Dylan Savage

Hi all - I just completed purchase of my 2000 Millenium Yellow Coupe, and it has the base suspension (FE1). I can already tell the ride is underdamped, so I need some better shocks. I'd like for them to be adjustible. What options are there? I know there are Konis, but they are fairly expensive.. what kind of shocks are all you guys using? This is going to be a cruiser/daily car with 4-5 track events per year thrown in.

Thanks!

Buck96LT4

Dylan,

A search should turn up several good past threads on shocks. Everyone has their favorite. I went with the HAL QA1's. I do street, autox, open track, drag and wanted the wide range of adjustibility they offer. I have since went to the 88+ Z51 springs and the shocks easily keep up. They work perfect for what I do and would not trade them for any other shock.

Here's a write up on my web site from when I first put them on.

http://www.buckmorris.com/tech.htm

Buck.

Mr6spd

Buck,

I recently purchased a set of the QA1 shocks. The rear shocks are massively stiffer than the front shocks, for any given adjustment setting. Are yours the same way? With the rears on the third click from soft, I can not move the shaft at all, with my whole body weight.

0C5stein

Hi I'm Mark from MSI.
We aften recommend the QA1 adjustable for exactly what you are planning on doing.

We sell QA1, Bilstein, Penske, Ohlins, Pro & Edelbrock. I think that the QA1s are just what you are looking for. I believe that they just went on GP on our web site at http://www.motorsportimage.com. They are much less expensive than alot of the other adjustables.

If you decide that you want them to only adjust rebound, we can make a small internal change to the valving and fix the compression. We have shock dyno facility and can tune shocks to what you want.

Mr6spd

Hello Mark,

Perhaps you are in the most knowledgeble position to answer my question above, about the relative stiffness of the Rear vs. Front shocks.

0C5stein

Mr6spd,
Almost all of the QA1s are too stiff to easily move at much above 3. We don't even Dyno them at above 6 unless we have to as you can really hear the dyno straining.

Mr6spd

Mark,

Could you modify my QA1 shocks to give them a more useable range (softer),while still keeping the double adjustability? It would also be nice to get the softest setting on the fronts to be even looser for drag racing events. If you can indeed shift the whole adjustment range softer, what would you charge for this service?

RedZ

I chose the koni single adjustable for autox and track days (road course not drag). They are a little cheaper than QA1's (not much) and arguably a better race shock design (I don't want to argue about it, there are plenty of threads on the subject). They can also be upgraded to a double adjustable by the factory, for a fee of course.

$216 a piece from tirerack.

John Shiels

:iagree:

John Shiels

Which number did you buy on the koni's? What is the price to make them double adjustable at a later point? Thanks!

Dylan Savage

When I put in 2000 Corvette on tirerack.com all I got were Koni "reds" and it didn't say anything about adjustibility... are these the right ones?

Dylan Savage

C5Stein - I tried to hit your site, but a message saying it's down or the domain name is for sale came up. What is your price on the QA1's? Thanks!

0C5stein

Mr6spd,
My shock guy is back in Charlotte for the week and I don't want to speak out of turn. To my recollection, you can't change the split from the factory valve pairings (ie. softer compression settings), If we convert them over to fixed compression and adjustable rebound, we can give you a more comfortable compression valving making higher rebound values available without knocking your fillings out and neccesatating a trip to the dentist, or conversly soften up the rebound to let the nose rise while keeping a decient compression setting. We usually sell the Pro's to those looking for rebound adjustable only which is the hot setup for the front for drag racing.

I hope this answers your question. If not let me know and I'll pass it on to Mike when he gets home from his trip.

0C5stein

Dylan,

Try this, http://www.motorsportimage.com/GroupPurchase/GP.htm
Dewayne put them up for 899.95, one at a time, If we get 5 sets by July 1st I'll knock 5% off. Ten sets and I'll go 10% off.

Let me know if MSI can help out.

RedZ

3013-1023 (front) 3013-1024 (rear). I can't remember the exact price to make them DA, but I seem to remember around $2?? a piece. To be certain you can call koni north america @(859) 586-4100 and find out. I believe this is basically an upgrade to the equivalent of there 28 series Double adjustable race shock. In the end its about the same price you would pay for the Double adjustable.

yes those are the ones. I called and ordered and made sure they were the 3013's



[Modified by RedZ, 12:24 AM 5/14/2003]

John Shiels

To make them double adjustable is about 350.00 EA :eek:

I'll probably order some from VBP tomorrow. SA ones they cut me a good deal. :D

vette.se

I'm running with Ohlins 46HRC 2-way 20 step adjustable shocks. Would never trade them for anything else.

As always you must decide about how much money you are willing to spend, the Ohlins is $3800 for all four corners. The HAL's are $1050 for all four corners and are the cheapest I know about.

0C5stein

Dylan,
Sean is right. The Ohlin's are awesome, and if you want them we can hook you up with those too. As you can see by sean's post, MSI's price on QA1s will save you at least $150.

Dylan Savage

C5Stein - how long are the QA1's compared to the stock shocks?

0C5stein

Dylan,
I just threw out the last set of stock shocks, so I won't be able to give you that measurement very soon. I have the QA1s in the showroom so I'll measure them tomorrow.

If anyone has some stock shocks kicking around, the fronts should be measured from the bottom of the Bar Pin to the shoulder of the bayonet mount (where the cupped washer for the compression bushing at the top of the shock would sit), for the rear, give us the bottom bolt center line to the same shoulder of bayonet mount at the top of the shock shaft.

I'm guessing that fully compressed is the measurement that Dylan is looking for, but fully extended length would probably answer all of his question.