Race dampers for Prepared Class Poll

[BobWright]

Hello

Looks like I need a new suspension to try and keep up with you guys. Got a lot of feedback and am pretty sure that I want to upgrade the dampers, go to high spring rates and fine tune the setup a bit for next season. This one was installed a couple years ago when I was still driving the car 500 miles to the track and towing a trailer. It has 500/600 lb TCK D/A set up now. Looking at going to 800/900 springs and a set of true race dampers that can handle these spring rates.

Seems to be about (3) main choices for project and in no particular order

JRZ

AST

Moton


Now, there is one big difference for sure, the Motons are twice as much as the AST's. Thinking of staying with Double Adjustable, as I really don't want more things to adjust with my setup.

So, you e36 Prepared Class guys, vote away. And not to start another cat fight, other classes can vote and state their favorites, but am trying to hone in on the e36 M3 setup here.

Thanks and happy voting.

[D. Hitchcock]

I love my AST 4100s. Running them on an e30 for autoX with all the typical giblets.

d.hitchcock

[mcclaskz]

I'm sure everyone on the east coast will vote JRZs. They are obviously proven and have a ton of fast guys using them. I recently went with the ASTs as I didn't feel like forking over another $1k. I was convinced that RRT had done enough R&D to dial them in as much as the JRZs. My only experience is with ASTs, but my driving coach who spends a fair amount of time in a fast JRZ-IP car felt that the ASTs on my car were very similar. That being said, I have not even begun to turn the dials yet and am still shaking the car and driver out. Go with what your buddies have or get to know someone fast with whatever you choose.

[RacerX]

The AST's have not been out as long nor are they as common yet in Prepared class so there is not as much development. But the AST's are, to my knowledge, the only true double adjustable monotube set up currently legal for Prepared class. The monotube design is inherently better and the AST's started with a good design that has been improved by way of feedback and input from use already. There are some cars now running the AST's in Prepared and in prepared legal cars they have done well in GTS...Scott Berkowitz for example (I realize his car is not Prepared legal anymore).

We've done a lot of E30 development and some E336 (and E46 too) development and will be doing a lot more this year. Should be an interesting year all around.

EDIT: I wasn't aware that Moton had a prepared class legal damper set up.

Cheers.

[John in Houston]

I'm running AST 4200s on my E36 M3. SOLO and Time Trials. I have had zero issues with them and they guys who have driven the car on the track say that they handle as well, if not better, than the $$$$ dampers they have on their cars. For the money, they are an awesome damper.

[B.Watts]

Originally Posted by BobWright

Thinking of staying with Double Adjustable, as I really don't want more things to adjust with my setup.

You can't go more than double adjustable in Prepared anyway.

[SG_M3]

Moton has the new streetsport kits for the e92, e46 is supposted to be coming. Haven't heard on e36 fit.

I'm running JRZ and couldn't be happier. The after purchase support and setup info you get with purchase is spot on. You can win races on the baseline shock settings. I've used JRZ USA for service, and they were quick and kept me in the loop as to what was going on. Bob you know what the front running cars are using, there's a reason why.

[jcrist]

All of the ballers run JRZ, so I bought them. A great driver can get in my car and dial them up, hand it back to me and I go faster around the track. TONS of data gathered by Bimmerworld from the class winning prepared cars, it makes it easier for them to help their customers at the track.
With you running a bunch of events staffed by BW and full of BW cronies like myself, the JRZ's are the choice even assuming equal performance to the other procducts.

**Add story**
Flew to FL to pick up my car, bought on Ebay with 125k on the clock and drove it 12 hours back to VA.
Ripped out interior, installed JRZ's, seats, belts, roll bar and bolted up a set of K1's with RA-1s, changed the oil and headed to VIR.
Met Clay in the paddock to start my "boot camp" style coaching weekend. He went out during the lunch break to an audience of about 100 people at turn three and ripped off 2:12 after 2:12 in my bone-ass stock car - save the safety gear and the JRZ set-up.
Not saying that another damper couldn't have assisted in those times, but with knowledge base/experience with JRZ, BW was able to get it done STAT

...as you can tell by my Avatar, I am completely unbiased in my plug for BW.......

[dmwhite]

JRZ RS - the knowledgebase for setting up/dialing in these shocks is huge...no need for custom valving and the baseline settings will get you close to where you need to be...many prepared class racers have been very successful racing on jrz's

reliability/durability - i got one of the early sets of jrz's back in mid 2006 and have put a lot of miles/races on them...the only issue i've had in that time was that the adjuster on one of the shocks was getting difficult to turn (the shock still worked liked new and i ran several races with it like that) so i had that shock rebuilt...

