Too good to be true? Custom-built coil-overs at off-the-shelf prices | Articles

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Back in the day, lowered sports car life was so much easier: Install Koni Sport dampers with lowering springs and become one of the cool kids. A lower center of gravity reduced weight transfer, and the stiffer springs helped reduced body roll while keeping off the bump stops. 

Need a little more spring? A set of Ground Control coil-over sleeves with Eibach racing springs was the answer. Need to damp those stiffer springs properly? A Koni revalve was available for that purpose.

Fast-forward to today, and coil-over options are wide open. Trickle-down from professional motorsports has pushed the high end skyward, with a plethora of choices as to capability and prices to match. Penske, Moton, Öhlins, JRZ, MCS and Multimatic can all be found on the world’s fastest race cars.

Over the past few years, however, a mid-point category has emerged. It takes its cues from the pros but uses high-volume, modular components. Cost savings in scale are passed on to consumers like us. 

The off-the-shelf versions of these overseas-produced products are typically designed for street use rather than motorsports, but there is another option: Don’t buy coil-overs. Hire a shock builder instead.

Fortunately, there are shock builders who are adept at reconfiguring these inexpensive, generic units to provide valving and range of travel more suitable for quick lap times. Their versions often have larger shafts for more fluid movement, different seals for less stiction, and non-standard body lengths to better fit a lowered application.

One such builder is RedShift Competition. Originally a Honda-oriented supplier of custom motorsports suspension products, the business expanded its offerings to include most popular vehicles. 

Critically important is the long history of direct participation and championship success in our specific disciplines–autocross and track. That’s where the know-how comes from for valving and dimensions that work right the first time. And if you still want something different after first use, revalves are also on offer. 

We first worked with RedShift owner Chris Shenefield on our One Lap CRX, replacing a set of custom high-end, triple-adjustable, remote-reservoir dampers with his single-adjust product. That change yielded better curb-hopping compliance while losing nothing elsewhere in overall…