jmblur
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Car(s)
- 2017 Golf R
A product at this price tag demands more scrutiny than a $300 chassis brace or $200 "aero" piece everybody knows is 99% for cosmetics. Especially given this isn't an established tech on this platform and this type of active damper, it is definitely something worthy of scrutiny. If this was $500, it would be something people could reasonably take a flyer on at the cost.
As an engineer (yep, dropping the e card), i'd expect any development effort with a suspension system to include a data acquisition effort that would, in this case, include comparisons of the signal sent to the shocks at each corner through controlled testing (slalom at X mph, sweeper at Y mph entry speed, one wheel bump, one wheel dip, etc.) and accompanying linear potentiometer and accelerometer data (at a minimum) to prove the shocks are doing what's intended.
Lap times, frankly, are way too easy to fake if not done independently or at the very pointy end (nurburgring lap compared to best published OE time, 1/4 mile records, etc.). A tire swap to brand new rubber (even on the same tire), a wee bit later on the braking, etc. Similarly, owner reviews tend to be extremely clouded by the placebo effect and the pocketbook effect (I spent 1500 bucks on this, it must be good!).
I wouldn't expect anyone would buy an ecu tune without at least a dyno chart, or a performance shock upgrade without a shock dyno damping rate chart (note I said performance - I'm not talking about the "looks only" coilovers).
As far as I can tell, this work probably was done on some other platforms, like Porsche. But I see no evidence that this wasn't just a software effort to port over that original logic to our platform, with no actual testing to dial in the performance for the platform beyond the basic logic.
I would LOVE to be proven incorrect here, because I do think this type of product has a lot of promise and VW's out-of-box tuning isn't great. But for the price this is commanding, I want data for our platform, not just marketing claims and "look, it worked on the 911!"
And no offense @Vision7 , that includes not trusting reviews by a brand new member who has only posted in this thread.
As an engineer (yep, dropping the e card), i'd expect any development effort with a suspension system to include a data acquisition effort that would, in this case, include comparisons of the signal sent to the shocks at each corner through controlled testing (slalom at X mph, sweeper at Y mph entry speed, one wheel bump, one wheel dip, etc.) and accompanying linear potentiometer and accelerometer data (at a minimum) to prove the shocks are doing what's intended.
Lap times, frankly, are way too easy to fake if not done independently or at the very pointy end (nurburgring lap compared to best published OE time, 1/4 mile records, etc.). A tire swap to brand new rubber (even on the same tire), a wee bit later on the braking, etc. Similarly, owner reviews tend to be extremely clouded by the placebo effect and the pocketbook effect (I spent 1500 bucks on this, it must be good!).
I wouldn't expect anyone would buy an ecu tune without at least a dyno chart, or a performance shock upgrade without a shock dyno damping rate chart (note I said performance - I'm not talking about the "looks only" coilovers).
As far as I can tell, this work probably was done on some other platforms, like Porsche. But I see no evidence that this wasn't just a software effort to port over that original logic to our platform, with no actual testing to dial in the performance for the platform beyond the basic logic.
I would LOVE to be proven incorrect here, because I do think this type of product has a lot of promise and VW's out-of-box tuning isn't great. But for the price this is commanding, I want data for our platform, not just marketing claims and "look, it worked on the 911!"
And no offense @Vision7 , that includes not trusting reviews by a brand new member who has only posted in this thread.