I'm looking to upgrade my coilovers and Penske 8300 dampers have piqued my interest. My budget is in the $1K-ish per corner. Could anyone with DIRECT experience / ownership please provide your thoughts and feedback about:

1. What other damper setups you considered (in the $1-1.5K range) and what were some of the cost/benefit trade-offs assessed in your decision.
2. Which providers you considered purchasing the Penske dampers from. Why?
3. Any maintenance experience, and who you used.

I've done the usual Internet research so I'm a little familiar what Google and Bing searches show up. Again, it's our collective DIRECT PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that this thread seeks to tap and share.

 

Well I guess I'll give it one bump before looking elsewhere for insight and letting the thread slip in to Forum oblivion ...

 

Tri Point aka Pro Parts has done Penskes for RX7s. The customers that have gotten them aren't active on here. I see some Vette and some BMW guys using Penskes at the track.

 

Carlos,
I've been doing similar research, and narrowed to Penske and JRZ, both of which would run $1k/corner or so. There have been a fair amount of FD set ups done by each, Tri-Point does Penske (alot of autocross set ups), and I spoke to a forum member called "Gilesr6" I believe who works with Penske as a pro race engineer and has a custom set on his car. You should PM him for more info, his name is Matt.

There were a bunch of JRZ trple race shocks done BITD by Wael, Victor Masch, and others that are still floating around, and I've heard anecdotally that they are fabulous. They are more than $1k/corner though, more like $1500.

I've been looking at the new JRZ RS Pro set up. They are functionally and constructionally the same as the race shock, double adjustable, remote resovoir and about $1k/corner. The difference is coarser adjustment, and as a by product more street durability for dual purpose cars. I've talked at length about them with JRZ USA, and Joe Stimola (RIP) at SRP, that does alot of the servicing/set up of these shocks.

The reason I am leaning here is that—anecdotally at least, what I've heard about Penskes, and their advantage is the precision—which of course won't be as precise after street driving. That's not to say they aren't durable per se, it's just that all the extreme precision you pay for won't stay with any shock with the combo of street driving/infrequent rebuilds.

Hoping to quit procrastinating soon, and have an actual set to talk about. I'll share on our local DCRX7 list as well.

 

Carlos, talk to Paul about shocks.. He is a suspension expert and we were focusing on that before fuel injection. He has used countless shocks in the past and knows most of the pros and cons of each.

 

Thanks to Aaron's sage advice, I talked to Paul Yaw who introduced me to Angelo at ANZE Suspension. Fast forward one engine rebuild and 15 months later and the rotary's my legs are finally inbound! Behold ANZE engineered Penske 8300s...

 

WOW. Gorgeous. 2 questions:

1. How do you mount the remote oil reservoirs?
2. What do you use for top mounts?

 

Thanks kindly. Coming from someone who is REALLY well versed in high end suspensions, it means even more!

To the questions:

1. Tons of options for canister mounts. Energy Suspension, Toms, Earls and a several others make the mounts. For simplicity, I'm just going to use Angelo's ANZE V-style mounts.
2. For upper mounts, I'm using the Tripoint (monoball) Upper Bearing Hat. I believe Ground Control still makes FD3S uppers if you ask, though I never pursued it.

Hope this helps.

 

A couple of installed picture. Should have the canisters mounted in the next day or so.

 

Those are nice... ...

 

Looks great! We need to get a GB going these asap!

Carlos- is there a reason why the rear reservoir fitting is on the end link side? Looks pretty close... Also, do you have some pics of where you mounted the reservoirs?

 

Chip: Thanks. Especially coming from someone with your eye for details.



Panda: Also thanks. Good point on the rear coilover orientation. Though the picture does not clearly show it, the fittings are clear of any interference (i.e. the swaybar and linkage.) It's definintely tight, but after jacking the suspension through full range, it does not have interference anywhere. Orienting it so that the fitting is on the other side bring issues with clearing the canister line of the the coilover/springs. For now, I'm going to run it as is and re-check in a couple of hundred miles. Other than re-jacking the car, it won't take any additional time to do it later.