his number is (JCL Racecars) (714) 895-7782
you will most likely get an answering machine especially since he has a couple of cars he is working on getting ready for the season.
If you are serious about spending money, then you will probably need to leave a couple of messages.

Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:37 am

Will be a few months before I need suspension stuff but thanks for the information and number.

Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:24 am

I am getting ready to purchase some rear coil overs. I am planning on going to QA1 route. Mike, Does JCL do the valving themselves? Also are we talking about a night and day difference in the way the work over the stock QA1 valving? Also what about price. I have found a place that I can get the shocks for $130 less springs.

Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:32 am

Puck wrote: I am getting ready to purchase some rear coil overs. I am planning on going to QA1 route. Mike, Does JCL do the valving themselves? Also are we talking about a night and day difference in the way the work over the stock QA1 valving? Also what about price. I have found a place that I can get the shocks for $130 less springs.

I believe JCL gives them a spec and its valved at that. If i remember correctly, he had two different set ups. a lighter version like what i run. (its stiff) and a heavy version that he puts on super street type cars.

how much differnt is it? i reallly have no idea. it cant be all that much different since they are adjustable. eventually you can find a range that works. For that matter, you can probably buy off the shelf stuff and if it doesnt work sent it back and ask to put some different range in it.

JCL has moved on to using Varishocks lately as well, becasue of the dual valving.

Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:26 am

Hi,
could someone tell me which Strange struts and coilovers will fit on a '65 bug? Specifically I would like to fit some UltraStruts w/ Hypercoils all around. Also, could someone please post a link or find a price for the specific ones that fit as I am having some trouble finding which fit on what. Thanks, Bugkiller.

Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:01 am

Bugkiller wrote: Hi,
could someone tell me which Strange struts and coilovers will fit on a '65 bug? Specifically I would like to fit some UltraStruts w/ Hypercoils all around. Also, could someone please post a link or find a price for the specific ones that fit as I am having some trouble finding which fit on what. Thanks, Bugkiller.

When you say struts, you know you are talking about a wish bone type bottom arm and a single mounting point up on top for the strut it self, Right? That means bascially a chassis car. the car year at that point will not mattter. at that point, you would purchase proper components and build around that. and if you are going coil overs in the rear, probably means you are doing a ladder bar and no torsion bar rear end, in a chassis car, and that is not year specific either. its about what fits the chassis frame it self.

Basically when fitting things like that, you need to figure out what full compression and extension lengths might be. If doing coil overs, you need to talk to the manufacturors about spring rates and weight of each corner of the car. So the car must be built to get an idea. Or a known chassis builder can do this ahead of time.

Now if you are talking about a regular bodied car with the conventional suspension, then you should stay far away from coil overs.

Getting shock length for this is as simple as taking your stock shocks and measuring lengths. (unless you chop, raise, narrow the rear, then things might change slightly)

If you like the idea of using Strange shocks for your standard bodied/suspension car, Give Ron Lummus Racing a call. I am pretty sure they now deal with their products. Chad is the person to talk to over there. (714) 630-2091 http://ronlummusracing.com/rlr2/race_store.htm

Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:16 pm

I intend to use a full tubular chassis and to raise the rear and lower the front quite a bit. I want to use struts for the front and coil overs for the rear. I am still looking for a good chassis or chassis builder. I still haven't gotten the bottom line on the shull racing(kevin shull) chassis'. I know they are custom, and that is what I am looking for but as a whole I would like to know how good his chassis' are. Thanks, Bugkiller.