Do I really need inverted struts?

[baby_Carlton]

Hi all,

I'm tackling suspension and chosen to go with a coil-over conversion.

I've looked into companies such as Stance, BC Racing, Ground Control, and Arizona Z Car.  I notice that a big selling points for some of these companies is the inverted strut design they use for their shocks.

From my research I've pulled the following pros and cons to inverted struts.

Pros:
-Shock is less prone to leaking

-Shock body (sort of) acts as a suspension arm (in the MacPherson Strut design)

-Even compression within the shock
-Lower temperature of shock oil during compression

 

Cons:
-Clunking (a lot of Subaru guys get this, is it just an OEM shock thing?)

-Cost

-Adjusting the stiffness of rebound/compression is less convenient

 

Because I don't foresee myself ever using stickier rubber than street-able r-comps (think Advan A048) and considering my car is my daily (I go to Laguna Seca twice or three times a month), would it be wiser to go the DIY Ground Control conversion route or would it be worth it to drop ~1500 dollars on Stance/Arizona Z Car coil overs?

Thanks,
Liam

[BluDestiny]

 (I go to Laguna Seca twice or three times a month)

That's more than a good portion of members on hybridz go to tracks I can assure you. 

 

As for actually having them, if you adjust your suspension a lot (like for each time you go on and off the track, then I would go with the koni/gc setup for ease of dialing in your preference. As for actual performance I'm sure there are people much more technical than me. 

[johnc]

Your pros and cons are wrong. Very wrong.

 

Inverted shocks are nothing new (at least 50 year old tech) and provide no adavantage to a production based car who's unsprung weight is close to 100 lbs per corner. In the formula car world (where inverted shocks were developed in the late 1960s) the reduction of unsprung weight by 5 lbs is significant.

 

Now "inverted shocks" is a marketing term used to convince Internet Engineers to buy another shock with shit valuing and junk quality control.

[johnc]

The above being said, Bilstein P30s, 32s, 34s, and 36s are an inverted design and are a very good off the shelf shocks. But they are good shocks primarily because of their valving design and quality.

[JMortensen]

I would bet that the problem with the Subarus has more to do with installing camber plates than it does installing inverted struts. The struts themselves aren't any more noisy, but a monoball/pillow ball/whatever you want to call it mount in a camber plate can clunk. Mine did with Tokico Illuminas, which are an upright twin tube shock.

 

Good (although getting dated) info here: http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets18.html

[James2785]

I have the Stance kit with Sakura Garage camber plates on my 280Z. I am going to my first autocross and track day next month so I can't speak to how they are on the track yet, but they have been fantastic in the mountains and are comfortable enough for daily driving. They are stiff and the pillow ball introduces some road noise inside the car. No clunking though.

 

As for adjustment, the clickers are on the bottom but Stance has a remote adjuster available that drops through a slot in the adapter tube. If you're making adjustments often you will probably want these.

[Tworeddice]

No you don't need them, and neither design is better than the other in my opinion there are pros and cons to each neither really affect drivability, figure out your budget, decide what you want for adjustability, and find what fits closesets to that inverted or not.

 

Feal suspension for example doesn't make an inverted start design. Awesome shocks to.

Edited December 5, 2015 by Tworeddice