Sooper B Suspensions at Black Bear

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Ferdinand

Quote
john vanlandingham
Lets compare:
F. Trautmansdorf
J. Vanlandingham

Who's using my name in vain, and misspelling it in the process?

F. Trauttmansdorff
J. Vanlandingham

Ha!

A thousand apologies! Having a satisfying long and unique name, I am a in sympathy for others with unique names.
Now I should point out that for the sake of the all pharmasists, insuranse fools, bureaucrats, tax collectors etc I stopped spelling the name as it should be with a space between the van and the rest so it should be
van Landingham (like the German von ______)
So:
F. Trautmansdorff
J. van Landingham

Ha!

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Quote
john vanlandingham
And that is the shortened version. It was
Juan Ricardo Vanlandingham-Gonzalez

Ha!

Juan Ricardo Vanlandingham-Gonzalez
Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg

If you need to count the spaces between your names, then at best it's a tie. But if we're going by the volume of space between the ears, then I'll happily concede victory to you.

[/quote]

Yep all that space, it's taken years to fill it up with things, and still not done.
Latest thing I'm cramming in is trying to learn more Russian reading ability.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
john vanlandingham

Quote
Ferdinand

Quote
john vanlandingham
Lets compare:
F. Trautmansdorf
J. Vanlandingham

Who's using my name in vain, and misspelling it in the process?

F. Trauttmansdorff
J. Vanlandingham

Ha!

A thousand apologies! Having a satisfying long and unique name, I am a in sympathy for others with unique names.
Now I should point out that for the sake of the all pharmasists, insuranse fools, bureaucrats, tax collectors etc I stopped spelling the name as it should be with a space between the van and the rest so it should be
van Landingham (like the German von ______)
So:
F. Trautmansdorff
J. van Landingham

Ha!

Quote

Quote
john vanlandingham
And that is the shortened version. It was
Juan Ricardo Vanlandingham-Gonzalez

Ha!

Juan Ricardo Vanlandingham-Gonzalez
Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg

If you need to count the spaces between your names, then at best it's a tie. But if we're going by the volume of space between the ears, then I'll happily concede victory to you.

Yep all that space, it's taken years to fill it up with things, and still not done.
Latest thing I'm cramming in is trying to learn more Russian reading ability.[/quote]

It's always entertaining to see how automated forms accept my name. They seem to think its Timm Derau. Von is apparently a middle name, to the machines! haha

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NoCoast
Bullshit. Search for anything John said about the Wimpey's running his stuff.
There's possibly more VW's on JVAB suspension than Volvos. .

Yes only if they are running JVAB's. If it's just a regular VW he would piss all over it. Your honestly saying Jon would be praising the merits of a 1st in a class of 1 win for a VW not running his stuff? I don't think so but whatever.

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RallyTaco
Yes only if they are running JVAB's. If it's just a regular VW he would piss all over it. Your honestly saying Jon would be praising the merits of a 1st in a class of 1 win for a VW not running his stuff? I don't think so but whatever.

Of course not.
There's really only three categories of VW's out there.
Those on DMS or RSSPs. Those on JVAB. And the rest that buy garbage.

And did John praise me when I won 1st in my class of 1?

I may just have to go piss on a VW. A friend was recently talking about how he loves working on VAG products and hates Subaru stuff. Mostly because the labor is almost always double and they are always needing work.

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RallyTaco

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NoCoast
Bullshit. Search for anything John said about the Wimpey's running his stuff.
There's possibly more VW's on JVAB suspension than Volvos. .

Yes only if they are running JVAB's. If it's just a regular VW he would piss all over it. Your honestly saying Jon would be praising the merits of a 1st in a class of 1 win for a VW not running his stuff? I don't think so but whatever.

hey, you sure like to talk shit. You a real expert? I thought you were a fawkin NOOB. and you're telling me you know what I talk about?
Bite me.
VWs work fine. But only a fawkling idiot would attempt to argue that there are NOT some serious, chronic problems that are very costly to those running them, and extra problematic for those running them fast and hard, and worse still for private owner/entrants.

