What spring rate should I run? How should I adjust my bump and rebound damping? And how low is too low? We’re always getting asked the same questions when it comes to suspension, so on this episode of Tuned In, we sit down with KW Suspension’s Head of Motorsport Thomas Rechenberg to get some definitive answers from someone who knows his way around a coilover, to say the least.
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Thomas Rechenberg grew up a mere 50 kilometres from the Nurburgring, and after spending his youth watching all kinds of motorsport at the fabled track, the question of what to do with his life was an easy one.
We kick off this episode by following Thomas’s trajectory as he left school to study mechanical and motorsport engineering before joining famous teams like Zakspeed and VW Racing to work as a tyre technician, a race mechanic, and a specialist engineer. With this sort of resume, podcast host Andre couldn’t resist getting Thomas’ opinion on subjects like tyre heat management and pressure before moving on to the meat and potatoes of the conversation — suspension.
After a stint going out on his own as a gun-for-hire race engineer, Thomas joined KW as its head of motorsport back in 2018, and has since helped develop the company’s race car programs and motorsport-focused coilover offerings. This means he’s the perfect person to get right down into the weeds of suspension, breaking down his thoughts on everything from spring rates, damping, roll centres, and much more.
Thomas also spends time talking us through how the everyday home enthusiast that doesn’t necessarily have access to high-end data-logging equipment or advice from professional drivers and engineers should go about initially setting up and tuning their suspension systems.
Ultimately, how quickly you can drive is always going to come down to the contact patch between your four tyres and the track surface. Suspension plays a massive role in how big that contact patch is at any given time. Want to get a better understanding of suspension systems? This episode of Tuned In with KW’s Thomas Rechenberg is going to be the perfect way to spend a couple of hours.
As discussed in this episode, check out images of the Porsche 963 rear suspension system here: https://hpcdmy.co/963
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WWW: kwsuspensions.net
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