Detroit Speed vs. Pedders

[Info@PeddersUSA.com]

Originally Posted by LSxJunkie

A major bone the GTO crowd had to pick with Pedders is that they refuse to release spring rates. I have a full Track II on my car and the 0 drop springs are too soft for the shocks and struts that come with them. I'm tempted to change to a stiffer King Spring setup. They will give you a million different reasons they don't release their spring rates, and they will tell you to just go out and drive a Pedderized car, but that doesn't change the fact that many people know their own way around suspensions and don't like being treated like they don't.

HOWEVER...Pedders dealers are some of the best aftermarket guys in the US. They stand behind their product 100% and are usually extremely accessible. So much so that they get bogged down helping out customers sometimes that it takes them a bit to get back to you.

My Pedderized GTO is a great street car. Handles pretty nice and I can drive it through Manhatten with girls in it and they don't think it's too harsh. Manhatten has AWFUL roads. I just personally wish it was stiffer. They also sell an even more street oriented setup with softer shocks that still provide better control than stock. I'm sure they'll have something for you.

That is my experience with Pedders. They also have a leg up on the competition because they've been working on VE (Camaro) suspension since 06, when the VE Commodore came out.

Detroit Speed and Engineering's competence should speak for itself. They design some of the most badass Pro-Touring cars I've EVER seen. If I were building the Pro-Touring 69 Z/28 clone I've built a thousand times over in my head, they would most certainly have my business.

Either way you can't go wrong, and it's up to you to decide exactly what you're looking for and see which of them meets your needs more.

It is not a major issue that we kept our spring rates propriatary. I can tell you that Pedders sells more suspension components for the GTO than all other manufacturers combined! Are there stronger coils out there? Absolutely. Will they have a more firmer ride? Absolutely. Do the Pedders coils offer a significant improvement in handling, looks, as well as maintaining a nice comfort level? Absolutely!

We have done serious road race testing with the GTO on the Track. One of our dealers is Chris Brennan. He ran his GTO in T2 for SCCA. Koni made him a set of jounce and rebound dampers, and he used one of the other sets of coils. He ran terribly with his cars, and kept tearing up tires in the front. Then he converted to our GSR dampers and stock height GTO coils from Pedders, and he started winning races and took 1st place in his class.

There is a very fine line between over springing and damping and great handling. You do not have to sacrifice all your comfort to have a great handling ride.

Now we do disclose our Xa coil over spring rates, and do in fact offer multiple coils front and rear for the Camaro, G8, GTO, chrysler LX, Mustang, and many other products. But adding stronger coils may create other issues.

mike
dms

[LSxJunkie]

Originally Posted by dms

It is not a major issue that we kept our spring rates propriatary. I can tell you that Pedders sells more suspension components for the GTO than all other manufacturers combined! Are there stronger coils out there? Absolutely. Will they have a more firmer ride? Absolutely. Do the Pedders coils offer a significant improvement in handling, looks, as well as maintaining a nice comfort level? Absolutely!

We have done serious road race testing with the GTO on the Track. One of our dealers is Chris Brennan. He ran his GTO in T2 for SCCA. Koni made him a set of jounce and rebound dampers, and he used one of the other sets of coils. He ran terribly with his cars, and kept tearing up tires in the front. Then he converted to our GSR dampers and stock height GTO coils from Pedders, and he started winning races and took 1st place in his class.

There is a very fine line between over springing and damping and great handling. You do not have to sacrifice all your comfort to have a great handling ride.

Now we do disclose our Xa coil over spring rates, and do in fact offer multiple coils front and rear for the Camaro, G8, GTO, chrysler LX, Mustang, and many other products. But adding stronger coils may create other issues.

mike
dms

Easy there buddy. You don't have to pitch me. I already drank the Kool Aid. I'm just saying that for my needs, the 0 drop springs are too soft and it'd be nice for people to be able to cross shop spring brands on comparable rates. Other than the squat and dive, I'm quite happy with the Track II. Drove over 500 miles on Sunday with no issues.

And I know Justice Pete's answer to this, so you don't have to go on about how it's impossible to release the spring rate on a progressive coil and what not. Just saying that some people would rather be able to judge for themselves as opposed to blindly following the marketing.

The next step for me is xAs. You guys did a great job with those, especially in terms of making a product that people looking at KW V3s would consider.

[Doc]

Something else to consider which Pedder's obviously does is "change" is a chain-link effect; you can't change just one thing without it affecting other things. Colin Chapman's Formula 1 Lotus racing teams were famous for soft springing and good damping as their suspension philosophy and they won F1 championships with it. Squat and dive is better controlled by other means than just stiff springs.

I don't work for Pedder's nor do I know anyone who does but just from reading their posts of the exhaustive testing process they continually go through it is quite valuable to be able to buy already-tested combos that only need minor tweaking once on your car.

Dialing in suspensions can be brutally time-consuming and exhausting, not to mention expensive. Unless you have the time, the means and skill to test your own combos which very very few do, it doesn't really benefit you to start messing with an already-tuned combo. Maybe you do, I'm not saying you don't, but there's a point of value in time spent to achieve a result versus taking advantage of the result someone else has already spent the time to achieve.

[Info@PeddersUSA.com]

Originally Posted by Doc

Something else to consider which Pedder's obviously does is "change" is a chain-link effect; you can't change just one thing without it affecting other things. Colin Chapman's Formula 1 Lotus racing teams were famous for soft springing and good damping as their suspension philosophy and they won F1 championships with it. Squat and dive is better controlled by other means than just stiff springs.

I don't work for Pedder's nor do I know anyone who does but just from reading their posts of the exhaustive testing process they continually go through it is quite valuable to be able to buy already-tested combos that only need minor tweaking once on your car.

Dialing in suspensions can be brutally time-consuming and exhausting, not to mention expensive. Unless you have the time, the means and skill to test your own combos which very very few do, it doesn't really benefit you to start messing with an already-tuned combo. Maybe you do, I'm not saying you don't, but there's a point of value in time spent to achieve a result versus taking advantage of the result someone else has already spent the time to achieve.

Testing setups is beyond time consuming. It turns into an addiction. We sold some parts to one of the guys who works for Bobby Rahal for his personal car. We spent an hour one evening discussing their suspension setups. It was comical to intriguing. comical because they use VERY old school methods for actual alignment, and intriguing that it can take 10-15 engineers and a weeks worth of testing and hundreds of thousands of dollars to set their cars up.

thanks
mike
dms

[Jferrell88]

im going with DSE their customer service sold me, but i dont think you can go wrong either way

[Mr Twisty]

Originally Posted by Jferrell88

im going with DSE their customer service sold me, but i dont think you can go wrong either way

That's why I'm going with Pedders, their reputation and feedback, keeping us in the loop during testing, it all adds up... You'll notice how many times the Pedders guys have posted here... That's just in THIS thread.

[YancyJohns]

Here's a cool pic I thought I would post of DSE Test cars.

Check out some of the people and projects they've built for.
http://www.detroitspeed.com/projectp...oject_page.htm

[DET MUSL]

^
I LOVE that picture