SHOCKWORKS......simply the BEST!

xexr6t · 06-02-2013, 08:45 PM

I had some issues with my GT after having Pedders coilovers fitted by a local mechanic. There was a cluncking noise in the front of the car. It drove me insane, to the point I would not drive the car.

I toke the car to a local suspension specialist who did an "inspection" and told me the coilovers were crap and the upper control arm and castor bushes were shot (they showed me this on there shaker). They recomended new bushes and TEIN coilovers (at great expense by the way) as they were the local TEIN dealer. I thanked them for thier time and was on my way, still with a noisy car driving me nuts!

It broke my heart to see the GT sit in the driveway collecting dust, but driving it made me crazy. CLUNK......CLUNK......CLUNK!

I was about to put the factory springs and shocks in the car and admit defeat ( my wife thought I was crazy adding suspension to a new car). A conversation with Simon at NIZPRO put me onto SHOCKWORKS coilovers. Simon highly recommended them. It was worth a shot I had come this far and wanted to prove the wife wrong!

I ordered the coilovers and fitted them myself with some over the phone tech support from Brett ( tech support from the CEO how good is that!). During istallation I found the front left upper ball joint bolt loose. So much for the pedders install and suspension check! Dropped the car off the hoist and holly cr&p it was AWSOME and QUIET. I was over the moon.

BUT then............the CLUNK came back. I was devastated. I called Chris at SHOCKWORKS and organised for an inspection. They were very accomidating and wanted to get to the bottom of this CLUNK.

Brett and Chris with my GT on the hoist today. Brett checking the rear while Chris works at the front.

Brett installing the coilover for the fourth or fifth time!

Brett and Chris smilling after eliminating that dreaded CLUNK.

The SHOCKWORKS coilovers were PERFECT. That didnt stop Brett and Chris stipping them down to double check. The CLUNK was from a loose swaybar link no doubt from the previous pedders install. The guys reset my ride heights (355mm hub to gaurd) and removed the front spring preload.

My GT now wears these stickers with PRIDE

The drive back to the LaTrobe Valley from Monbulk was nothing short of AMAZING. A car this size should not handle this good, its crazy, and OEM QUEIT. The removal of that preload ( which I probably added with my own hamfisted instalation) has changed the car for the better. These coilovers are nothing short of AMAZING and to think I have them on full soft, I still have so much more to play with!

I,ll be at the All Ford show in Geelong on the 17th in my Shockworks T shirt ( thanks Brett) if you see me say G'day and ask about the coilovers, happy to recomend them and the great guys behind them.

dl86 · 07-02-2013, 03:49 PM

Great stuff! Can't wait to get mine. How hard were they to install? Any special tooling required? I'm thinking of installing mine DIY but only have a basic set of tools and no hoist.

Shockworks · 07-02-2013, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dl86

Great stuff! Can't wait to get mine. How hard were they to install? Any special tooling required? I'm thinking of installing mine DIY but only have a basic set of tools and no hoist.

Hey dl86,
The kit comes with C spanners to adjust but we can also set the rear spring perch and front for you. From there, you can make you own choice about your prefered height but sometimes lower is slower. We are always ready on the phone as well and ready to help.

It was so cool

to drive the GT again!!! It's been a couple of months since my last drive and have been flat out tuning other cars. Great feelings come back driving the beast again which is so fun to drive and I forgot how far we had got, with the Ford FG.

Cheers
Brett

xexr6t · 07-02-2013, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dl86

Great stuff! Can't wait to get mine. How hard were they to install? Any special tooling required? I'm thinking of installing mine DIY but only have a basic set of tools and no hoist.

If you were in Melbourne, or anywhere in Victoria for that matter, I would get Shockworks to install them. Brett and Chris were great resolving all the issues with my car even though not a single problem was from their coilovers.

DIY install was easy with simple tools and I did the rears at home on the garage floor. I think the rears are harder than the front. Only in that it was difficult to install the rear springs by myself.

The front strut allmost fall out when you undo the upper ball-joint bolt (and the top strut bolts, lower strut bolt of course). A little push down on the lower control arm and there out. Just put the new one in the reverse way.

Tips would be

1. No pre-load on the front coilover. I had 5mm on mine which Chris removed. This has made a massive difference to the car everywhere. We lowered the front another 10mm to match the rear, without the pre-load it wont bottom out like it did before even at the lower ride height.

2. Check everything is tight!!!! This caused all my issues, loose bolt and swaybar link CLUNK......CLUNK.....CLUNK

3. Tighten the rear shock and lower front strut bolts at ride height. This will take the stress out of those bushes.

4. Call Shockworks, they are great over the phone. All the advice and customer service you will ever need.

I drove the car again today and loved every minute off it. I live on the worst stretch of road in Australia possibly the world, now the GT handles it with ease. Cant wait to get this thing to Sandown on the 9th of March.

