3-Way Damper Customization for Super Racing Suspension

This has been a long time coming. We’ve actually had 3-way damping (Rebound, Low-Speed Compression, & High-Speed Compression) technology for a long while now, made for our N1 suspension. But, it is very expensive and mainly reserved for race teams only. We also developed one for our Gr.N and 4×4 dampers, which are much more robust units, but these offered a wider range of tuning possibilities due to rally suspension needing the highest available tunability because of the higher piston speed range these dampers have. As you can imagine, this was an even more expensive unit.

4x4 damper

Here’s a 4×4 Damper with 3-Way Unit installed on the External Reservoir.

 

4x4 3 way

As you can see, the 3-Way Unit for our 4×4 Damper doesn’t look much different than the newer units we’ve just come out with. That’s because the new ones are nearly a direct derivative of the 4×4 Damper (and Gr.N) units, just much more affordable in terms of manufacturing cost. The technology, which is proprietary, is just about the same.

Now, we’ve developed a much more affordable (in comparison to the original units), less complex, and effective unit based around the Gr.N 3-way unit’s design that we will start doing testing on very soon!

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The 3-Way Unit (Silver) is made as an adaptive system to our Super Racing coilovers. We replace the original ADJ System, as we refer to it (or Compression Adjuster, if it’s easier) with our 3-Way Adjuster Unit. As you can see, we have two different designs depending on how we mount the external reservoir.

What’s so special about 3-Way damping? Well, this specifically affects the compression side of damping. The thing is, while we can easily tune a damper for what we believe to be the most ideal conditions, race cars see various changes in track surfaces that can affect their elapsed time. Race tracks can be a mix of glass-smooth surfaces followed by huge bumps or kerbs, and even expansion joints, or just rough surface transitions. This can unsettle a car quickly, and the less time on the throttle means seconds being added to the elapsed time.

Such surface transitions require a damper that responds to such instances by allowing the compression side to actually soften for a brief moment. If you think of it from your car’s tires’ aspect, an increase in damping force as piston speed increases can cause the tire to momentarily lose contact with the surface (hop). That means a loss in traction. Remember, a car maintains its best mechanical grip when all four tires maintain contact with the surface it rolls on, and that means the driver can keep on the throttle for a longer duration.

Many of you may have heard of “Digressive Valving” for dampers. What this means is that as damper piston speeds increase, the damping force has actually decreased (instead of increasing exponentially as this speed increases). Many dampers, by design, are technically digressive valving. However, the drop off in damping force may not be as much as some manufacturers are expecting. So, some may use some type of blow-off valve that opens extra ports as piston speeds increase instead of just relying on the shim stack assembly, and this creates a greater drop off in damping force as piston speed exceeds a certain level.

Low-speed, both in terms of vehicle speed and damping speed, is easier to control. There is very little resistance to the tires contact with the road surface. It is when vehicle speed or surface changes occur that mechanical grip becomes more of a concern.

To correct for such instances, race dampers have some form of high-speed damping control, and mainly on the compression side. This is where our new 3-way unit comes into play.

As mentioned before, we have already had versions of this, the most popular being on our Gr.N coilovers for rally. Think about the road surfaces that rally racing has- loose gravel, gaps, jumps. These are all things that can make a tire lose contact with the surface quickly. We’ve done really well with our 2-way adjustable Super Racing dampers, but as race cars get faster and faster, their suspension needs to cope with potential road surface transitions and react at a much quicker rate. We’ve been trying to get a 3-way version of the Super Racing dampers out to market, but it was just too expensive with our previous technology. So, we now hope to have something a bit more reasonable! However, we’ll only offer this as an upgrade under our overhaul service.