You obviously have a big Mid-west sized chip on your shoulder (probably because i think running trucks is stupid and have said so, so , not being the most astute person, you take criticism of the glaring weaknesses of pick-ups as a personal attack, a typical mistake done by those not-to-bright) (See, if I intend to insult YOU, or more particularly SOMETHING YOU SAY I can do that just fine---and before you pull the card you sort invaribly play ---whining "oh he called me a name!! Whaaaaaaa! Whaaaa!"----your words are and are intended to be a smear, as the whining Republigoons always say, your words are "an ad hominim attack"

I have had plenty of friends and associates running VWs all the way back to the mid 80s, and have imported all the fun bits to make them into fairly decent performing and above all strong clubbie cars...

So, Noob-with-a-big-chip-on-your-shoulder, learn something:
IF the subject is "I's a newb and I don't know shit from Shinola, what car should I pour 4-6 THOUDSAND dollars into? (that's the basically "fixed cost" items to putter up to the MTC at your first event) then OF COURSE, FAWKIN OBVIOUSLY as an experienced guy who has 25 years watching guys break the same shit on some car, I will STRONGLY advise them to THINK HARD about those known problems, think HARD about the cost to overcome those problems and how much it costs to be repeatedly SUNK and DNF when they can't or won't spend the money to fix those problem....
ALL fwd cars have a common problem: the $3500 plus a decent gearset, final drive and LSD is going to cost them sooner or later.
VW have the addition problem (shared by many fwd cars) of chronic CV joint failures, and the rear "torsion beam" bending CONSTANTLY..

Now you being a Noob-with-a-big-chip-on-your-shoulder, obviously you don't give a shit if people waste thousands and thousands of dollars---and get depressed and drop out eventually because their car keeps fawkin up with the same things again and again.

I do.

Now IF the question is "My poor ol _____________ is doing___________, " then that's a different question. THEN I am non-discriminating.

An example to illustrate. I have said to every Xratty owner for nearly 20 years "The Lima 2.3 is a BIG heavy piece of shit, but it is a GOOD piece of shit, so don't spend money on it. Stick an intercooler on it, maybe a Cossi turbine housing and 3" exhaust, and call it good"

They say "Hey whaddya mean it's a (sniffle) POS? (sniffle).
I 'spalin "I saiid its a good POS: its strong, has forged pistons, make plenty of easy power and it's FREE in every car"

If they say "Should I mod the fawk outta my Lima 2.3, and I know its going to be expensive" I'll vigorously clarify why that's a stupid idea.

IF they say "I have to rebuild the POS 2.3 cause it is flat tired and i can barely hold a wrench in my hand without damaging the wrench" THEN i will advise them on HOW and WHY they can get the best return on their money..

As for your insulting trolling about who I compliment, OF COURSE I'm going to give thumbs up to customers, they're often MORE THAN mere customers.
I complimented Brianne Corn on her class wins first time out with her 2.5 Subie, Whimpey in his VW for years, Buress in both his Rabbit and Golf, Crane in his Toyota, Chris martin in his Subies, Narini in his Subie, Martin Walter for lots of Gp5 stuff in his 240, even if it is the wrong 240, Bombara in his Subie, Kevin Turner in his Subaru, Mark Piatowski winning a buncha RA Open Lite nationals, and dozens and dozen more going back a couple of decades.

WHAT THE FAWK IS WRONG WITH THAT? Noob-with-a-big-chip-on-your-shoulder?

Why you mad Noob-with-a-big-chip-on-your-shoulder?

Try being honest.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

The real comparison is not how John or the others on this forum would deal with a VW doing well - it would be the reaction to someone posting how their DMS/Hotbits/Koni Yellows/stock boingers were working great on the weekend and earned them a class win under similar situations.