Thanks again Brett and Chris.

xexr6t · 08-02-2013, 10:15 AM

Couple of pics of the new ride height.

The handling at this height is unbeleivable. I can place the front of the car anywhere I want on the road and adjust it mid corner with ease. I hit a massive pot hole mid corner on the way home wednesday, the car never missed a beat. I said to my brother who was in the car with me did you feel that. He said I saw it but didnt feel a thing. Its like there is no rear wheels on the car. Everything I did with the front the rear just follwed with no fuss at all, its an amazing feeling. No rear steer or squirm or squat just follwed allong perfectly. Really hard to decribe how good this thing feels flying down a mountain road. Brett and Chris have done a great job on these coilovers.

Ill try to get some better ride height shots later today when the sun has shifted. Brett got some pictures the other day I hope will appear on Facebook soon

xexr6t · 08-02-2013, 02:07 PM

Stole this photo from Shockworks Facebook page. Shows the ride height perfectly.

Check the others pics out on the Shockworks Facebook page. I'd post a link but i'm not that tech savvy.

xexr6t · 16-02-2013, 05:05 PM

Washed and ready for an early morning drive to Geelong

Pepscobra · 07-03-2013, 06:21 PM

What do you mean by 'pre-load'??

comagutsa · 07-03-2013, 07:45 PM

what $ did they set you back

Herrod Motorsport · 07-03-2013, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by comagutsa

what $ did they set you back

We are now stocking shock works and in my opinion are the best coil over set up available for falcon , we have tested all the others on the market and have never been totally happy with what we have used
Give us a call for pricing

xexr6t · 07-03-2013, 08:51 PM

Good day when Rob Herrod hi-jacks ya thread! Maybe Rob could explain "pre-load" for us?

Herrod Motorsport · 07-03-2013, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xexr6t

Good day when Rob Herrod hi-jacks ya thread! Maybe Rob could explain "pre-load" for us?

It's is the pressure wound up on the spring , from the base. Most shocks use the shock body to wind the vehicle up or down and all the this does it put a pre load on the spring like it is being compressed . Shock works ride height is adjustable in a different way that does not put preload on the spring .

xexr6t · 07-03-2013, 09:04 PM

Thanks for that.

I am going to Sandown for a track day saturday. I will post some feedback on the Shockworks coilovers when I can.

Pepscobra · 07-03-2013, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herrod Motorsport

It's is the pressure wound up on the spring , from the base. Most shocks use the shock body to wind the vehicle up or down and all the this does it put a pre load on the spring like it is being compressed . Shock works ride height is adjustable in a different way that does not put preload on the spring .

I really don't understand that at all... by the nature of the springs, they are taking the weight of the car from the moment the wheels touch the ground and are always 'pre-loaded'.

I like the sound of these new shocks, especially if they have been personally endorsed by Herrod.

xexr6t · 07-03-2013, 10:00 PM

The coils are not always "pre-loaded" they are "loaded" with the weight of the car. The adjustable spring perch allows the coil to be loaded before the weight of the car is applied. Therefore "pre-loading" the spring.

MonsterFG T6 · 31-03-2013, 10:31 AM

So what would be rough price guide for a FG XR6Turbo coil's from shockwork's so I can save up for it. I have got few more litle things to do before I go down with shockwork set up, and on another note I know shockworks did work on Rspec so this had me thinking did rspec came with coil's or just standard schocks and springs but different settings. I'm asking cause my mate got an Rspec and it handles like no other GT before it and we were thinking that this should have been the way GT behaves form day one lol so much fun Rspec

Shockworks · 31-03-2013, 11:58 AM

Hi Monster FG,

The full coilover kit for the FG is $2000. It comes complete with new top mounts, dampers, springs and adjustable rear spring perch.
For the GTR-Spec we retuned the standard Sachs dampers, revised the spring rates, bushes at the top mounts, and did a whole bunch of laps to refine the handling of the new model. There are always some restrictions as to what we could do, due to Ford rules, but I think the package turned out pretty good considering we could not change too much and made some real improvements to lap times around Winton.
We had made improvements to handling before but got pinged by Ford management for ride quality and too much road texture. To this day, I still very much miss driving the GT on a daily basis and improveing the cars driving experience. They were a fantastic team at Prodrive and wasn't really like going to work at all. A great bunch of guys dedicated to making the Ford the best we could with the budget on hand!! I was very lucky to be invited to join the team.

Cheers

dusty86 · 01-04-2013, 09:13 PM

I forgot about you guys up in the hills, I have a friend who's dad is close friends with you, and I was at a wedding and he wanted me to take my sprinter to you (was his sons car) and get you to do a bit of a set up on it

Shockworks · 02-04-2013, 09:07 AM

Hi Dusty86,

Must be Johno's wedding you are refering to and what a great night.

