1 FMF

iTrader: (1)

hit me with a recommendation for best springs and shocks for a 2002 camaro ss having a s60 rear axle and oem wheels 275/40-17.

looking for best ride quality, don't want harshness or my teeth rattled.
not looking to lower car - need the 3.5" drive shaft to clear body, at most a 1" drop.

car came with bilstein level 1 suspension, so i have the 35mm front sway bar, and I think the rear is 22mm.

JD_AMG

"best" ride depends on how you like the car to ride, whether it be really mushy and floaty like a 90s buick or firm, planted/taut but not jarring like a modern day sports sedan.
Stock springs will ride best, no doubt about that, but shocks will be key here to how you want it to ride.
The bilstiens you have now (or replacement SLP/HDs) will be arguably the "best" ride you can get if you want a firm, planted ride that isn't harsh that is a little on the softer side for a sport shock. Koni STR.Ts should be a little more firm than the bilstiens, and Koni sports will be further more firm but still really compliant (fantastic road feel and handling).
If you get an OEM autozone style (monroe for example, I think they may have delphi shocks too?) replacement you will likely have a more mushy, soft, floaty type of ride. Same deal on some more drag style shocks like QA1/Viking will be more floaty and loose compared to a sport style shock, although from my experience can be much more harsh on bumps due to lack of control.

UMI Tech

Viking now has road race shocks and street handling shocks. The "drag only" is from years ago.

JD_AMG

Works the same way though, still a twin tube with no gas charge and the adjuster doesn't do anything to the piston. Will leave the car feeling more floaty and loose than a sport shock.
Was told the same thing about QA1s being for "handling" before but Ive been on those and they were a far cry from a sport shock in terms of ride, handling, feel or adjustment.

z28_theantirice

iTrader: (2)

I have an S60 in my car and run RideTech's Stage 2 kit, its a really nice setup.

MidwestChassis2

iTrader: (1)

The problem is comparing Qa1 to anything else on the market. Quality isn't even in the same ballpark.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

Just to cover the easy clarification first, your front sway bar will be a 32mm front and 22mm rear.

If you are looking for ride quality, shocks will be the biggest key factor in this. Stock springs can ride decent, but dont expect great handling performance from them. You could leave your stock springs and pair them with a Koni Str.t for a good riding combination for a smooth riding daily driver.

If you are looking for a more double duty setup, I would look towards something like the Viking coil-overs. This gives you spring rate options and a wide range of valving adjustment to dial in the ride comfort you want while being able to retain stock ride height

blackandgold

iTrader: (2)

What is the difference between qa1 and viking? Like JD said, they're both twin tube non-gas charged and run their adjustment on the shock body instead of the piston. AFAIK Viking is just some guy from qa1 who broke off to do his own thing, so I'd expect the quality is similar.

That's not to say they are bad, but there are better options for handling.

MidwestChassis2

iTrader: (1)

Quality Qa1 has never been known to have it and there is a huge quality difference between the two.

blackandgold

iTrader: (2)

So like better material quality, machining processes or all together different alloys used in the parts? I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but recommending them as better vaguely based on quality seems hard to back up. I've held both qa1 and viking shocks in my hands albeit not back to back, but I wouldn't have been able to differentiate between the two based on the "feel".

If you're saying qa1 wasn't known for quality, but that when a few guys left qa1 to start viking they magically got it right I'm genuinely curious what they changed.

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

^im curious to hear more on that as well. Finding out the same person from QA1 had a hand in the vikings kept me from even trying them. Nothing against him I just rode the qa1's on a street car for a while since they were pitched as a "handling" setup and i wanted no part of something similar.

OP- Im running a 9" on my car from strange and had the qa1 setup on it......didnt like it. Ive now switched to ridetechs lvl 2 kit but the car has been down since the install so I cant report on how they perform yet, but I can say I am really excited about them.

MidwestChassis2

iTrader: (1)

Holding a shock in your hand tells you nothing nor looking at one. We are talking performance, reliability, and consistency in a product. We have sold hundreds of Viking shocks and yet to have a warranty issue plus how they react to changes when trying to set up a chassis.

