Professional Chassis and Dyno Tuning Now Available in Reno/Sparks!

[AlchemyMG]

Alchemy Motorsports is Northern Nevada's newest performance and chassis tuning specialist. We are available for all your performance needs (for both cars and motorcycles!), including:

Chassis dyno rental and tuning services (Mustang 1100-DE)

**Unfortunately no this is not an AWD dyno, I know Reno is hurting for one but at this time the full AWD setup was a little out of our budget. On the bright side this unit is expandable to an AWD unit and its in our plans for the future, so stay tuned.**

SPA shock dyno testing and tuning
Performance chassis set up, scale platform & alignment
Full fabrication and roll cage construction
Welding (TIG and MIG) and Machining
Custom metal forming (From body panels to custom intakes)
Performance engine system design, fabrication, and install including Turbos, Superchargers and Nitrous Oxide
Nitrogen Tire Filling.
Professional service provider support ranging from in shop set up to full on-track engineering, coaching, and set-up

We are a team of racers, engineers, and mechanics with over 30 years combined experience in racing, with a focus on sports car/road racing. We have 7 championships and 150+ wins at the professional level, and we'd like to put that experience to use making your car handle at its peak capabilities. We are all locals and have a strong desire to see the local racing scene continue to grow. Our goal is to help in this growth by contributing a strong knowledge and support base for all local racers. Please give us a call or stop by the shop to see what we can do for you and your vehicle!

Note: We are currently campaigning two Competition Coupe Vipers in the Speed World Challenge series, therefore there are times when we will be out of town for a race. If you have any concerns about getting work done please get ahold of us in advance so we can ensure your vehicle is ready for your next event.

Thanks, and see you at the track!


Alchemy Motorsports Group
870 Steneri Way #101
Sparks Nevada, 89431

775-358-2727

www.alchemymotorsports.net

[Nick Koan]

Awesome news and good luck with everything. Pitty that the Dyno isn't AWD yet, but hopefully it will be soon!

[sperry]

Hey Tyler--

I was poking around your website and saw that you guys dyno and rebuild shocks... I've got a set of double adjustable Tein SuperRace coilovers that could probably use a rebuild soon and after having a bad experience working with Tein USA getting some new lower brackets for them, I think I'd rather stay local if possible on the rebuild.

Any chance you guys can handle rebuilding something like the Teins, or would I just be paying you guys to send them out to Tein USA because that's the only way to get the rebuild parts?

[AlchemyMG]

That wouldn't be a problem at all. I believe we actually have some Tein kits here, if not we have a contact there we can get them through. We can do everything on those from just a basic rebuild, to a re-valve and map/balance them on the shock dyno. Give me a call or stop by the shop when you get a chance and we can hammer out some details. Thanks!

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AlchemyMG

That wouldn't be a problem at all. I believe we actually have some Tein kits here, if not we have a contact there we can get them through. We can do everything on those from just a basic rebuild, to a re-valve and map/balance them on the shock dyno. Give me a call or stop by the shop when you get a chance and we can hammer out some details. Thanks!

Sweet! I'm in no big rush since the car isn't actually tuned yet and I've got no plans to hit the track soon... but the struts are leaking a little bit, so I figure the seals need replacing at the least.

I am a little curious as to the process for evaluating the suspension. Considering I've got only a few thousand miles on these coilovers over the last few years since I got them (virtually all the mileage is at RFR though) to see them already leaking makes me worry they're just too stiff for the punishment RFR doles out. How do you guys go about designing a damper solution for a particular car/use? If 12kg/mm front 9kg/mm rear is just too harsh for a 3000 lb car that sees the frost heaves at Reno-Fernley, what's the best way to figure out the correct rates for my application?

[AlchemyMG]

Originally Posted by sperry

Sweet! I'm in no big rush since the car isn't actually tuned yet and I've got no plans to hit the track soon... but the struts are leaking a little bit, so I figure the seals need replacing at the least.

I am a little curious as to the process for evaluating the suspension. Considering I've got only a few thousand miles on these coilovers over the last few years since I got them (virtually all the mileage is at RFR though) to see them already leaking makes me worry they're just too stiff for the punishment RFR doles out. How do you guys go about designing a damper solution for a particular car/use? If 12kg/mm front 9kg/mm rear is just too harsh for a 3000 lb car that sees the frost heaves at Reno-Fernley, what's the best way to figure out the correct rates for my application?

The process that we use when we start from scratch for a new race car is to do some computer modeling where we feed it inputs such as car geometry, corner weights, tires, springs,etc and that allows us to do some simulations specific to track surfaces and tires. This will get us in the ballpark of where we need to be with the damping forces the shock needs to put out. From there we move to the shock dyno and play with the internals of the shocks to get the damping forces we want. At that point its just track time and tuning to get the shocks fine tuned.

