stano

I've had the opportunity to try a prototype set of PFADT Race Engineering's new Inverted Body 16 way Adjustable Sport Shocks. When I learned last month that they had a set of prototypes lying around, I thought I would get in touch with Aaron Pfadt and see if I just might be able to "test drive" them. Aaron said sure, no problem.

Previous shocks used: QA1s and the Koni 3013s.

Disclaimer: This is my subjective opinion of the new Sport Shocks from PFADT and is in no way posted for comparision purposes. I have not been paid by PFADT or reimbursed in any way for my opinions of this shock.

The shocks were very easy to install using the stock shock mounts. I also used the poly bushings provided with the shocks.

The shock has an inverted body for unsprung mass and has 16 adjustments. The adjustment **** is at the bottom of the shock where it mounts to the lower control arm and has easy access for simple adjustments front and rear. The front shock uses a spherical bearing for the lower mount.

After installing the shock and setting them at the #3 setting, I took the car for a drive. What I noticed right off was how smooth the shock felt. Not too soft and not too harsh. I then adjusted the shocks to the #6 setting and as expected, the ride firmed up but without any other drastic changes to the ride. Hmmm, I was very surprised. I pulled over and again adjusted the shocks to the #8 setting. Still no drastic changes to the ride other than it was a firmer ride. I was very impressed about how smooth each setting transition was. Very nice curve.

The next day I took a 275 mile trip over alot of different road conditions
( washboard, expansion joints, smooth roads, curvy roads and pot holed roads ) and the shocks felt good. No problems. In the curve sections, they REALLY felt smooth with great weight transfer and always in control...and this was at the #3 setting

I can't wait to try these out at Spring Mountain next month

Aaron said these were designed more towards track performance, but they felt awfully good on the street. I'm hoping for great results at the track.

psst, Aaron, how long did you say I could use these


Stano

Frenchican

Note to Aaron: Good luck getting them back.

Stano, you still owe me 10 bucks you schmuck!

Exterminator

Nice write up Stano. I'm eager to hear your impressions of how they perform at the track.

Poor-sha

I'm not clear, are these coilovers or new shocks that work with the stock leaf springs?

allanlaw

The latter - there's a post about them on the C6 tech section.

stano

Shhhh Tommy, maybe he'll forget I've got 'em

stano

Thanks!

If they perform as well as I've been told, they are keepers for sure. In my opinion they will be the best all around street ride/track shock that I've used....time will tell

I just walked in from a 160 mile ride with the wife and on the #4 setting, they were sweet riding. My wife even commented by saying "these are the best riding shocks that you've had on the car, especially on this road"

Look for my post shortly after April 6th

stano

I'm glad you sucked at math Tommy, your $10 is being over nighted

LPFSTheFett

How do you feel they would do on a drag strip on the softest setting?

Viscerl

If these work well, there are a few of us C6Z06 autoXers that are in the stock class (SS) that would sign up right away.

Is the adjustment compression, rebound, both? High speed or low speed or both?

AZ FASTEST

So how easy is it to access the adjustment ***** when the car is on the ground and the car has been lowered somewhat??

stano

I couldn't comment about that. You need to contact PFADT for their opinion. I'm concerned more with street/track manners, although I did drive with them on the softest setting this afternoon and it rode fine. I think they are geared more for track than drag racing. Aaron can chime in on that.

stano

This might help:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1941335

stano

My car is lowered about 3/4" and the access to the adjustments are easy. The fronts are very easy and the rears require more finesse, but very doable. I turn the front wheels for easy reach for that adjustment. The rears once you get the hang of it is easy as well. It just takes a few times. No big deal.

Aaron Pfadt

This is from the other post in AX&RR, but I thought it would be valuable to re-post it here.

Just for clarification for everyone reading, I'll define a few terms and then answer your questions. When people are talking about shock damping, they often throw out 'high speed' and 'low speed'. A common misconception is that it refers to the speed of the vehicle. Actually it refers to the speed of the shock shaft movement. Low speed damping is when the shaft speed is low (0 to 4 in/sec or so). That occurs mostly when the car is getting steering, acceleration or braking inputs. This low speed damping makes the car feel firm and responsive. High speed damping is generally road induced. It occurs when tire hits a disturbance and moves the wheel rapidly, less high speed damping is sometimes desirable from a ride quality standpoint.

Our inverts adjust both compression and rebound with one ****. That means if you stiffen the compression damping (wheel moving up), the rebound damping (wheel moving down) also gets stiffer. That is a great arrangement that offers a wide range of adjustability without the complexity of independent adjustment. It allows even a novice to tune the suspension and balance of the car based on the car's behavior.

To address the high speed/low speed discussion our adjustment controls the entire range of the damping curve from low speed to high speed. Some shocks (3-way and 4-way) have an independent adjustment for the low speed and high speed regimes. That allows a user to change the low speed behavior without affecting the high speed behavior. It can be a nice feature (look for it on some of our future coilover products), but it adds a lot of cost and complexity.

So in summary, our adjustment is of both rebound and compression and the entire speed range. What our shocks lack (as with most anything you can buy without adding a zero to the price) is some complex independent adjustments that need real data collection and analysis to take advantage of.

As always, we're around to answer any questions.

thanks,
Aaron

z06roadkiller

Now I know why I'm waiting for the right suspension package....Aaron when these are available to the general public please put me on your PM list

Bahnzii

Aaron that's great to hear you have a new design...

I liked the original shock performance, but my only complaint was having the adjustments at the top of the shock.

Sounds like these address that issue along with some obvious improvements