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.

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.

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!

While I was at AST in The Netherlands this week I shot a short video of the new air jack with elephant’s foot.  While a normal air jack lifts the car enough to change tires during fast pit stops, the elephant’s foot allows the race car to be raised even higher for major work. No more floor jacks, simply extend the air jacks, lock them into the elephant’s foot, extend the air jack again and place the safety stand in place!

AST Suspension – USA is proud to announce new updates to the 4000 Series line of dampers. These updates were developed directly from customer and dealer feedback on the product and enhance the performance of the 4000 Series damper on the track and street. Some updates only relate to the 4000 Series struts while other improvements will be added to struts and shocks. produced. Customers with older 4000 Series dampers are welcome to contact an AST dealer for a quote on upgrading any current generation. Click here for more information!

Turn In Concepts, a Subaru shop selling AST shocks, won the Street AWD class this weekend at Redline’s visit to Autobahn Country Club. TiC’s customer car had a blown shock from another shock company and replaced the set with a test set of AST 4100s which were over two years old. Needless to say, the ASTs aren’t coming back off the car after this win! TiC will be competing in several Redline Events this year. We hope to meet up with them at Nashville.

For the full details go here.

Test driver, Jeff Wirtz, pulls off another winning weekend at Texas World Speedway in College Station, TX. Here’s some video of the inverted start and Jeff passing the entire field during the 20 minute race. Jeff won the previous race which means the next one has an inverted start where 1st place is last, etc.

Way to go, Jeff!

In his debut event on AST 4100s, Jeff Wirtz of Round Rock, TX pulled off a sweep at the NASA event at Motorsport Ranch.  Jeff was always a top finisher last year, but with ASTs on the car Jeff put multiple seconds on the field in 4 of 4 races.  This included inverted starts where he passed the whole field in the opening laps!  The only car faster than Wirtz’s 3rd Gen Camaro was a fully prepped Mustang AIX classed car (a much faster class). 

Camaro Mustang Challenge is a popular class in NASA that is growing especially in the Texas Region.  Wirtz was able to drive a competitor’s car in practice, a car having twin tube shocks.  “I felt bumps on the track with the twin tubes that I didn’t even know were there with the ASTs,” said Wirtz.  AST’s monotube technology can provide forces greater than many lower end shocks without the harshness most drivers experience.

Congrats to Jeff in his first event with the shocks.  Stay tuned for the April event at TWS in College Station!

RRT Suspension recently made their debut event with their "do it all" BMW E36 running AST 4200s with Vorshlag camber plates. The 325i was built specifically to compete in NASA GTS 2, SCCA ITR, and BMW Club Racing Prepared class. The "do it all" car came out fighting last weekend at VIR. Due to an issue with qualifying run groups, RRT’s Barry Battle was forced to start in the back. Their forum has a video of the 10 lap race where Barry passes the entire field in the first 3 laps and then puts 40 seconds on 2nd place by the checkered flag. The car looks hooked up once he gets through the crowd. We think that must be a combination of driver and suspension since the car has the originally 200k mile motor in it! Great run Barry!

http://www.rrtracing.com/forum/viewt…345&p=738#p738