We have a great kit for the AE86 and GT86. The AE86 kit has a big bore 50mm inverted monotube front strut with top mounts and base height adjustment. The rear has an adjustable spring perch and monotube rear damper with 12 stages of damping force. We have also developed our own very strong stub axle so we dont have to convert the original stubs to suit our strut. We have had great feedback from the customers who have bought the kit. All the tuning is performed around the Danenong ranges and is great for rough winding roads.

Below is a quote from one of our latest customers who has had his 86 for a while.
Quote:
Mind blowing. How can you have comfort AND increased handling at the same time? I was running the GReddy Type S kit previously, which was an awesome piece of kit. However, if a corner surface was irregular, or there was a variation in height, you could feel the tyres skip, and the car getting twitchy. When this happened, it was ha...rd for me to find the limit of adhesion because the feedback I was getting was irregular. It was really more at home on the track.
With Shockworks, you can take the corner in one fluid motion. I'd say the action is more 'mature' in a sense. The behaviour of the car is alot more predictive, because the feedback is constant allowing you to know exactly where you are in terms of tyre grip, over & understeer. Speaking of grip, there's too much of it! Seriously, where'd all this extra grip come from? It feels like I'm rotating the Earth with my wheels (which technically I am from a physics standpoint, but you get what I mean). Don't need a watts link to get that IRS feeling, just a set from Shockworks!

Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers

MonsterFG T6 · 03-04-2013, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shockworks

Hi Monster FG,

The full coilover kit for the FG is $2000. It comes complete with new top mounts, dampers, springs and adjustable rear spring perch.
For the GTR-Spec we retuned the standard Sachs dampers, revised the spring rates, bushes at the top mounts, and did a whole bunch of laps to refine the handling of the new model. There are always some restrictions as to what we could do, due to Ford rules, but I think the package turned out pretty good considering we could not change too much and made some real improvements to lap times around Winton.
We had made improvements to handling before but got pinged by Ford management for ride quality and too much road texture. To this day, I still very much miss driving the GT on a daily basis and improveing the cars driving experience. They were a fantastic team at Prodrive and wasn't really like going to work at all. A great bunch of guys dedicated to making the Ford the best we could with the budget on hand!! I was very lucky to be invited to join the team.

Cheers

Tnx for the info, when Im ready I will be getting in touch and if it wasnt for rspec I probably wouldnt find out about you guys. Friend of mine got an rspec and it handles so much better than his GT. Tnx again.

Pepscobra · 03-04-2013, 02:40 PM

Do you guys really do work directly for FPV in setting up their suspension?
Do they use your products on any of their cars?
Do ShockWorks make their own shocks? or do they start off as another brand that you modify?
Pity I didnt know about you guys when I installed my Teins.

Shockworks · 03-04-2013, 02:59 PM

Hi Pepscobra,

I was one of the test engineers in the team and who was responsable for the damper tuning of the FPV range from BA-BF and then the later FG GT Black and then the GTR Spec.
They did not use any of the Shockworks products as I was employed by Prodrive and started Shockworks after I left the company.
We use the Base damper from Neotech in Korea with our piston and adjustment design.
We looked everywhere for a damper that we could sell, tune, develop and improve. Alot of dampers look great on the outside but when we performed teardown checks we found the qualiy of the internal components to be quite bad. Then we ordered a set of Neotech dampers from Korea and bingo! The quality of the internal components were more of the OEM quality I was used to so we went to Korea and check all outsourced suppliers, internal quality checks and many different things required to make a good quality and robust damper. We then worked together to develop a new piston design which gave us a massive tuning range of forces. We have been working with the team in Korea for 2 years now and could not be happier.
I am travelling to Korea next week to support the chassis tuning of the V8 supercar series in Korea using the same design dampers we use in the Ford.
I hope the background helps mate.
Cheers.

Pepscobra · 03-04-2013, 03:24 PM

Cheers mate, that is an impressive summary.
Good luck with your new and future products, by all accounts they seem to be quality stuff.
Will definately keep them in mind next time around.
Joe.

btw, who makes your springs for you?
I'm particularly interested in what you may have developed for the leaf spring utes. This is something I'm still looking to improve. When you were at Prodrive, did you also work on the BF Super Pursuit suspension?

Whitey-AMG · 07-05-2013, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xexr6t

The handling at this height is unbeleivable. I can place the front of the car anywhere I want on the road and adjust it mid corner with ease. I hit a massive pot hole mid corner on the way home wednesday, the car never missed a beat. I said to my brother who was in the car with me did you feel that. He said I saw it but didnt feel a thing. Its like there is no rear wheels on the car. Everything I did with the front the rear just follwed with no fuss at all, its an amazing feeling. No rear steer or squirm or squat just follwed allong perfectly. Really hard to decribe how good this thing feels flying down a mountain road. Brett and Chris have done a great job on these coilovers.

Ill try to get some better ride height shots later today when the sun has shifted. Brett got some pictures the other day I hope will appear on Facebook soon

Now that you've had these coilovers for a while.....what's the latest? How are they holding up.... Any issues.
Still happy with them.