Interest Check - Custom Valved Struts

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

Ok, after some long discussions with some folks far more knowledgable about shock tuning than me; we all came to the conclusion that the current crop of struts/shocks available for the Contour aren't that good. A good example is the Koni, where they simply took the stock curves and bumped both the compression and rebound up by about 10-15% so it "feels" better. Maybe a little faster than stock, but certainly not the right way to do it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, a friend of mine is looking into making some custom valved shocks for the contour. The guy working on this and his wife are both highly respected national level auto-X'ers, so they will no doubt be geared toward that purpose, but would still be much better than anything presently available for road course use, as well as auto-X, and would still be pretty good for ride.

I'm wondering how many folks would be seriously interested in a set of these if he were to make them? Price-wise, we would be talking more than any of the other offerings right now, because they will be custom valved, but still likely ~$800 or less for all four corners. (keep in mind, a proper set of custom shocks/struts for our race mustangs cost in the neighborhood of $10k so this is a heck of a deal.)

Anyway, post up if you would be seriously interested so I can try to light a fire under him

I'm in, but not right away...

Seems cheaper to get your Konis rebuilt/revalved (at which time they can take custom requests.)

Of course, if you don't already have Konis....

Originally posted by Rara:
A good example is the Koni, where they simply took the stock curves and bumped both the compression and rebound up by about 10-15% so it "feels" better. Maybe a little faster than stock, but certainly not the right way to do it.

1. Where did you get this information? Is this published data, or results from a shock dyno?

2. If doing it the "right way," what is the difference in the resultant curves from what Koni came up with?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, just to understand/qualify the data you're presenting.

Originally posted by RogerB:

1. Where did you get this information? Is this published data, or results from a shock dyno?

The information comes from several verbal discussions some friends of mine have had with Koni engineers.

Originally posted by RogerB:

2. If doing it the "right way," what is the difference in the resultant curves from what Koni came up with?

The most obvious issue is in rebound damping. Koni increases it arbitrarily, as do most other aftermarket shock manufacturers, and track testing of the CSVT shows that this is the wrong way to make the car faster. What it does do, is it makes the car "feel" like it is way more tightly controlled, when in fact, its TOO tightly controlled and not letting the tire do everything it can for grip.

Originally posted by RogerB:

I'm not trying to be argumentative, just to understand/qualify the data you're presenting.

No sweat, no offense taken. I'm just having difficulty explaining some of this, because I really don't want to badmouth parts that people have on thier cars, and some of the knowledge involved for this specific application is not something I want to share publicly . . .

I may be interested depending on the time frame. I'm in need of a good upgrade and this sounds like the one! I just went through my suspension and found 1 broken spring (passenger rear). The struts are monroe sensatracs...from the previous owner. This stuff needs to be replaced soon.

Are these struts going to be revalved Koni's? Also, any recomendations on springs with this package?

Who would be doing the work, and are they on the Koni strut? Only three companies do Koni work in the US -- Koni, ProParts and Predator.

Originally posted by weargle:
Who would be doing the work, and are they on the Koni strut? Only three companies do Koni work in the US -- Koni, ProParts and Predator.

What about TrueChoice?

These would likely not be based off the Konis, but probably a european Bilstien strut. The custom valving would be done by a friend and fellow racer.

I am presently out of town for racing (runing at Laguna Seca tomorrow) but when I get home in a week and a half, I'm supposed to touch base w/ my buddy about these struts. Barring any financial issues, I plan to have a set done for me at least, and he would be doing a set for his wife's car too.

Does this kit also come with springs? Or just struts, and we need to find springs to match?

This would only be struts.

but they would be valved to match a set of currently available springs. We just haven't figured out which ones are best yet.

Haven't forgotten about this one, just haven't been home much . . .

but, it seems moot since there is only a couple guys interested anyway. It seems as if most folks are only interested in having the right "brand" parts on thier cars instead of actually making real improvements.