[Michael015]

Lots of JRZ support and success no doubt. I'm not sure of the cost difference between JRZs and ASTs but RRT knows the ASTs and will provide support/setup assistance. RRT's ex E36 GTS2/JP ran ASTs and turned high 1:24 at SPR and low 2:15 at VIR with less than 200hp motor and no aero.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by Michael015

Lots of JRZ support and success no doubt. I'm not sure of the cost difference between JRZs and ASTs but RRT knows the ASTs and will provide support/setup assistance. RRT's ex E36 GTS2/JP ran ASTs and turned high 1:24 at SPR and low 2:15 at VIR with less than 200hp motor and no aero.

Yeah, the retail cost difference for an equal package is ~$670 or so (the JRZ's being the costlier option). There is more and more support as well as the AST's are developed. We are also offering a lot of support and have spent a fair bit of time at the track (not race weekends, specific test/tune days) on both E30 and E36 with more planned. We have a good prepared class baseline set up as I'm sure you guys do too. Plus the AST's come in a variety of offerings for different budgets yet still offering significant performance benefits - 4100's, 4200's, and 5100 inverted design.

The 4200's specifically have had several upgrades late this season and have gone from excellent to even better.

Cheers.

[JClark]

JRZs because the support for them is huge and very often at the track. A shock isnt worth anything if it isnt dialed in every time it hits the track.

[BobWright]

Originally Posted by B.Watts

You can't go more than double adjustable in Prepared anyway.

Were you born at a race track Mr. Watts ? You know everything !!

and obviously, I don't read the rule book often enough from cover to cover....oh the first 40 pages or so are good, but then......

[Bud Scott]

Bob, AST.............................cuz I said so.

[m3ltw98]

After hearing all the praise for the JRZs, I snagged a set and put them on my CMod car. Like Sean mentioned above, the baseline settings are almost spot on. One click of adjustment is quite noticeable and the support for them is huge.

[NeilM]

Leather washer friction dampers FTW!



None of that messy hydraulic oil, pressurized gas and special tools. Easy (not to mention frequent) adjustment with common hand tools, maybe a small rock. And check out that BBK!

Neil

[ssburns]

Originally Posted by NeilM

Leather washer friction dampers FTW!



None of that messy hydraulic oil, pressurized gas and special tools. Easy (not to mention frequent) adjustment with common hand tools, maybe a small rock. And check out that BBK!

Neil

And they automatically adjust for rain when the leather gets wet!

[TC Design]

We run the JRZ's on all the full build prepared cars we build. James Clay's feedback and help is great.

-tony

[///M3Augy]

AST's. Building a prepared car, have not raced yet though...

[scottbm3]

In 2008 I decided to make a switch in dampers and took some time to make my decision. I talked with some old CART/Indycar/Champcar/Sportscar engineer friends of mine, one of which is designing the USF1 car and is a racing shock specialist, having designed the Penske racing shocks and others. I know the JRZ's have become one the the most popular for Prepared class cars and a lot of the guys running them certainly are fast and had great results.

I decided on the AST 4200 D/A monotube dampers with support from Elephant Motorsports and AST USA. Since these were pretty new to the US. market I was aware that it was going to take some time to get them set-up with less data available in the road racing sector. I also knew they were willing to work together and provide technical support.

I've had great support and they have been updating my dampers as they change/update things. As I collect more data and do more set-up work I find the AST's to be as competitive as all the major players in the club level market.

Now that I'm no longer running in Prepared, I'll probably move to the AST 5000 series w/remote canisters sometime next season and probably a true rear coil over at some point.

As you can guess I voted for AST...


-Scott B.

[WnnaBRacr]

JRZ double adjustables. James' setup info is awesome!

[BobWright]

I stayed out of this thread for a few days on purpose, to let you boys have at it.

VERY interesting results. While the JRZ are very popular and have no doubt they are an excellent choice.....it stands out statistically to me that the newer AST's have as many votes ? Hmmmmmmm

[Greg S]

Is your car at min weight yet? Any aero?

[BobWright]

Greg, It will be light enough to add some ballast to balance it a bit next Spring...at least that is the plan. Have a home made Splitter on the front and will add dive planes...looking at an APR rear wing 61" wide GTC-300 type. My other choice is to rebuild the Koni based TC Kline dampers that are on there now. True Choice says they can revalve them to match up with 800/900 Lb. spring rates I plan to run next season. Looking at my budget and the GROWING list of things to do, I may have to go that route next season. My car was a street car from eBay, that I turned into a Track car and then got it prep'd just enough to meet the rules for IP this year. Point being, it was never really built from Day 1 to be a race car. I did a lot of the mods we like to see, but I need to rebush most/all of it and rebuild the diff, solid mounts on the drive line, etc. All of that stuff is going to eat a big chunk of my budget. The sad reality of it is....I can throw $ 6-8k into parts this off season tops. Still hoping for a Black Friday 50% off Sale at BWorld........you can post the ad any time now James

[///M3Augy]

Originally Posted by BobWright

Still hoping for a Black Friday 50% off Sale at BWorld........you can post the ad any time now James

Oh man that would be awesome.