Whats the dif. between 50/50, 70/30, and 90/10 shocks/struts
 

Okay, newbie question here but I'm thinking of doing some suspension work and I'm REALLY un-educated on suspension. So far I put on Lakewood rear lift bars. I'm gonna have to replace the shocks and struts soon, there getting old and worn out. I want to really help the weight transfer to the rear wheels. This car is used as a daily driver w/ alot of red light racing and hopefully alot more track time next year. I'm also hoping on getting into autocross next season. What do the different ratios do and what should i be looking for here? The autocross will just be for fun, I'm really looking for straight line acceleration/traction. (here comes the immature stage) I also think it would be really cool to pull up next to some rice and have thefront of my car rise up over his head.... thats what im really looking for.

I use to know what the defination was but I don't remember now:confused:
I can tell you though that a set of 90/10 struts will let the front end lift with little or no resistence from the struts, and lots of resistence when it trys to settle down. This keeps the weight on the rear tires faster and longer.
70/30 struts do the same thing only not as much as a set of 90/10 will do. They make your car more streetable.
50/50 shocks have equal resistence in both directions.

For what it's worth... I have a set of 90/10 up front, and some 50/50 out back. It drives fine on the street just as long as you don't go hauling around a bumpy corner. But then again everthing I just said may be false so i would get another opinion.


Wade

Wads is correct in what he said. 90/10's make the front end come up extremely quick under acceleration and the 50/50's balance everything out. you can run a 90/10 and 50/50 combo on the street as long as you don't run over any bumps.lol

What brand is the best?

I have KYB 70/30 in the front. I'm going to get a set of 90/10 here soon. I was going to go with Lakewood, but if there is a company that is better, let me know... :)

Steeda sells 5-way adjustable Tokico struts. Setting one is basically a 90/10 and setting five is normal street. Very nice, but a little pricey at $190 each. However, this is what I am putting on my car before I hit the track next spring. I'll have 50/50 shocks in the rear.

I take it that the normal ones are 50/50? I think im gonna go with a set of 70/30 up front and 50/50 in the rear. This along w/ the battery relocation should give me what im looking for.

what it means on a 90/10 shock is 90% compression, 10% rebound. A shock that has 90 percent of its total stiffness in compression control and 10 percent of its total stiffness in rebound control is referred to as a "90/10" shock. Remember, this is the characteristics of the shock, not the stiffness rating.

So what a 90/10 shock will do is allow the front suspension to "droop" or let the suspension drop when you accelerate. When your weight transfers from front to rear, it allows the front suspension to move more freely and when your weight transfer starts to stable out (like coming off a wheelie and hitting the pavement hard) the weight of the front of the car is at greater force so you will need to have more of the shock do a compression since the suspension will be compressing more. Hope that helps.

To make it easier, remember push=compression, and pull=rebound. Take the shock and push it. It will be harder to compress at a given rate. now pull it, it wil be easier at a given weight.