We are having an Inventory Clearance Sale from now until February 15th to sell all remaining AST 4100 and 4200 series dampers located here in the US and in Holland. This is to make way for the new AST 4150 and 4250 series dampers. The clearance price is $200 below the 2011 prices!

The remaining kits mostly include BMW E36, E46, E90; Honda S2000, and Subaru GD.  Some of these are in stock at AST – USA while others are being produced in Holland and will arrive in the next few weeks.

Get in on this deal before they are gone!

Call us or visit one of the AST dealers for more information!

AST Suspension – USA is proud to announce the new AST 4150 Series Damper. The new design builds on the success with the AST 4100 series damper and the recent wins in GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, including new technology developed specifically for GRAND-AM racing teams.

DDP Technology Piston

Our latest digressive piston developed for GRAND-AM gives drivers and race engineers the best of both worlds. Drivers love the low speed damping response and body control, while race engineers love the “blow off” at high shaft velocities. When the rebound adjustment is soft, the damper curve looks similar to an OEM street shock profile. When the rebound adjustment is hard, the damper curve looks like a race shock!

This “Jekyll and Hyde” personality is exactly what AST 4000 Series customers want: soft street ride and race car track performance in ONE shock – all with the turn of a knob!

Lower Drag Seals

High performance seals are a challenge for any damper. They must balance friction and sealing ability while not impacting shock performance and not leaking; a difficult balancing act! While the seal was originally developed for GRAND-AM road racing, AST is taking our knowledge from the track to the street again. Newly redesigned seals decrease hysteresis in the damper and decrease seal drag over 50%.

Discontinuing Steel Shocks

In 2012, most AST 4150s will come with aluminum shock bodies. Strut bodies will continue to be built from steel, but all shocks will switch to aircraft grade aluminum. Economies of scale have allowed us to switch to aluminum without a large increase in cost of manufacture. For some models, this represents a 50% reduction in the weight of the damper (unsprung weight).

Structural Improvements

Several new designs proven in GRAND-AM racing will be added to various products on an “as needed” basis. All strut models will receive a new two piece top guide assembly that separates the dust seal assembly from the oil seal/bearing assembly. This two piece design is stronger in compression loading (bottoming out) and side loading (in the turn). Some models will receive weld-on stabilizer brackets which take the guesswork out of setting the stabilizer height and torque setting of the clamping ring.

Upgradeability

4150s will be upgradeable to 4250s! Using a modular build system, customers can send their shocks to AST at a later date and upgrade from a 1 Way shock to a 2 Way internal reservoir or remote reservoir system. Some models may only upgrade to remote reservoirs. An upgrade matrix will be published in early 2012.

Hill Climb events have been around for some time, but the Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds hill climb does it on dirt. Similar to the famed Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the Mount Washington hill climb starts at the base of a mountain and climbs until visibility is nil. An AST customer, HAR RACING took their 2008 Mitsubishi Evo into the clouds at this year’s event in June.

Rob and Zsanett are a husband and wife rally duo. Rob drives and Zsanett keeps him from stopping for directions from the passenger seat. Their team name is HAR RACING. HAR is an acronym for Hill Climb and Rally racing. They compete in their 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X in the All wheel drive (AWD) Open class. This is THE big class with the fastest cars.

Rob and Zsanett rolled up to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire with a grand total of 1 autocross on the car. They would have liked to had more time to shake down the car at a track day or rallycross to test the new engine, pedalbox, brake pads, AST dampers and spring setup, but at least they were at the event with a complete, mechanically sound car.

Day 1 – Friday Practice
On Friday, each of the 75 invitation only teams were able to test their cars on the lower portion of the mountain. HAR RACING finished in 30th place for the day. Rob was happy because the car seemed to run well and handled as expected. It was a confidence building day. In racing, confidence is a MUST before you can start pushing a car on a track…or the side of a winding mountain dirt road.