We can pretend it would be exclusively 'atta-boys' and 'well done lads' round the table... but I would be pleasantly surprised if that were the case.

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john vanlandingham
Billy, I don't know you.

I do though. Take it from me he's a nice guy.

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john vanlandingham

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Billy
Last event I finished first overall (was 6 minutes ahead of 2nd place 2WD car) for day 1's event.

Whoa! Why didn't we see that all over the gawddam Intra-webs? Man, that's great!

Amy and I were wiped out, so we didn't write any. I think only Wages put any PR on their own results.

Since this NASA Rally Sport event used the most powerful results-graphic package available, here are some neat graphs that show the story of Billy's win (#53 W. Mann):

---

Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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Morison
The real comparison is not how John or the others on this forum would deal with a VW doing well - it would be the reaction to someone posting how their DMS/Hotbits/Koni Yellows/stock boingers were working great on the weekend and earned them a class win under similar situations.

We can pretend it would be exclusively 'atta-boys' and 'well done lads' round the table... but I would be pleasantly surprised if that were the case.

weeenie, weeenie, weeenie!

This whole characterization of RA as JLV's private volvo/merkur website to sell his own suspension is getting kinda old.

As far as I know, John has done tons of work getting golfs on stage, many more than volvos or fords.

And if people post results on how their Rieger shocks or their K-mart shocks worked, that would be great. At that point everyone is entitled to their opinion.

And as far as Ian winning G2 by default; he did come in ahead of an open class subie...

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alkun
And as far as Ian winning G2 by default; he did come in ahead of an open class subie...

FYI, the Subie developed a cracked exhaust manifold, and no power/boost by the end of the event.

The Volvo was awesome to watch, driving a big car like that on the Peanut is no small feat.

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Morison
The real comparison is not how John or the others on this forum would deal with a VW doing well - it would be the reaction to someone posting how their DMS/Hotbits/Koni Yellows/stock boingers were working great on the weekend and earned them a class win under similar situations.

We can pretend it would be exclusively 'atta-boys' and 'well done lads' round the table... but I would be pleasantly surprised if that were the case.

Yeah, well now your just theorizing. Your pleasantly surprised is a fucking joke. Of course it would be the case. We're mostly all friends here and as such are usually stoked for any good finish by friends.

Maybe Keith you should try to contribute some positivity instead of always being so negative.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2011 01:04PM by NoCoast.

John was very appreciative of my performance for years when I was running cut springs and bilsteins ina piece of shit rabbit. Now that I am in a golf and running JVAB gear, I can attest that Johns stuff is good, very good for the investment involved and there is something to be said about the customer service too. I'd rather spend money with john than rssp or hotbits anytime.

---

-Tom
DemonRallyTeam | Fine Tuning | CTS Turbo & RP Turbos | RalleyTuned | JRM | Meister Autowerks
Spitfire EFI | Product Apparel | JVAB Imports | NLS | AP Tuning | USRT

Add us on Facebook | Next Event: 2013 Olympus Rally June 22-23 Olympia, WA

I thinki someone started thios thread congratulating Me and Ferd... thanks! It was an awesome event, 100+stage kms with notes, recce, banquet etc for $500. Great value, awesome roads, and great friends!

We had a blast too, the JVL boingers worked really well, after I changed one before the start... somehow I bent an insert, either testing (when I got stuck in that freshly plowed field), or on recce.
Anyway, bent real good, compressed but stuck and wouldn't boing back. Luckily I had a "only slightly bent" spare with me. We also stuck a big rock through the sidewall of left rear tire on stage 4(?).. 1st run of the peanut. I saw it coming and managed to miss it with the front tire, but the back never seems to follow the front... weird that :-)

Last stage was like a coming of age for us... we started off with nothing to prove, and no one really left to race against, our main competition was out after the first 2 stages. Plan was to take it easy, but things were just working, the notes were spot on and coming at the right pace, I was trusting them and we were going good. After the big dry rough washout, probably half way through the stage, is possibly my favourite 8km or so of stage road... I can quite honestly say I've never run it as fast, by a long shot, in either direction, we were flying, and both having fun! Unfortunatly we lost the camera somewhere about 3 km before the end... the vidoe-in plug fell out, quite possibly due to a bump or two... "! 2 big dips" We launched off the first in 4th, and landed right in the second. I think this knocked the wind out of Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff too, I never lifted :-) We don't have video right to the end, but we still had audio, we were like a pair of giggly girls at the end of the stage, should be entertaining when Ferd posts it.