Obviously this is a pretty involved process, and probably pretty overkill for a street car that sees some track time here and there. We can simplify most of that process and still get a shock/spring combination that is more than adequate for 90% of the vehicles out there. Your spring rates sound about right, I suspect your shocks are probably a little on the stiff side though. That very well may be the reason for the leaking seal. I dont have a ton of experience with the Teins, but I know the Penske's have the same issue, if you run the can pressure too high and they take a good bump they'll push a seal out and leak. And I dont need to tell you that RFR has more than its fair share of bumps. What model Teins are they? The dont have a remote canister on them do they?

[sperry]

The car is more like a track car that sees some street. I built it up for SCCA time trials. Here's some in-car:

YouTube- Chasing a Porsche 930T

YouTube- Chasing a Porsche 930T

The suspension is the Tein Super Race... it's their double adjustable motorsports version. Some of the versions of these coilovers use the remote reservoirs, but not the STi version I've got. I've run softer setups (spring rate wise) on the car that felt harsher than the SuperRace's, so I'm guessing the valving isn't as aggressive as something like the crappy JIC FLTA2's I've had. But I also know the car really seems to "leap" over T1 at RFR (the car gets very light after hitting the crest of the 1st turn into the esses) so I'm probably running way too much slow-bump rate... which I'm not sure is the valving, or just what I've got it set to. Either way, that could certainly be blowing seals... the Japanese seem to build their coilovers for glass smooth tracks.

[wrxkidid]

But how does the car drive in all the other corners Scott? I know I have 0 racing experience but, it seems to me, that you would want the suspension to be tuned for the majority of the corners perfectly and give up a few than be perfect for a few and give up the majority? Thats just my thinking though. If its light in T1 at RFR is there really anything you can do without compromising your setup for the rest of the track? I know about as much about suspension tuning as I do about building nuclear weapons so I may have read that post completely wrong, but if someone would be willing to explain it would be greatly appreciated.

[Dean]

I am far from the expert, but for a given mass on a specific spring rate, there is a perfect amount of damping in each direction for managing high speed "bumps". These only really need to be adjustable for spring/damper configurations that are not optimized for the specific vehicle. (sort of)

Low speed compression damping, or the other hand is more about feel and handing in the corners.

If you do not have separate control for each of these, you really need to know what the adjusters you do have actually control on the shock.

Many single adjustables just increase or decrease everything and were originally designed to compensate for wearing internal seals over time. As the seals leak more, you close the bypass valve that was acting as a tuned leak when they were new. It also allows for a very small range of spring configurations to be optimized (somewhat) for the damper. Many people just crank these up which often makes things feel good and "tight", but actually increases lap times because the tire cannot follow the contours of the road properly.

2 way may be low speed bump and rebound (kWv3s definitely), combined high/low bump and rebound (DMS 50), or combined high speed bump/rebound and low speed bump (???).

3 and 4 can be whatever...

A good shock should tell you what each adjuster does, and ideally, provide a graph for each adjuster with speed vs. damping force.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by wrxkidid

But how does the car drive in all the other corners Scott? I know I have 0 racing experience but, it seems to me, that you would want the suspension to be tuned for the majority of the corners perfectly and give up a few than be perfect for a few and give up the majority? Thats just my thinking though. If its light in T1 at RFR is there really anything you can do without compromising your setup for the rest of the track? I know about as much about suspension tuning as I do about building nuclear weapons so I may have read that post completely wrong, but if someone would be willing to explain it would be greatly appreciated.

I was using T1 as an example of the potential problem. Because of the much higher speed there, I think it likely exacerbates an overall handling problem that's not as noticeable in the lower speed stuff.

[AlchemyMG]

Originally Posted by sperry

The car is more like a track car that sees some street. I built it up for SCCA time trials. Here's some in-car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPgufkedYBQ

The suspension is the Tein Super Race... it's their double adjustable motorsports version. Some of the versions of these coilovers use the remote reservoirs, but not the STi version I've got. I've run softer setups (spring rate wise) on the car that felt harsher than the SuperRace's, so I'm guessing the valving isn't as aggressive as something like the crappy JIC FLTA2's I've had. But I also know the car really seems to "leap" over T1 at RFR (the car gets very light after hitting the crest of the 1st turn into the esses) so I'm probably running way too much slow-bump rate... which I'm not sure is the valving, or just what I've got it set to. Either way, that could certainly be blowing seals... the Japanese seem to build their coilovers for glass smooth tracks.

Sorry for the slow reply, I actually had a rare weekend off so I took advantage and unplugged from the grid for a while

It sounds like you need to run a little more rebound in your shocks. That would help alleviate the "leap" or floaty feeling you are experiencing on some of the larger bumps. More rebound will help the car stay planted, if you run too much though its going to make the car get progressively stiffer when you encounter a series of bumps.