First time posting on TMO, hopefully my experience helps other Newbies.
My new Cars and Coffee/HPDE ride is 2013 Boss LS, bone stock purchased with 5,900 miles in April 2018, almost 6 years old with one prior owner, so well cared for the Ford dealer offered me the car with a 4-year ESP.
After my first season of ownership that included enjoying track days, planning started for a little upgrade. Much like many Newbie posts here, there was a lot to learn in order to have a plan that made sense given my experience level. TMO experts have patiently coached like-minded Newbies through a logical progression for brakes, tires, and suspension. Additional subject matter knowledge comes from Owners Clubs, fellow track enthusiasts and Aftermarket Industry Suppliers. At some point it is time to put the plan into motion so its time to buy the goodies on the list, get them installed and enjoy.
When it comes time to actually put your money down to buy those goodies, you need to rely on the messages the supplier is enticing you with. The sellers' website, sales/tech people and advertising claims of the product expectations is what we base our purchase decision. This is where the PT Barnum theory becomes relevant.
I know, get to the point. My plan had 3 Goals; 1) Brake maintenance/pads/fluid, 2) Lower ride height, 3) stop wheel hop. Actions for Goals 1&3 went great, goals accomplished.
Goal 2 has a wide array of choices starting with lowering springs to pricey coilovers. I chose a nicely advertised system solution from Vorshlag which provided an assembled package for $1599 consisting of Bilstein struts/shocks, Eibach springs and Vorshlag camber plates, sounds great let's get this stuff installed!! The website advertising included a nice video and smartly overlayed pics showing before/after, this is what you will expect with our product.
The advertised expectation is for the front to be lower by .5", rear lower by 1.5". Rather than ride height being lowered, ride height at the front axle increased by .5", rear did get lower by only .75". Life is full of disappointment, this was not the end of the world. Certainly there must be a good explanation for this. After 7 emails to/from Vorshlag with a blow off that would be insulting to most engineers in the audience (surely you know that ride height depends on many factors such as variation in model/option, sagging gas struts, old springs, we can't predict what your results would be, that pic (side view pic of my car after install) looks about right, etc), I decided to see what the suppliers had to say, after all the springs and maybe struts dictate ride height, Vorshlag only assembles those pieces to their camber plate.
The water got murky, Eibach says they tested their spring on a '12 B2 and observed .6" front axle drop on OE Tokico struts and OE strut mounts. Bilstein says the part number used on this package is for a 2010 and down S197. So what gives? Only answer from Vorshlag was a repeat of the deflection mentioned above.
So to the Newbies, What Did It Say? Or make sure to do your due diligence on the parts as well as the supplier and ask your questions even if they sound basic. My take away is to get comfortable with who you are dealing with, maybe sharing stories like this on a focused thread like TMO will help. Terry Fair does offer lots of great insights on our cars, I do enjoy watching some of his videos and read many of his TMO posts, that was certainly one factor in choosing this Vorshlag option. That said, there are plenty of solutions and supplier choices.
FWIW I have to date exchanged a total of 9 emails with the sales/tech desk at Vorshlag, no I have not talked to Terry Fair.
My new Cars and Coffee/HPDE ride is 2013 Boss LS, bone stock purchased with 5,900 miles in April 2018, almost 6 years old with one prior owner, so well cared for the Ford dealer offered me the car with a 4-year ESP.
After my first season of ownership that included enjoying track days, planning started for a little upgrade. Much like many Newbie posts here, there was a lot to learn in order to have a plan that made sense given my experience level. TMO experts have patiently coached like-minded Newbies through a logical progression for brakes, tires, and suspension. Additional subject matter knowledge comes from Owners Clubs, fellow track enthusiasts and Aftermarket Industry Suppliers. At some point it is time to put the plan into motion so its time to buy the goodies on the list, get them installed and enjoy.
When it comes time to actually put your money down to buy those goodies, you need to rely on the messages the supplier is enticing you with. The sellers' website, sales/tech people and advertising claims of the product expectations is what we base our purchase decision. This is where the PT Barnum theory becomes relevant.
I know, get to the point. My plan had 3 Goals; 1) Brake maintenance/pads/fluid, 2) Lower ride height, 3) stop wheel hop. Actions for Goals 1&3 went great, goals accomplished.
Goal 2 has a wide array of choices starting with lowering springs to pricey coilovers. I chose a nicely advertised system solution from Vorshlag which provided an assembled package for $1599 consisting of Bilstein struts/shocks, Eibach springs and Vorshlag camber plates, sounds great let's get this stuff installed!! The website advertising included a nice video and smartly overlayed pics showing before/after, this is what you will expect with our product.
The advertised expectation is for the front to be lower by .5", rear lower by 1.5". Rather than ride height being lowered, ride height at the front axle increased by .5", rear did get lower by only .75". Life is full of disappointment, this was not the end of the world. Certainly there must be a good explanation for this. After 7 emails to/from Vorshlag with a blow off that would be insulting to most engineers in the audience (surely you know that ride height depends on many factors such as variation in model/option, sagging gas struts, old springs, we can't predict what your results would be, that pic (side view pic of my car after install) looks about right, etc), I decided to see what the suppliers had to say, after all the springs and maybe struts dictate ride height, Vorshlag only assembles those pieces to their camber plate.
The water got murky, Eibach says they tested their spring on a '12 B2 and observed .6" front axle drop on OE Tokico struts and OE strut mounts. Bilstein says the part number used on this package is for a 2010 and down S197. So what gives? Only answer from Vorshlag was a repeat of the deflection mentioned above.
So to the Newbies, What Did It Say? Or make sure to do your due diligence on the parts as well as the supplier and ask your questions even if they sound basic. My take away is to get comfortable with who you are dealing with, maybe sharing stories like this on a focused thread like TMO will help. Terry Fair does offer lots of great insights on our cars, I do enjoy watching some of his videos and read many of his TMO posts, that was certainly one factor in choosing this Vorshlag option. That said, there are plenty of solutions and supplier choices.
FWIW I have to date exchanged a total of 9 emails with the sales/tech desk at Vorshlag, no I have not talked to Terry Fair.