Easiest way for me to explain is we had a local customer with brand new Qa1 and refused to give them up. The car would either go on the bumper or blow the tires off. He struggled with this for years refusing thinking it was the shocks.

We put him in a quality shock and the car has been dead consistent ever since. This is a 6-speed N20 combination and it needs consistency as it runs a bracket class. Not to mention his old shocks started to leak in the first year.

Second example we set up the chassis for the record holding wheel stand competition vehicle and the swap to Viking took him from being inconstant to getting the record.

The Viking shocks have taken the abuse this car has given them over and over again.

5.7stroker

iTrader: (36)

I have the Viking double adj coil over kit and I love it. Do it once and do it right.

blackandgold

iTrader: (2)

So they used a different piston design, different fluid, tighter tolerances, larger range of adjustment, lighter materials or ....? I'll stop derailing this thread, but when I look at two shocks that are the same technology (twin tube, non-gas charged, adjustment on the shock body) that have been built by the same people it's hard to settle for "this one is just better". </rant>

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

I'm failing to the connection here showing two top performer drag setups doesnt really answer the questions to me as to why these are great handling shocks. the qa1's are excellent at weight transfer in quick transition because they dont give. But applying that same transfer gradually like into a hard corner or even less so and they begin to sink down (in my experience) and are super slow to react on the rebound. In the early days qa1 was selling a 325lbs front spring and calling it a handling setup. Now a days we have a similar designed shock running 600lbs springs so essentially the spring is taking more of the brunt of the shock to compensate for its weak points. Does this make a better handling car? thats a legit question as I have not set in one with this setup. Again this all boils down to street car not a top tier auto x or drag setup. I still think someone wanting a nice handling sreet car that can take your average curvy road at over the speedlimit by 10 still wont find what they are after.

MidwestChassis2

iTrader: (1)

That's just it they are not the same people, that is like saying every vendor on here makes the same stuff because they sell like items.

Viking is a great group of people, call or email them they will be more than happy to tell you why they are better based off of the finer details if that is what you are interested in as they know their product rather well as well as Qa1.

We do not build their shocks but what we do is constantly test product to give our customer the best bang for their money and Viking has out performed any vehicle that previously had Qa1.

We used to have this same discussion years ago before Viking when Strange was the best bang for the buck. We look at performance, reliability, and consistency from doing our own testing. This way we can make sure our customers get a good quality item.

Viking does test their product in multiple different Auto-X events and if memory serves me correct sponsor a few different events.

5.7stroker

iTrader: (36)

Why isn't there any articles comparing:

Viking
RideTech
Strano/UMI coilover kit
QA1

I'd be very interested in a 3rd party testing all these setups and then publishing the results for both street and strip use. I'm talking a full review. Does this make too much sense?

blackandgold

iTrader: (2)

Unfortunately no one has them all (not many are going to drop $6k to test setups they aren't interested in).

The other thing is that in the opinions of a fair amount of this board they aren't worth directly comparing: Viking and qa1 are twin tube, non-gas charged drag shocks that are very good at making your car go fast in a straight line while the UMI/Strano setup, koni or Ridetech use a gas charged mono-tube shock very good at making your car go right or left. The closest comparison you'll see is the UMI Auto-X car that ran vikings for a season and switched to the UMI/Strano setup while they were developing that.

Lots of vendors on here push the Viking stuff pretty hard because most people are interested more in street/strip than street/auto-x, but then have to reference the crusader series to get the valving correct for stiffer springs which then puts you in the price range of the more handling oriented mono-tube shocks with gas charging and adjustment on the piston.

In this case I was calling out the qa1 vs viking comparison because as far as I can tell they're the same shock, MWC is saying viking is better and they have fast strip cars, but what I'm asking is how are they better.

JD_AMG

Thats weird, a quick google search shows that husband/wife Chris King and Christina king, current CEO and president of viking both worked for QA1, and christina was the executive VP for 18 years for them.
I don't think anyone is saying they are bad people or deceptive or anything, its just that there are better options out there for our cars when it comes to street and handling applications and a non-gas charged twin tube shock will never be an ideal design for handling.

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

Well I have half that list covered haha.