Good question! It depends on the application, to be more specific is the damper length-to-stroke length ratio. The Tractive DDA electronic valve(it makes the magic happen) takes up approximately 30mm inside a damper. In certain applications a damper can only be so long in order to fit but it must have a certain amount of stroke + factoring in the internal displacement of the DDA valve, when this ratio gets to a critical point a remote canister is required to house the piston to separates the oil and nitrogen.

Other reasons for remote canisters are in the past when the oils wasn't as good as they are today so having more oil capacity was always better. With better technology in oils today this is no longer always true. Fact: 997 GT3 Cup and 991 Cup factory race cars do not have remote canister shocks. Another factor is run time. The Cup cars were originally intended for sprint races with race length being about one hour. If a Cup car were to be converted to run endurance races longer than an hour then having the extra capacity of oil and a remote canister in a temperature cool location will makes the performance more stable throughout extended race time. Some Tractive damper sets are not really classified as RT or RTX, examples are Porsche 996 and Cup, the rear has to short enough to fit so a remote canister is naturally required and it is not an option(to which the RTX was meant be an offered option). Another reason for remote canisters is on a conventional all-mechanical monotube damper in order to have compression adjustment(hi-speed or low-speed) there needs to be a manifold to house the metering valve/dial, preferably the dial(s) are at an accessible location, so the manifold is conveniently located on the canister. For 2-way, 3-way, 4-way mechanical monotube dampers this is a requirement by design. Having electronically controlled damping changed the game on that.

To answer you original question, there's no appreciable difference in half hour track events between the RT and RTX unless there isn't an ideal damper length-to-stroke ratio like on the rear of 996 and Cup. Another example, Tractive dampers for the Dodge Viper ACR is right on boarderline of ideal ratio so the RTX version do work better for extreme track use. For those who want to buy the best to have the best then RTX it is.


Top level to us is more than what is visible externally. Top race teams look for internal operating clearances(piston-to-bore clearance) during operating conditions, low stiction, and near zero hysteresis. We spend a lot of time dyno'ing dampers before they go on any development car, we get very deep in it and we live and love it. Tractive dampers run very precise clearance after initial wear-in is 0.01mm and stays like this for over 10 million stroke cycles in a 400F degree cell, that was an OEM criteria. Tighter clearance extends service interval. Even down to the seals, not standard rubber seals, F1 low friction seals. All in the details of the internal. Once I asked them to make the external color brighter to make the damper look more appealing, they said NO!!! Their black coating is special and tested to high pressure salt water spray for 200 hours in a humidity test cell. I stopped asking after that. The coating is another OEM criteria we end users benefit from.