The HSV Owners Club were in a very special treat as we opened up the doors for a technical night to show them the literal ups and downs of suspension tuning, as well as what suspension services we can provide for them at Heasmans.
With a race-prepped HSV amongst the various pieces of eye candy on display in the workshop, over the course of the evening we showed the various elements of suspension tuning. The aim was to show how what we translate what we’ve learned with our long experience with working on the race end of the spectrum to apply to daily drivers and weekend track day cars. With power already on tap for many variations of the HSV brand, many instead turn to suspension as their first modification.
As much as we all want a racecar for the road, unfortunately Sydney roads are a far way from being the optimum tarmac for such set-ups. Chris and Doug explained how we are able to tweak your standard suspension through methods such as a basic wheel alignment on our state-of-the-art wheel aligner, all the way to a custom, fully-adjustable suspension system where we are able to dial in any amount of camber, castor, toe and ride height to get your car to behave in whichever manner you desire. Whichever part of the spectrum your cars application falls in; we’re able to cater to you.
Upstairs, Allan and Paul went into further detail about our suspension, taking the crowd upstairs to our shock dyno room, showing the club the inner workings of our Bilstein shocks. With examples in hand, we showed the HSV boys the components that affect how different specifications of shocks and settings of dampening and rebound affect your vehicles road handling capabilities.
Another component of suspension tuning that was demonstrated was corner weighting. Jonathan stressed the importance of understanding the car’s weight balance in the equation of the handling characteristics. Jonathan also explained how the weight transfers during braking, cornering and acceleration will affect its behaviour in a positive or negative way.
In and around all the technical talks, there were many opportunities for questions, catch-ups, as well as a chance for the club to check out some of our in-house projects. Notably we had the Bilstein WTAC Nissan 200SX sitting in prime position as well as the SELFIE Masterati and a rare slant-nose Porsche 911. A typical spread any time you pop into Heasmans!
Keep an eye out for the next club open day or drop by and see us any time to see what we can do for you!
Photography by SELECTNINE.