Day 2 – Saturday Practice
Saturday is usually the day competitors are allowed to practice on the top half of the mountain, but torrential rain kept the course closed. Each time had to count on their 15 mph reconnaissance drive on the course earlier in the week. The teams were allowed to run the lower part of the mountain for a second day. Even in the rain, the added seat time was of great value to Rob and Zsanett. They were able to better their time and move up in the practice results to 2nd in class and 3rd overall!

Day 3 – Sunday Race Day
Sitting at the start line, waiting to start, Rob said he felt really good about how the car was set up and the new confidence and speed they found on Saturday.  The crew also helped by tweaking the suspension setup slightly in preparation for the dry conditions.  REV, REV, REV BOOM!  The EVO launches and tears up the mountain.  Check the video below, you’ll see some nice right 6s, left 5s, right 4s into tight 3s (rally speak for how fast and/or tight the next turn is – also note the 7.21 mark – FOG!). Things were going great on the bottom of the mountain, but as the Evo climbed in elevation, they reached the clouds.  At one point, the fog was so thick, the course notes were rendered useless and they had to drop down to 2nd and 3rd gear speeds and drive by sight.  They finished their first run in 1st place in the AWD Rally-1 class!

Their second run lengthened their lead when they cut approximately 25 seconds off their time to clinch the AWD Rally-1 class WIN!

AST Suspension Setup
The HAR RACING team sported some AST 5300 rally spec dampers.  These coilovers are similar to the road race offering, but offer a more robust construction to handle the abuse of rally.

More information on HAR RACING

We recently had a conversation with Aaron over at the Winning Formula.  He mentioned Nathan’s Evo and the on track success it has had in 2011.

Nathan owns a Mitsubishi Evolution IX (Evo) that has been competing in the National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Time Trial A class (TTA) and other Time Attack events throughout the Midwest.  Nathan begin tracking his Evo shortly after he purchased it in 2006.  After a couple of years of non-timed open track events and driving schools, the urge to buy a transponder and the thrill of competition took over.

For those of you not familiar with NASA’s time trial system, TTA is the second to fastest class with TTU (the “U” is for Unlimited and we do me UNlimited).  Now that you know this, you also need to know that Nathan’s Evo is hardly “stock”.  In fact, he’s made lots of upgrades to the engine, engine management, drivetrain, wheels/tires, brakes and suspension – he has our AST 4100 damper package.  If you’d like to see a full list of upgrades, check out the 2011 setup Nathan’s blog.

Let’s Talk Suspension

Over the winter, Aaron at the Winning Formula and Nathan had several conversations.   Nathan said he’s had 4 other suspension setups and each one left him feeling like there was more speed in his Evo with the right setup.  Nathan said, “I have constantly been on the lookout for new affordable options for my car to really take it to another level.”  Aaron and Nathan talked extensively about his options and finally settled on an AST 4100 series damper package.  The reason for this choice was because the NASA TT rules don’t favor remote reservoirs or more than 2 way adjustable shocks and Nathan did not want to get bumped into the unlimited class.  Nathan said, “I thought the price was very reasonable for a quality inverted single-adjustable shock.”  Aaron helped Nathan pick out the right spring rates and the Winning Formula installed and set up a baseline for testing the new setup once the midwest’s snow melted.  The Winning Formula performed the installation, alignment, corner balanced and set the ride height just before the first track day.

On Track Action

Nathan’s first track day with his new AST setup was brrrr COLD – 36 degrees!  He ran street tires in favor of his grippy, but heat loving Hoosier R6s.  He had several new items on the car in addition to the new AST dampers, so he took it easy, hoping the temperatures would rise.  Even with the cold temperatures, street tires and low boost, he was immediately comfortable with how the car handled and was able to push the car to within 2.5 seconds of his personal best!  He said, “The new setup was very compliant and predictable from day #1.”

Nathan started off the year with 4 wins in his first 4 events and 2 track records!  Since then, he’s gone on to break more track records throughout the Midwest.  If you’d like to follow his journey, check out his blog.

If you like videos (who doesn’t), check this out:

Nathan’s immediate goal is to continue development of the car and make a run at the NASA TTA National Championship at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in September. He would also like to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge in July. To vote for him, create or login to your Cardomain account and give him a 5 star vote. His profile can be found here

Good luck Nathan!

