January 17, 2014

Are Coil Overs Just for Track Junkies?

Aren't you a serious track junkie yet? If not you will be when your chassis is right and you have proper instructions and a few track events under your belt. The difference with coil overs is night and day, especially when you can adjust your car to perfect setups. We are on the phone teaching our customers this long after the sale. In time it is not hard to learn or understand.

Front-- All 05 up Mustangs are factory equipped with “Coil-Over” struts on the front. The difference in ours is:

• The damping rates and tune-ability
• The durability and consistency of the damper within the strut.
• Adjustable ride height
• Maintains full bump travel when lowered,
• Tire Clearance to be able to install 315 wide tires under stock fenders.
• Integral adjustable camber plate,
• Rigidity of construction- Zero flex at spindle mount,
• Light weight
• Best value on the market. There is nothing even close.

We have never found a conventional strut or rear shock from any manufacturer with damping curves optimized for what our cars need. These are not generic dampers like most shocks and struts which are the same from car to car, just adapted in their mountings. Also, the laser cut and CNC machined spindle mounting bracket and strut body are several times more rigid that any OE or after-market strut that uses the thin stamped OE spindle bracket that every strut we know of utilizes. This rigidity is apparent when under the load of hard braking and corner entry so that the geometry of the front end is not varying. Steering accuracy and durability is greatly improved under these conditions, as can be safety on the street or track.

Rear-- Our coil overs offer many advantages:

• From less unsprung weight
• Increased bump travel with car lowered (major issue on S197),
• Improved motion ratios against the springs which means stiffer roll resistance with less affect in ride harshness, which also means better corner exit traction with less compromise of mid corner balance.

Installing the same performing shocks and springs in the stock locations while increasing travel and providing ride height adjustment is heavier and more costly than to install our comparable coil overs, and you won't get the motion ratio improvement. So we don’t bother with conventional spring layouts. We sell kits that are superior in both performance and overall value. It would be a step backwards for us to offer the same old stuff.

Probably most important in answering this question is: If you convert your car to a full Griggs system including Coil-Overs, you certainly won't be disappointed in its performance. And as you mature as a track driver, you will be pleased that instead of out-growing other more conventional chassis set ups offered from competitors, you will be growing into your GR40 system. It will never become obsolete. Simple changes and adjustments will allow it to operate at peak performance no matter what you are doing with the car.