Also, if you’ve ever heard people talking about unsprung mass (weight not being supported by the suspension under gravity) as a concern, it is because heavy unsprung mass (tires, wheels, brakes, knuckle/hub, etc) can cause great upward deflection momentum, and that means a tire can lose contact with the road surface for much longer (in terms of fractions of a second). While we can try to combat that upward momentum by increasing spring rate (to try and speed up rebound force), it doesn’t benefit the compression side. In fact, this only exacerbates the problem with lost traction. What we want is a damper that has the ability to control a wider range of compression speeds. This will help keep the tires in traction, or as some people say- keeps the car planted.
For now we have only developed them as optional units for our Super Racing setup, and we’ll have one of our closest sponsored parties using them for this year’s Global Time Attack Super Lap Battle finale for the 2015 season. The racetrack, Buttonwillow Raceway Park, is a great test for us as the road surface has all sorts of transitions and undulations that can really hamper a vehicle’s ability to be fast.

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This 3-Way Unit is specifically for our “SA” type dampers, or dampers for double wishbone or multilink suspension. Basically it is directly mounted to the damper body.

 

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For our Strut Type suspension (Inverted monotube design), or where room doesn’t allow us to mount the external reservoir and 3-Way Unit directly to the damper body, we can do a remote setup, this give us some flexibility in mounting the external reservoir/3-Way Unit to the vehicle. As much as possible, though, we try to keep the remote hose as short as possible.

Stay tuned for more updates on our 3-Way testing.

3-Way Adjustable Dampers

While not known for having 3-Way adjustable dampers on our shelves available for customers, we do have the technology to add that to our 2-Way adjustable kits, such as our Super Racing dampers.

For those not familiar with 3-way adjustable suspension, it adds a high-speed compression adjustment. That’s the third extra “way” you can tune your suspension.

What’s the benefit?

Well, for one, there is no one setup that is ideal for all parts of the race track. Some portions of track may be relatively smooth, while other portions may have a rumble strip that you have to attack to put or keep you on the correct side of the racing line. So, with having both low-speed and high-speed compression adjustment, the end-user can have a setting that maintains vehicle posture through low-speed bumps where weight transferring isn’t too much of a concern, and on the high-speed bump, the wheel/tire for that specific corner can absorb a much larger impact and deflect quickly, reducing weight transfer and unloading on that wheel/tire. Maintaining tire traction is paramount, and having a low and high-speed compression setting is a huge benefit, providing a form of  “digressive” valving and a sense of duality for your suspension.

Smooth circuits may not seem to take much advantage of having a low and high-speed compression adjustment. In reality, it still makes plenty of sense to have such tuning ability. Again, maximizing tire grip by maintaining tire contact with the pavement means more time for the driver to hold their driving line and stay accelerating.

Smooth circuits may not seem to take much advantage of having a low and high-speed compression adjustment. In reality, it still makes plenty of sense to have such tuning ability. Again, maximizing tire grip by maintaining tire contact with the pavement means more time for the driver to hold their driving line and stay accelerating as long as possible.

This type of tuning is super critical in the world of rally racing, where TEIN engineers have been able to develop our 3+1 tuning (includes hydraulic bump stop) on gravel/dirt courses. Maintaining tire traction is even more important here as any wheel not on the ground translate into having no acceleration. Having such long stroke suspension for rally alone isn’t enough to maintain that traction. Superior ability to tune the suspension for such rough terrain will allow the driver to keep their foot on the gas pedal as long as they can.

Rally is a great example of how critical it is to maintain traction. Suspension tuning for both low and high-speed compression makes a  vast difference in how well the tire stays planted while doing much to dissipate weight transfer.

Rally is a great example of how critical it is to maintain traction. Suspension tuning for both low and high-speed compression makes a vast difference in how well the tire stays planted while doing much to dissipate weight transfer.

Tuning can be a little tricky for 3-way adjustable dampers, which is why it isn’t something readily offered as a kit. Not all customers need the extra feature, let alone know how to tune it. But, once you have a few track sessions and get the suspension dialed in for both low and high-speed compression, it can make your driving experience feel rather seamless.

Stateside, Evasive Motorsports has applied our 3-way adjustable dampers for the rear of their Time Attack Mitsubishi Evo IX. We’ve been able to help them dial in their suspension for the somewhat harsh Buttonwillow Raceway (here’s a link to some in-car footage to show you what it is like).

If you have a set of our 2-way adjustable dampers and want to make it a 3-way, give us a call and we can help you with that!