John, let me know if you have any 40mm inserst in stock.

-Martin.

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john vanlandingham

ALL fwd cars have a common problem: the $3500 plus a decent gearset, final drive and LSD is going to cost them sooner or later.
VW have the addition problem (shared by many fwd cars) of chronic CV joint failures, and the rear "torsion beam" bending CONSTANTLY..

To have fun, the LSD and Final drive are awful nice to have. To competitively run at the front, they are necessary but the gearset (at least for VWs and the current level of competition) is not. Stock is fine and all we have ever used.

Regarding VW CV joint failure--we have had one break when hitting a stone wall and once broke the stub from over tightening the nut that holds them in the wheel bearing but zero other failures on stock, crap, cheap EMPI axles that can be had all day long for $65 NEW. Check them for play before and during every event and replace as looseness develops as a precaution. Return used axles for free warranty axles as desired. I suspect that most VW CV failures are actually due to motor mount problems which is indeed a chronic problem if not dealt with adequately from the beginning.

Regarding rear torsion beam bending---true. They bend easily if you nudge anything with them. In fact, they will slowly bend over time just from hard landings due to how the shock mounts cantilever the ends. There are relatively easy solutions out there if you run a fuel cell. We just keep a spare beam tied to the trailer and replace as necessary. Even a car with a few inches of toe-out can be pedaled pretty quickly if needed :-) I think the biggest downfall in the rear is not that the beam bends but that the rear stub axles also bend easy and the wheel bearing system sucks. The newer VWs like the mk4 golfs have a nice beefy stub axle with a cartridge bearing and easy to swap, repair and upgrade rear brakes. (I'll start a thread about a project I would like to do--TSS, check it out)

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john vanlandingham
As for your insulting trolling about who I compliment, OF COURSE I'm going to give thumbs up to customers, they're often MORE THAN mere customers.
I complimented Brianne Corn on her class wins first time out with her 2.5 Subie, Whimpey in his VW for years, Buress in both his Rabbit and Golf, Crane in his Toyota, Chris martin in his Subies, Narini in his Subie, Martin Walter for lots of Gp5 stuff in his 240, even if it is the wrong 240, Bombara in his Subie, Kevin Turner in his Subaru, Mark Piatowski winning a buncha RA Open Lite nationals, and dozens and dozen more going back a couple of decades.

As one of John's first Sooper Bitchin (they had no brand name back in 2003), I have recommended his services to dozens of customers and still have the shocks he built for us--41mm inserts, non-cad plated, 10mm top mounts for stock VW upper mounts, and 170mm stroke. These have been awesome shocks and have been through about 20,000 miles of street use, 12 or so rallys (all but one of the rallys on the JVL stuff we finished 1st place in 2wd and usually high overall), 2 hillclimbs, 20+ rallycross events and the only thing I have ever had to do was take them apart and apply fresh grease... They have also been loaned to new rallyist Rob McFadyen in order to get him going while he waited for his own to be built. Currently, they hold up a slowly progressing spare car VW evolution 2 TDI (that might actually break axles at 300+ ft-lbs). And, even though we have RS&SPs on the old car, I still recommend John's stuff as the best thing available in that price range to anyone who asks for advice and tell them to charge up their cell phone or use a land line to call :-)

That would be me Martin. We were in the FTC car at the end of A8 and when we told you guys that you had taken 20s (technically 19.6s) off the Evo in front of you, you looked pretty happy.

