[Cobra #3170]

Against my better judgement here goes; How do you explain the desirability of having a shock that will allow you to set bump (compression) forces to practically any force velocity curve you could possibly need and adjust rebound forces to any force velocity curve you might want.

The difficulty with explaining is that cbreeze thinks of shocks in terms of 50/50 or 70/30 or other 1960's bump rebound relationships. With that level of understanding of course you would not think having a wide range of adjustment was necessary or desirable. I suggested the Carroll Smith book because if you read it you might appreciate the value of truly good adjustable shocks. You don't have to change springs or even do a track set ups to appreciate good shocks. You can adjust them to ride as smooth as glass and absorb really nasty bumps with ease or make them aggressive if you choose to do an autox or track day. Lesser shocks do not have that flexibility, they also have higher hysteresis values which is less desirable for ideal damping. Think of it as a delay in absorbtion forces when the shock rod changes direction.

How do you adjust them: We generally use a low value for bump so that the car handles bumps well. If the car is upset by a bump say the tire leaves the ground we might reduce bump force. If the car is really bouncy and appears to be bouncing on the tires we also reduce bump force. If the car hits its own bump stops going over a bump we increase the bump forces.

Rebound is a little different, if the car jacks down after multiple bumps it probably needs less rebound if it feels like it is uncontrolled and floating we add rebound. The shocks can also alter dynamic roll stiffness during initial corner turn in or power down at corner exit. We sometimes make a change then look at lap times and cornering G loads to see if it helped or hurt. Everything you do will have effects on something else sometimes good and sometimes bad. The whole point of all this talk is that you can make a good shock do anything you want and a bad shock will have severe limitations if you are trying for ideal damping for your particular vehicle. I am sure cbreez can think of a way to belittle this answer. Since I have made many many bad decisions on shocks in the past I am just trying to help my fellow Cobra owners avoid those bad decisions. If you do not care about ride or handling by all means choose the cheapest alternative. If you do consider buying the best. Perhaps it would be appropriate at this time for cbreez to share his experience level and background so that others can make a value judgement on his comments.