We recently wrapped up an exciting day of testing for our new Electronic Coilovers! Starting before sunrise on a huge parking lot at the California Speedway, we set up a long autocross track with a wide range of corners to put our new Coilovers through a final battery of extreme tests before our upcoming product launch.
The purpose was to determine the best of three damping setups to achieve fantastic street and track driving performance for classic muscle cars. These final valving configurations were derived from months of exhaustive road testing sessions and shock dyno work. Equally important, we needed to further subject our exclusive Coilover cockpit controller and the advanced Bluetooth wireless programming app to more extreme use. That’s right, these units are adjustable from your cell phone! To assist with the valve changes, the R&D team from Falcon Shocks stopped by with their fully equipped support trailer.
It was a long day on the tarmac and both cars performed flawlessly throughout the battery of tests. We made over 75 laps in our ’71 Camaro test car along with another 50 or more in our friend George Reiss’s ’72 Chevelle. To get the most feedback, we purposely had two completely different muscle cars between the small-block equipped Camaro and the heavier Chevelle with a 555c.i. big-block up front. Our engineer, Aaron Ogawa competed the bulk of the driving duties along with John Hotchkis, with George Riess racking up laps in his Chevelle.
Our Camaro was testing more than just the Coilovers – it is also equipped with our new 3-Link rear suspension package. The 3-Link was introduced at SEMA as a complete rear suspension system that produces maxium rear grip through superior articulation and geometry. The system is built around a Currie Turn 9 lightweight rear axle assembly and is secured through multi-position trailing arms and an adjustable Panhard Rod. Thus providing excellent axle stabilization, smooth travel, variable anti squat, pinion angle and roll center adjustment. Controlling rear roll is our blade style sway bar.
With the sun setting, both cars sucked down a couple tanks of 91 octane and were thoroughly put through the ringer. The vast information and hands-on experience with the new systems proved to be invaluable for our support team in understanding the capabilities of the new Coilovers, their vast adjustment range and absolute advantages.
Watch for the new Electronic Adjustable Coilovers and the Camaro 3-Link System soon!
