Medusa #1 gets the new Viper Exchange Active Suspension mod!!!!

[Herrsss]

I originally decided I was not going to make any modifications to Medusa #1 . . . until I rode in and then drove Richard's "new to him" 2014 GTS with the Viper Exchange race dampers on it . . . and snap decision (yep, I'm an impulse buyer) . . . I had to have the new suspension!!!!

It was installed week before last but the weather's been kind of wet around here so I had not spent much time driving it although I must say I could immediately tell a difference in how the suspension rode the day I picked it up. Last Saturday we had an open morning as did Andy (FLATOUT) so we decided to make a run through the national forest north of Conroe, Texas and I was finally able to play with it a bit. Of course FLATOUT and DUSTY1 have about 100 more horses via the cam and heads package but Norma Jean and I managed to stay with the 2 of them quite nicely! Can't use that extra HP in turns . . . well, actually with the new dampers yes you can! In spite of all that, I kept up with them . . . they probably dialed it back a smidge for little 'ol me!!!!

I was quite impressed with how stable the car was as we zipped around the curves at high rates of speed. I know the Gen V is far superior to all prior Vipers to start with so you are wondering about me right? Since that little gold box samples 10,000 times per second, it makes spontaneous micro-adjustments to compensate for the g-forces and I could really tell a difference. The car was even flatter around the turns than the last time we ran that route during Round Up last spring. Kinda felt like the road was pushing back at me.

Here’s the fun point . . . at our BBQ event on the 15th I took a fellow club member for a ride and briefly showed him how it handles and bam, last week he installed it on his TA! He and his wife are absolute track rats so I can hardly wait to see how he does with it. His wife drives a Z06 and she is now despondent that he’ll be faster than her . . . of course you know what that solution is right? Buy another Viper and put the package on it!!!!! Think I’ll ask Ben for a commish .

Then the weird psyche in me came out and I had to ask Andy if over the years it’d break down like those goofy Lincoln Continentals did and list to one side or become a low-rider! He said they can be rebuilt if that time comes!!!

Now we’re leaning on Andy to figure out how to make it work on both of our Gen IV race cars and my ’08 ACR roadster!!

[Herrsss]

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suspension 1 by Beth Sewell, on Flickr

[Herrsss]

suspension 2 by Beth Sewell, on Flickr

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suspension 3 by Beth Sewell, on Flickr

[Slithr]

Nice mod! I need to get a ride with you or Richard and see what this 'road pushing back at me' stuff feels like. I've heard Andy reference that, now you.

[Crotalidae]

Nice write up...thanks for sharing...

[FLATOUT]

Nice mod! I need to get a ride with you or Richard and see what this 'road pushing back at me' stuff feels like. I've heard Andy reference that, now you.

When you look at the aobve picture with my laptop out or the one I am posting below with our engineering software you'll see a square table with 4 quadrants. Each quadrant is a corner of the car or one damper controlled by the DSC. The DSC factors in G loads, Yaw, Accelration, Speed, Braking, Steering, and Velocity. Based on that data it makes active adjustments to each corner 10,000 times per second.

For instance if you look (and I know you can't see the numbers in the pics posted) at the out side rows and columns of the table the damper forces are equal weather you are in street or track mode. If you are driving the car around moderatly the G loads and subsequent data commands the dampers to the center of the table. The center of the table is softer and more compliant in the street setting giving the car that nice ride that people feel, but as you increase the G load, steering inputs, brake actuation, or acceleration it starts to push toward the outside of the table and begins to add more damping to cope with the additional forces that the vehicle is seeing.

So as you lean on the car as Mike Levitas likes to say or as you dive into a corner you start to experience and feel the peripherals of the tuning map. This is what you notice. Everything is calibrated so quickly and ramped in so smoothly that you feel the "road pushing back" sensation as the DSC loads up the neccesary quadrant with the appropriate damping force to maintain traction. It's fascinating and so much fun to drive hard.

image by Andrew Wheeler, on Flickr

image by Andrew Wheeler, on Flickr

New shipment by Andrew Wheeler, on Flickr

[1ststrike]

Nice! Just another reason to get it out and flog it.

[Dusty1]

The suspension makes adjustments to flatten the car and tires such that it does feel a bit like its pushing back. Have autocrossed and played a bit on the back roads. Next step is to take it to the track to get the whole experience. The flexibility this system gives the driver is really ground breaking at least to me.

Richard