Im recently in the market for a coilover suspension, and have been interested in the Tein lineup, And have been really interested in their EFDC or electronic dampening force controller, and keep in mind i dont autocross my car or time attack or anything like that mostly if i do anything it's the dragstrip, i just want a coilover for the height adjustability and a system thats designed to work together, so i guess il get on with my question, How much of an effect can be had with the efdc on 60 foot times and so on? i know its no different than adjusting them all manually, but is it worth it on a street/strip vehicle??

 

Why would electronic control of damping affect your 60' times? At most, each individual level of damping might have an effect on how well the car controls squat, but simply having the ability to adjust damping from inside the cabin does not result in any sort of performance benefits.

 

I thought coilovers would most benefit on a road course or daily driving?

 

i thought maybe if you stiffen up the front's and soften up the rears it would be able to squat more on its suspension and keep a better contact patch. maybe im way off here but the dampening is the stiffness of the shock absorber correct??

 

Coil-overs can help at the strip, but only in the hands of someone who knows how to adjust their config. MOst are designed for improved ride, and better handling, not squat.

 

Firstly, squat (the rearward transfer of load) is something you want to prevent. Keeping the car as flat as possible at launch ensures that each tire is evenly loaded for maximum traction. In squat, a large amount of load is transferred rearwards as the car takes off, taking traction off the fronts and saturating the rears. YOu don't want that.
Secondly, damping (dampening is often used incorrectly to describe the function of a shock absorber) is a general term basically referring to the shock absorbers ability to control the motion of the corner of the car. Damping can be divided into bump damping and rebound damping. Bump is when the corner is compressed, and rebound is when it unloads.
Increasing rebound damping will increase the dampers resistance to the spring's lengthening after compression. While this may help with something like wheel-hop, it won't show dramatic benefits IMO.
Bigger improvements will be found with stiffer springs in the rear to reduce the total load transferred to the rears, as well as better tires, playing with tire pressures and toe.

 

I just had the idea maybe the efdc could really stiffen up the shock absorber to get better traction on the strip and be able to soften it up to be livable on the street, owell thanks for yoru expertise Noob

 

why did you not cite that stiffening the compression damping would reduce squat? you totally dodged that part...

 

Um, because it won't? edit: You can go crazy with the compression damping and reduce squat that way. But its not the correct way to do it.
Damper control the rate of load transfer, not amount. Springs are what control the amount of load transferred, which is why I mentioned stiffening the rear springs to aid in reducing squat.

 

you keep sounding like you're mixing the idea of edfc with general control of damping rates that TEIN offers on their setup. edfc is just a buncha small motors that clamp on top of the shocks and are connected to a small unit that u place inside your car for convenience sake. edfc costs about $300 in addition to the coilovers package. you can still change the damping rates for the street and the track manually, without edfc, it takes about 2 mins for all 4 corners.
so if you don't get the edfc unit, you can STILL "really stiffen up the shock absorber to get better traction on the strip and be able to soften it up to be livable on the street"

 

hahaha, i'm not saying it's the correct way to do it i'm saying you drew an asymetric picture that was lacking information to 'prove' _your_ point and that's unfair to people wanting complete information.

the condition is known as overdamping and it CERTAINLY WILL reduce squat, particularly in an environment where road conditions are basically a premium, ther eare few downsides to doing it that way, especially if you're a weekend dragger than can push a few buttons and pull it off on the fly.

that said... yes it's not the "right" way to do things, but neither is making a discustingly stiff rear end that might bounce a lot. there is a whole list of spcific antisquat chassis bracings that are open to a savvy tuner also.