For more information on AST Suspension, visit www.ast-usa.com

For more information on the Winning Formula, an AST Suspension – USA authorized dealer, call 502.499.7459.

When Ford announced that the 5.0L engine was making a comeback, you could feel the ground shaking, word spread like wildfire, but we wondered if it would just be another “marketing ploy.”  As the early 2011 Mustang GTs started to hit the street, it was apparent that the new 5.0 was everything Ford fans had been waiting on since the deletion of the 5.0 emblem from Mustangs in 1995.  It actually turns out that the new Mustang’s “world class value”  (less than $30k, 415 hp and BIG 14″ brakes) has broadened its owner base and is attracting new customers that were looking at all world performers such as the BMW M3.  Actually, it looks like Ford did a pretty good job hanging with the world class BMW M3 – check out this article.

Vorshlag, one of our  AST Suspension – USA dealers decided to see what all the hype was about, so they picked up a shiny new red 2011 Mustang GT last fall.  They bought the car in hopes of campaigning it in NASA Time Trial events and in STX (SCCA Autocross).  Keep in mind, these 415hp Mustangs still feature a live axle out back and a MacPherson strut front suspension, not exactly a purpose built suspension, but it will work (quite well actually).

The planned modifications are somewhat limited because of their chosen class.  A short list of their mods to date are below:

GRIP:

• AST 4100, single adjustable dampers
  
• Vorshlag S197 front camber (and caster) plates
• 450# front springs
• 175# rear springs
• Eibach ‘05-’10 Front adjustable swaybar – 35mm
• Energy Suspension polyurethane front control arm bushings
• 18”x 9” Wedsport TC105N wheels with Toyo R1R 265/35 tires
• Cobra Suzuka seat (1 autocross run and you will realize that stock seats weren’t meant for racing…)

POWER:

• Steeda Cold Air Intake
• SCT Custom Tuner

How does it handle?

Most of the 2011 season has been spent “dialing in” the car.  Obviously, with our 4100 damper package, there is a lot of adjustment range to help maximize grip, response through slaloms, driving style and balance.  Terry Fair, owner of Vorshlag (and chief test driver) says that “the AST’s(struts/shocks) are unbelievable.  They really helped to balance the car; it’s more responsive in slaloms and much more composed under braking on track.  It is amazing how well these new Mustangs respond to just a shock and spring change!”

The guys at Vorshlag have tried a few different spring combos and are working on getting the car set for their drivers.  The testing they’ve done has helped us improve the performance of the “off the shelf” S197  4100 package.  The 4100, single adjustable shocks/struts are a great street/track combo for daily driven Mustangs, autocross, track and race (some classes only allow single adjustable dampers).

More Info on the AST 4100′s

The AST 4100 series dampers used on this Mustang feature:  shortened shock bodies, custom valving (job well done by AST-USA’s very own Stuart Maxcy), non-inverted front struts and non-inverted rear shocks.  The front struts have a non-digressive piston and the rear shocks have the Grand Am spec digressive piston.  The digressive piston helps increase low speed rebound which helps “blow off” the forces a shock will receieve when rebounding, while not effecting the speed at which it rebounds.  Basically, it means that you’ll get a more “planted” tire when external forces are applied to the suspension, such as hitting big curbing or bumpy track surfaces.

To learn more about Vorshlag’s 2011 Shop car, check out their latest blog post or their main website.

Earlier this year we talked with Edmunds.com about an interesting concept. Can you make an Evo X still streetable yet fast enough to beat a Nissan GTR on the track? Since one of our test cars is an Evo X that drives to AST every day AND we race it in NASA Time Trial, we thought we had the right combination.

Edmunds.com has had the suspension on their Evo X GSR for almost a year now. The final installment was this test at Streets of Willow. Check out the video!

In order to better share our testing, we will be publishing our track notes on the website for dealers and customers to see. This will provide a way to distribute our results as we test new products and setups on our coilover kits.

Check out our first addition here!