Here's why shocks are most important.... They are always in play. Anytime the car is moving, the shocks are doing work. Ok, the chassis is too, but obvious just driving down a street isn't inducing a lot of flex in the car. The reason why SFC's make the car feel better is they take the "spring" out of the chassis. That makes what ever suspension parts you have (good or bad) work better.

But, I don't have SFC's (can't by the rules of the class I race in), and me and my car can routinely beat Z06's, and fast ones, not some newbie showing up for the first time.

What do the shocks fix? The disconnected feeling. The bobbing, the floating, the small corrections you always have to make to keep the car tracking right where you want. The feeling of the front and rear ends of the car being connected by a rubber band (where the front does X and the rear does Y). Ride harshness is greatly improved with better dampers. Response gets MUCH quicker, roll rate is generated much more slowly too. BTW, that's such a big difference that many folks tell me how their car rolls less after good shocks are installed (note *good* shocks, not just any shock)...... Well, yes and no, the car will eventually roll just as much if you didn't change springs or bars, but the trick is that is rolls so much more slowly, less violently that it acutally feels like it's rolling a lot less. Some instances like quick change of directions it will roll less simply because you get done turning before the car ever had a chance to roll completely over.

Bilstein HD's are good shocks, but are still a bit too soft for folks who really want the chassis to work as well as it can. This partially explains the reason that some folks feel the SFC's were a bigger gain, because they left something on the table with the shocks they picked. I can tell you this, I sell a LOT of Bilstein HD's, I sell a LOT of Bilstein's I Revalve to improve the performance on, and I sell a LOT of Koni's. Really, I'd only recommend Bilstein HD's for folks looking to help the car, but who primarily use it as a driver. For those who like to corner carve, or have lowering springs, or just really want the best damping they can get, I will not use a standard HD. Great quality, great price, better damping than stock (not hard to do BTW), but lacking rebound control in the long run.

 

I heard that taking out the right rear shock helps you hook better. Is there any validity to this?

 

No.

The lack of rebound damping (from having no shock) will allow the torque of the motor to bounce the tire into the air and if it goes anywhere at all, it will probably make a hard right turn (into the wall?). Do not drive a car with no shocks...EVER. The results can be very unpleasant.

Last weekend at VIR, we had a 88 Trans Am (road race car) break a shock on the last lap and the coil spring fell out of that corner as well. It was not a good situation. Luckly, the car came home in one piece and the driver was fine (it may not always go that way).

Be safe!

 

Billingsley's Strange rear shocks helped me out ALOT

LCA's are also really good to get

 

SFC's........................

 

Since only straight line racing.... Forget adding stuff... Remove stuff..

Remove the seats, remove the spare, remove the jack, remove the swaybars... remove the catback... If you have a sub.. remove the sub... remove the AMP remove the wires and you can remove all the seats except the driver's seat..

 

SFCs!!!

 

don't remove the catback. thats 50 pounds right where you need it..... BEHIND THE BACK TIRES lifting the front end up!

 

In my opinion, tires are a piece of the suspension and you will see the most drastic change in the performance of your car by putting a sticky set of tires on. This applies to tires made for drag racing and road racing.

 

Single best suspension mod you can make is a set of subframe connectors. Everything else helps with handling, but this will save you lots of money down the road.