88 Let’s taLk shocks There are few places we never want to cut corners on with performance & race cars. Along with safety & brakes, shocks are right up there at the top. No other single component can have such a positive impact or negative impact as the shock absorber, aka “Dampers” as they are called in Europe. What a good shock can with the right valving can do for the handling of your race or track car is mind boggling. Check out the story later in the catalog about what we achieved with a GT Endurance Road Racing Team with the right shock and valving changes. There are a lot of things that affect the total performance of the shock. Materials & Manufacturing Diameter of Piston Quality Control Piston Design & Weight Internal Shock Design Bleed Circuit Seals & Surfaces inside Shock Oils/Fluids Valving Strategy As complex as that sounds … it’s really quite simple from my perspective  If the Internal Shock Design is inferior, it doesn’t matter what else we do.  We can make an inferior shock better or worse than it was, but was not make it a superior shock design.  Old Twin Tube design shocks respond in 25-30 milliseconds. That sounds fast, but it’s quite slow.  Well designed Monotube Shocks respond in about 5-6 milliseconds. That’s FAST. And we need the shock to be fast responding, because the asphalt surfaces we run on are NOT flat. No track is flat. If you & I grabbed a flashlight & a 10’ straight edge & went to the middle of any corner of any race track … we’d see 4-7 undulations in that 10’. At autocross cornering speeds of only 34 mph, we’d need the suspension … and the shock CONTROLLING the suspension to respond 4-7 in 2/10 of a second. If not … your tire is simply skipping from top to top of the undulations. No issues when the car is straight. But when you’re cornering … as hard & fast as you can … the instant the tire loses grip, that end of the car takes off toward the outside of the track. On a road course, with a 68 MPH corner, we’re asking the shocks to respond twice as quick … 4-7 times in 1/10 of a second. In short … the responsiveness of the shock is critical for grip. For that reason I do NOT work with, sell or revalve Twin tube shocks. Life is too short to drink cheap beer & race with cheap shocks. Ridetech, JRI & Certain Penske & ARS models are the only shocks I work with currently. Everything else is a waste of time & making your car slower for no good reason. You don’t have to spend a fortune on shocks. Stay within your budget. But pass on buying the chrome, double polished, whiz bang unobtanium valve … and get yourself some good shocks. The difference in grip is night & day. Regardless of talent level or experience, you will be amazed at the additional grip. Grip is your friend. Grip is safe speed. As far as my trick valving goes, I have done it in twin tube shocks when we raced in cost controlled series that didn't allow monotube shocks. But we cannot get anywhere near as aggressive with the valving, because twin tube shocks will lock up & skip over the undulations in the asphalt surface. (No asphalt is flat. Nada. None. All asphalt has undulations) For example, the meanest I can get with what we call "zero number" in a typical twin tube ... and keep the shock on the ground ... is about 150#. Where in a monotube, we run from 600# to 1200# often. Ridetech, Penske & JRI shocks with my valving are only available through RSRT & my dealers. The single adjustable Ridetechs with my Track-Star valving are $365. The triples are $825. Are they better? Yes. Worth it? Depends on your goals versus your budget. We run the triples when we have the budget. They are a little better responding & performing (5.5ms vs 6.0ms) but is that worth more than double? Not unless every lit bit of performance is valuable to you. The JRI triples respond around 5.0ms & cost $1295 each. That last little gain of grip is real, but it’s expensive. When you buy shocks from me … or have us revalve yours … I send you:  The dyno sheet showing your shocks valving front & rear  A quick 5-Point Guide on how to understand the dyno sheet  A baseline setup … a tuning guide … and my cell number to call me from the track Shocks