dannyb

Hey Guys,

Been quite a few years since the first suspension upgrade on my 2010 GT3. I've mainly been tracking my 991RS for the past 18 months and decided it was time to take the 997 up another level to further distinguish the two cars.

Joey Seely from E-Motion Engineering is replacing my Ohlins 2-ways with KW Competition 3-way's, OZ Super Superforgiata wheels and R7's. Very excited!

ilko

I saw Joey's post on instagram yesterday. What else have you done to the car? I see the RS fender extensions are present... It's gonna be a fun toy once it's finished!

ngng

ohlins to KW...interesting choice?

Hoyt

Looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new setup...

nwGTS

Going on a tangent and this is a genuine question. Not criticizing the OP. I don't understand what the advantage is to installing passive suspensions in cars equipped with active systems. Can someone tell me why an Ohlin or KW setup is better than a Tractive DDA with the TPC DSC?

gt2-josh

Are you selling the Ohlins?? If so I'm interested. Thanks.

​​​​​​​Best JBO

Mr. Adair

It's a great question and I have asked it before and I certainly can't be as specific as you like but the answer I have gotten from hard core track guys is:

-Better quality on high end passive components
-Less set up time than back and forth with DSC calculations
-Familiarity of set up in favor of passive systems

That said, I am sure that in a 70% street driven car the switchable nature of PASM and DSC is a very nice feature and I would imagine it works well. I just don't think you find electronically adjustable suspensions in hard core track cars or race cars..

I could also be talking out my ****..

dannyb

You're absolutely correct. While the stock Porsche components are impressive making the jump to KW or Ohlins is night and day. In 2013 when I first upgraded to Ohlins (as well as the rest of the suspension components) my lap times at my local tracks dropped about 10 seconds.

We upgraded from the 2-way Ohlin to 3-way KW Competition because these specific KW's are arguably the best on the market. With lightweight wheels and R7's I can't wait to see the difference!

dannyb

Yes I am. Please PM if interested.

Tom@TPC Racing

With no disrespect to any person nor any brand of products, I would like to say the following.

Tractive shocks are on par or better build quality to the more popular brands of shocks in the consumer-level race car market. Tractive is one of the youngest brands compared to other brands so for this reason alone it can be discounted by those who are unfamiliar with their roots. Tractive came from the development engineering team of WP Suspension Group. At WP this team was heavily involved in providing OEM and OEM Motorsport solutions, and prototyping, including F1 and MotoGP. Since the engineers parted from WP and started Tractive, Tractive has done a lot of designs for private label use so the Tractive brand name recognition just isn't as familiar sounding as other brands at this time.

Regarding setup time, on cars that came from the factory with electronic shocks, the electrical connectors are plug & play, and beyond the connectors a coilover is a coilover- setting up ride height, corner balancing is the same from one coilover to another. The DSC calibration is easy once a person takes the time to get to know it. Beyond that the algorithm in DSC adjusts individual corner dampers by the g-force profile and driver input load profile in milliseconds.

Regrading race only application, there is an obvious reason why active suspension was banned from F1 in the past and present, and why nearly every car maker has some variation of electronic suspension in their premier sports and hyper cars for setting lap records on road-approved tires at The Nurburgring. From having friendly chats with OEM suspension engineers at trade shows, they are all totally digging DSC! But they are usually not decision makers for what level of tech a car should have, they are usually presented with a criteria and to make the best of it. Often OEM is bounded by corporate red tape and/or by the decision makers determining car buyers are not ready for a certain technology. I think we're at a time which there's a big gap between the two technologies(passive and active), like back in 70's and 80's the gap between tuning carburetors and electronic fuel injection, most people(myself included) are inclined to stick with what they have been accustomed to until they take the leap to get to know a new technology. This suspension technology is ahead of its time(past and present), but we have it now and we provide support for it. And we are delighted to train our network of DSC dealers for the present and future in suspension tuning.

TPC Racing has proved that the DSC/Tractive suspension sets qualifying pole positions/lap records, and win races in series from IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge to NASA Eastern Championship. Along with many personal best were set by advanced level drivers(some of which hired pro drivers to set a best time and we have received many compliments by the factory pros) during HPDE, time trials, and open track day events.

Certainly, each shop/mechanic/driver has their personal preference on the brand of shock and of course their experience from a particular product, so each will advocate what they know. Nothing wrong with that. And I totally understand that operators at busy independent shops doesn't always have the spare time to learn a new technology so it is in theirs and their customers best interest to stick with a technology that is familiar to them at this time. I completely get it, as one of my roles is to manage the busy service department at TPC Racing(from oil changes, to tire mounting, to full race builds), I became acclimated to DSC active suspension technology on my personal time on my personal car on street and track fueled by my passion for automotive innovations and demands from my customers wanting no compromise. It is never easy to be the innovator and the first to offer a new technology to the public with the majority advocating an aging prevalent technology. Which I am sure this applies to other industries outside of automotive.

gt2-josh

Race cars don't run active suspensions because they are banned in every series by the sanctioning body that governs the rules. Fans and Sponsors and OEMs and Competitors for the most part want drivers and teams to win races not software engineers. A good data point is the year Williams won the F1 championship with Nigel Mansell. I see that as different than when Lotus won the F1 championship with Mario Andretti. Both technologies banned but for very different reasons.
In other words I completely agree with every word that Tom said much more eloquently than I ever could.....

I'm still interested in your Ohlins setup. I will PM you offline. Thanks.