[DeTomaso] Aftermarket Shocks - QA1

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/21/06 8:08:52, julian_kift at hotmail.com writes:

<< IS anyone running the HAL/QA1 shocks (apparently the parent company of 
Ohlins & Carrera) and if so which model #'s and how do they perform.

>>>I have the Carrera shocks on my car and love them.  Carrera was purchased 
by QA1; I doubt strongly whether Ohlins has anything to do with them, as 
Ohlins is a well-established European company.

>I contacted QA1 tech support and they suggested the following;

DR5855P - Aluminum 12-way adjustable, 17" extended, 11.6" compressed.
HAL-12-XXX - 12" spring XXX signifies # rating. I was thinking 450# front & 
550# rear, how does that sound?

>>>Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I had brunch with the fellow who owned Carrera and sold the company to 
QA1--he's Dick Koch's buddy and they were in Vegas together last year.  Although 
he's happy with the money in the bank, he is furious at how his precious company 
got run into the ground, in his opinion.

He said that customer support and tech knowledge went right out the window, 
and all the data they had on Panteras was lost.  Is that true?  Who knows?

In fact, Steve Wilkinson shipped a Pantera to Carrera back in the day, and 
they used it as a test-bed to specially develop a shock/spring package for the 
car.  I believe they use 450/550 front/rear springs like you said.  I don't 
know what the free lengths are, but I just measured an original, stock coil-over 
and it is about 17 inches from eyelet center to center.  

>Summit have these shocks at $150 ea and springs at $35 ea. If I want to go 
double adjustable the part # is DDR5855P and they run up to $278 ea. 

>>>That works out to $740 for the non-adjustable versions.  I paid $800 for 
mine from Wilkinson over ten years ago; I think his price is now in the 
$900-950 range.

But wait, there's more.  When you buy the gap in the body mount.  Not a big 
deal, unless you have to pay somebody else to make them for you.

Rather than guessing on damping and spring values etc., if I were you I'd 
pony up the extra $50-100 and just buy a complete bolt-in package from Wilkinson. 
 That way you KNOW that all the values are optimal, the kit comes complete, 
and installation is a snap.

There are other vendor shock/spring packages available, and all of them are 
in the same price ballpark.  The packages that are fully adjustable are much 
more expensive.

I actually prefer the non-adjustable versions.  Somebody else who is smart on 
such things has already done the homework and has delivered a pretty 
optimized setup.  If you are an extremely accomplished suspension tuner, you might be 
able to capitalize on the more spendy units, but if not, you're just as likely 
(more likely in fact) to just get yourself completely and totally lost.

Cheers!

Mike