Anybody that’s been around cars knows Strange Engineering as makers of go-to hardcore race and street parts like gears, rearend housings, brakes and more, as well shocks and struts for street and full-on race cars. They’ve just come out with shocks and struts for the popular in a coilover design for Fox-body cars and we were intrigued, so we called our buddy JC Cascio at Strange for more information on them.
Both the shocks and struts are coilover designs making them an integral component of the car’s overall suspension; rear shocks are aluminum bodied while the struts are made of steel (since they’re part of the front suspension and therefore get lots of side load in use), and have multiple external adjustments for compression and extension with a wide variety of Hyperco spring rates for a variety of vehicle weights and combinations. They also carry the pedigree of Strange, which is saying something.
We called JC to get some information on them, particularly what spring rates he advises for a Fox-body application, and he said it varies depending on many factors like weight, combination and what you want the car to do. He said, “A stock Fox-body normally runs a 175lb/in rate spring in front and 125 in the back, however as cars get lightened up, we sometimes do a 150 in the front and 110 in back. It totally depends on the combination and what you want the car to do, how you want it to react in a variety of situations. All of our coilovers are intended for multiple purposes, with adjustable spring seats. So, you can adjust ride height and spring rates depending on what you want the car to do.”
He went on to say that, “The valving is meant for street, road, or drag racing on both the shocks in back and struts in front, and the spring seats are adjustable, so you can change the ride height and spring rate to whatever you want, depending on what the car is doing and what you want it to do. Let’s say you drop in a big-block with a pair of turbos hanging off it, you can go up in spring rate to adjust for the increased weight: ultimately, we work with the owner on the application to get the perfect rate and setting to get what he wants the car to do.”
The recommendations from JC are specific to a Fox-body Mustang, but they really apply to any car that runs these shocks and struts, meaning what valving and spring rates you need depend on the car combination and what you’re wanting it to do. But these shocks and struts are fantastic designs…
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