L1's Garage

Hi! Curious about cars and suspensions. Can you briefly explain these?

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Donut Media goes pretty indepth with it. Especially if you are looking at aftermarket.

I’m going to go off some assumptions but in this guy’s case:
Long travel typically means the suspension can travel/droop more.
So just some BS numbers cause I can’t find the real numbers quickly, lets say a stock 2001 Tacoma can compress up until the suspension bottoms out, then the range it can drop/droop down until it stops any further downward motion is say 12" (measuring from a point such as the center of the hub). A mid travel upgrade might let you droop down to 15 or 16", and a long travel kit maybe 18" or more. Long travel typically extends the lower control arm more so that the same stroke length of a shock nets a longer droop range.

This allows for those crazy vids you can find on youtube, Icon’s IG account etc of trucks ripping through really rough terrain at high speed. The suspension allows the wheels to droop down very low in ditch, and then absorb a long distance of travel before bottoming out.

Watch vids of the long travel trucks driving through whoops and washboard paths at highway speeds as they stay nearly totally level and smooth, its just awesome.

Those rear shocks are bypass shocks. Click here

In short, they offer a wide array of dampening range through the stroke. So say you hit a rut, bump etc really fast, instead of bottoming out horribly, as the shock travels through its stroke the resistance to compression increases massively.

The large external reservoirs are to reduce heat soak and heat fade of the oil used in the shocks.

The brand being King, they are most likely what is called a linear shock. There are shocks that are progressive, linear and digressive and weird mixes. For example many people simply write off Icon shocks as digressive, but they have a weird stiff low speed setting, a fast fall-off and then a tapering bell curve back into stiffness. This is their attempt to offer stiff slow speed dampening for street driving (less body roll when taking a corner) but softer ride as you start to ride over rough stuff, but then more and more resistance as you hit harsher and harsher conditions as to resist bottoming out harshly. The way I see it, a mechanically tuned/valve design to try and offer what electronically controlled suspensions do much better now.

I have a mid travel setup:
front upper control arm replaced with an aftermarket that allows more drop before the ball joint hits it’s limit in range and also corrects geometry for a lift in ride height. Lower control arm remains stock. The coilover itself has an inch longer stroke to facilitate this longer range capability.

The coilovers are Icons, they were bolt-on (those Kings are not) and Icon affords a lot of time tuning the valving for specific Toyota models so I went with them (also a bit more affordable).

If I had a newer generation Toyota, I would probably have gone with Kings, their linear damper rate makes for a really comfy and plush ride, their quality top notch (not that Icon isn’t).

One of the things I enjoy most on cars and motorcycles now is geeking out on suspension. When I was younger I was into power mods, ECU tuning etc, but now I really really appreciate a well dialed in suspension.

“dailed in” suspension can be subjective. Some people want plush and soft, others want handling, but in either use-case there are brands/schemes that do it really well, and ones that are suck at it. Suspension tech is really cool, its not just a simple stiffer=better for sports driving, softer=better for luxury driving. Matching the spring rate, valving, digressive or progressive curve, vehicle weight etc can make a complex dance.

The ohlins on my bike have a really stiff spring rate, but the shocks are so dailed in, its hard to explain but even though its stiff a rough road does not upset the bike, it does not kick, buck or get squarely, its very controlled. The previous owner was the same height and weight as me so all his race tuning shows, it feels so fricken perfect.

The Tein Flex on my IS feels horribly harsh yet still allows body roll with soft’ish springs. My buddy’s IS with Feel coilovers feel like my Ohlins, the springs are stiff (no getting around that) but somehow still comfortable and very controlled.

I get the feels when suspension is dialed in. I really appreciates me a dialed in suspension- be it a luxurious ride of an LS430, or how an F150 can feel almost car smooth but has a good hauling capacity, or a sports car is stiff but not brute force, you can feel the fine tuning of the valving trying to tame the springs, inertia etc.

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That’s actually fairly affordable. But… Which 4cyl is that?

A shit one if its only 255

Ehh, 255 out of a 4cyl is fine, if it’s 2.0, which is a typical German displacement.

You have to consider reliability as well. Higher boost creates exponentially higher stress on the internals. So smaller displacement means more boost to hit the same power levels means less reliable with the same alloys.

Eh Evo motor was 2l and more performance then that at a similar price but AWD so seems like a shit deal to me

Honda Civic Type R: 2.0L turbocharged I4, 306 hp, 295 lb-ft
Volkswagen Golf R / Audi S3 / Audi TT S: 2.0L turbocharged I4, 292 hp, 280 lb-ft
Mercedes-AMG CLA45 / GLA45: 2.0L turbocharger I4, 375 hp, 350 lb-ft
Volvo S60 / V60 Polestar: 2.0L turbocharged and supercharged I4, 362 hp, 347 lb-ft
Porsche 718 Cayman S / Boxster S: 2.5L turbocharged H4, 350 hp, 309 lb-ft
Ford Focus RS: 2.3L turbocharged I4, 350 hp, 350 lb-ft
Volvo XC90 / S90 / V90 / V90 Cross Country / 2018 XC60: 2.0L turbocharged and supercharged I4, 316 hp, 295 lb-ft
Ford Mustang EcoBoost: 2.3L turbocharged I4, 310 hp, 320 lb-ft
Subaru WRX STI: 2.5L turbocharged H4, 305 hp, 290 lb-ft

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For 80k miles then rebuild.

They’ve always been in a different class with their engines.

It’s Honda, then everyone else.

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Hmmm, this must be a Toyota engine then.

Also. I clearly haven’t been paying attention lately lmao

Issue is for that price its a joke

For mid to low 30s sure

It’s a nostalgia thing.

They really needed a 450hp supra. Anything less is a joke.

Fucking 335 is a joke.

Eh the auto only was a joke

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Nah, it makes sense. That auto is objectively superior to manuals.

I’m starting to get sold on good autos, after driving an m5 with the smg.

When banging the gears, I was fearful the gearbox was gonna shatter, but damn, that thing slaps.

Nope, specs and performance yeah to not offer it at all stupid

They are fine for dailys I enjoy driving the car and not the computer. Its not to say i am not handicapping myself its more that I actually have to work more to drive well.

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Xposting for giga

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So even the Volvo S60 is like 290 and only
image

like I said 42k for that is stupid

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No BMW engine i believe. :slight_smile:

If you take the Hybrid T8 version of the S60 polstar,
then you have combined like 405HP. :slight_smile:

Probably over the 43k of the Supra

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