Boosting Your Challenger’s Handling with Coil Overs

The Challenger, just like any vehicle, comes from the factory with shock absorbers, and the aftermarket is stocked with loads of replacements. What makes coil overs special? To understand this, we need to understand what a coil over is. 

A coil over is just as it sounds; it uses a shock absorber but surrounds that shock absorber with a coil spring. By design, this allows users to gain total control over the ride height and handling characteristics of their car. This type of unit is the ultimate solution for those who are after precision handling. 

Adjustable shock absorbers allow drivers to dial in their shocks for each individual circumstance they are up against. With a coil over, you can adjust the way the shock expands and compresses and also the spring rate of the coil springs, which gives it the additional edge. 

Advantages of Coil Overs vs Shocks

• Superior control over the suspension
• Adjustable ride height

Adjusting coil overs is the entire reason to invest in them in the first place. But how is it done? Well, this all depends on the brand you’re working with. 

The shocks themselves are usually adjusted with the use of dials incorporated into the body of the shock absorber itself. Some may be controlled electronically instead, but this depends on the brand and model selected. To adjust the spring for ride height and stiffness you simply rotate the collar, which the spring rides on either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on what you’re trying to achieve. One direction will be soften dampening while the other will be stiffer.

When you lower a car with coil springs, the handling, acceleration, and braking will improve. This is because the center of gravity is closer to the ground. Inside of the coil over, you still have a shock absorber and adjusting the shocks for performance is an important step in gaining total control over your car. When you adjust the shocks, you adjust how the fluid in the shock passes through the piston within which can make the shock stiffer or softer. By softening the dampening, the comfort of the ride will improve but handling, braking, and accelerating will suffer. The exact opposite is achieved by stiffening the unit up.​

If a stiffer suspension is better and coil overs help make the suspension stiffer by design, why do you need to adjust it? Think of it this way; if you were to replace the shocks with steel rods, the car would handle terribly. There needs to be some give, and you need to find the sweet spot for optimal performance. 

When you’re talking precision performance, not one setting will cut it all the time either. What works on the quarter mile isn’t going to work on a road course, and what works on a road course may not work around town. For each setting you will want to stiffen up or even soften each corner of the vehicle.

When you’re talking about adjusting these units, it makes sense to consider how stiff the shocks are but what about ride height? Well, ride height is a major player when it comes to performance in turns. Bringing the car lower to the ground reduces body roll. By reducing body roll, the car can stay level in the turns. Lower cars are great for the track and having the ability to change the height on demand makes them a great option for cars that will live on both the track and the street.

Coil overs are subjected to a lot of controversy when it comes to their use on the street. This is because of how they are performance oriented and require being set properly for use. Some will talk about ride height being an issue, but if one is willing to make the adjustments as needed, this isn’t an issue.

They are also still pretty stiff even when they are set up to be as soft as they can. Stiff shocks grab the ground better but when going over speed bumps, potholes, and other obstacles found on the average roadways, they can be very hard to enjoy.

Of course, you have to take into consideration that coil overs are designed for track use and to stand up to the conditions of one. They won’t travel as far as a shock absorber designed for the street. This means that harsh road conditions will be harder on the vehicle and the coil overs themselves. When you’re talking about the price tag attached to coil over setups, this is especially scary. 

At the end of the day, coil overs absolutely can be used practically on the street. Though, if you are intending to drive your Challenger set up with coil overs daily, you can’t ignore the fact that you will want to be mindful of their presence.  

If you live in an area where the roads are in good condition and you can reasonably avoid potholes and speed bumps, you can likely get away with whatever settings you want between track use. Though, if the roads around you are notoriously bad and you can foresee them taking a beating, you might want to reconsider using them as so.