As Ferdinand corrected me, you were 4th overall on the stage and yes some of the AWD cars had some problems, but still that is damn good.

DC

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MRWmotorsports
I thinki someone started thios thread congratulating Me and Ferd... thanks! It was an awesome event, 100+stage kms with notes, recce, banquet etc for $500. Great value, awesome roads, and great friends!

We had a blast too, the JVL boingers worked really well, after I changed one before the start... somehow I bent an insert, either testing (when I got stuck in that freshly plowed field), or on recce.
Anyway, bent real good, compressed but stuck and wouldn't boing back. Luckily I had a "only slightly bent" spare with me. We also stuck a big rock through the sidewall of left rear tire on stage 4(?).. 1st run of the peanut. I saw it coming and managed to miss it with the front tire, but the back never seems to follow the front... weird that :-)

Last stage was like a coming of age for us... we started off with nothing to prove, and no one really left to race against, our main competition was out after the first 2 stages. Plan was to take it easy, but things were just working, the notes were spot on and coming at the right pace, I was trusting them and we were going good. After the big dry rough washout, probably half way through the stage, is possibly my favourite 8km or so of stage road... I can quite honestly say I've never run it as fast, by a long shot, in either direction, we were flying, and both having fun! Unfortunatly we lost the camera somewhere about 3 km before the end... the vidoe-in plug fell out, quite possibly due to a bump or two... "! 2 big dips" We launched off the first in 4th, and landed right in the second. I think this knocked the wind out of Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff too, I never lifted :-) We don't have video right to the end, but we still had audio, we were like a pair of giggly girls at the end of the stage, should be entertaining when Ferd posts it.

John, let me know if you have any 40mm inserst in stock.

-Martin.

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Josh Wimpey

Quote
john vanlandingham

ALL fwd cars have a common problem: the $3500 plus a decent gearset, final drive and LSD is going to cost them sooner or later.
VW have the addition problem (shared by many fwd cars) of chronic CV joint failures, and the rear "torsion beam" bending CONSTANTLY..

To have fun, the LSD and Final drive are awful nice to have. To competitively run at the front, they are necessary but the gearset (at least for VWs and the current level of competition) is not. Stock is fine and all we have ever used.

Regarding VW CV joint failure--we have had one break when hitting a stone wall and once broke the stub from over tightening the nut that holds them in the wheel bearing but zero other failures on stock, crap, cheap EMPI axles that can be had all day long for $65 NEW. Check them for play before and during every event and replace as looseness develops as a precaution. Return used axles for free warranty axles as desired. I suspect that most VW CV failures are actually due to motor mount problems which is indeed a chronic problem if not dealt with adequately from the beginning.

I'd say the same thing on the gearset/final for Hondas. You're pretty blessed with awesome transmission gearing from the factory. If you're running a non-vtec motor that rev's to 7k any of the 8k+ reving trans will work just fine bone stock, just add or weld the diff.

OEM helical LSDs are a few hundred bucks, 4.9 final drives are $500. Can build a cheater close ratio box using GS-R 1-2, B16 3,4,5 and put the 4.9 final on it. Won't use 5th gear much though in those boxes, tops out around 130ish.

I run a 3rd, 4th, 5th close ratio kit that cost $750 and I run it with a stock 4.4 final drive. I have a max speed just over 100mph @ 8300rpm. Better deal there to spend $250 more than a final drive and get 5 usable gears.

If you want super crazy, off the shelf dog box kits are $5250. 1-5 gears all swapped, custom final drives, all fits in a stock trans case.

CVs for Hondas all seem to stem from the "tight turn full power" syndrome of 2WD cars. I've seen 3 failures like this on a Honda at SCCA rallycross events (I did one of them) and the Dirty Drifters blew their CV joint on the last hairpin at the STPR super special. I'm looking at putting in a physical steering stop to ease up the pressure on them. Kris did a prelude/accord outer CV swap on his as well to gain more beef.