What are people's thoughts on the new Afco shocks?

[justfreaky]

What are people's thoughts on the new Afco shocks?
I am curious as to what everyone thinks about this subject.

Steve

[justfreaky]

WOW! Nobody has thoughts about the new shock rule?
AMAZING!!!!!!

[RPM]

I spoke to our dealer on Friday about them. He said he has a couple hundred on order and they have already removed the #2(?) shock from the initial offerings. He said he is going to run the shock dyno so he can get a feel for what they have to offer over the Bilsteins.

There are a lot of questions that need to be answered before opinions can be formed. I do see it as a double edge sword. We went aware from Carrera shocks back in the day because they were adjustable and people had racks of shocks with dyno sheet attached. The Bilsteins offered a single shock, that unless you wanted to cheat, was the same for everyone.

Now, we are going back to having to have multiple shocks for different tracks. I like the ability to tune, but the change will have a significant influx of money to 600 racing and we will have options that have a higher cost of racing.

Randy - RPM

[justfreaky]

Hi Randy.

Our dealer is still waiting on the shocks as well. I was not aware that one of the choices had already been removed. I would be interested in the outcome of the shock dyno tests.

I agree that there are still a lot of questions. I still have a box full of the old Carrera shocks. (LOL!) The switch to the Bilsteins at least didn't have the price sticker shock! There are plenty of people with racks of the Bilstein shocks as well that have been dyno tested. I don't think that we will ever get away from people having their shocks tested to gain a small advantage. Shocks are more of a fine-tuning device. So, people will still have to be on their game for the initial setup of their cars.

There will certainly be a significant influx of money to USLC/INEX! Increased costs are going to hurt the budget racers, such as myself. There are already people dropping out and selling off due to the higher costs and inability to get tires. I am still not sure where I am going to come up with the extra money to buy new shocks. But I will continue to try to stick it out as long as I can.

Thank You for your input on the situation!

Steve

[Racer47]

From what I've seen and been told.... the 4/2 shock is not available now and may never be. Thats a #4 compression and #2 rebound. Bilsteins are roughly 3/3. These are basically Afco series 16 shocks https://www.speedwaymotors.com/AFCO-16-Series-Custom-Racing-Shock,65922.html The top screws off. There's only a sticker on the screw off cap which will be worn off by the spring anyway. I'm guessing that these will be apart and custom valved immediately by some. They are going to very difficult if not impossible to police. And I don't think this is going to be a small advantage. I'm afraid that its going be turned into a slighly lower cost version of penske super late shocks. I would have rather stayed with Bilstein or a similar welded, sealed, non take apart shock.

[justfreaky]

I agree with you! First thing I thought of was how easy these will be able to be modified. I did read that the 4/2 shock had been dropped.                                                                                                   Crazy as some people think I am, there was nothing wrong with the old Carerra shocks. They were 3-way adjustable. So, there were some options.
My thinking is that it just adds more cost for us budget racers.

Steve

[smokinjoe00]

none available in canada yet that im aware of

[justfreaky]

Hi smokinjoe00!
 Unfortunately, they are not available in most areas.

Steve

[legend110]

We race in the south and in our area alot have the new shocks. We raced this past weekend and from what we done and from what others have said the main issue is getting the car to turn in center is the main issue that they seen so far. This on dirt.

[Doug10]

For our dirt series down south, we have to run the bilstein, but I?d like to get a nice matched set of them if any of y?all are liquidating old gear.

[justfreaky]

Doug,
Unfortunately, Afco's are more rare than finding tires. LOL!!!

Steve

[Doug10]

Nice set of bilsteins that is lol.

We scored two sets of Hoosier dirt tires a couple months ago luckily?. Before that they were going open tire with folks running the American racers.

[justfreaky]

I see them on the Facebook pages fairly often.

[legend110]

Well from what We experienced our last race the new afco shocks dont take a hit like the Bilstein's and the turn around time to repair them is who knows how long so for now holding onto the Bilstein for back up since we still can run either shock for now since all dont have the new shocks yet. Took a hit in the left rear on a start and the afco broke in half on the rod area. At least the Bilstein's would have just bent. The hit was not even straight on it was a side to side hit.