There seems to be a significant trade-off necessary with shocks in general; everybody wants maximum travel. But more rebound travel means less compression travel, and vice versa. They're both important. Too little compression travel and you end up with an infinite spring rate. Too little rebound travel and, well, what happens? Do you lift the wheel off the ground, or do you force the chassis to follow the wheel?

I had talked with a local shock builder at one point and he talked about running 0 droop and no rebound damping at all. I'm not sure I entirely comprehend how that would work. Seems like it may be okay for a race car, but for a dual-purpose or street car I can't wrap my head around it. I can kind of envision it helping weight transfer, but at the same time what exactly happens when you enter a dip?

No rebound damping. Doesn't that leave the spring uncontrolled to recoil after a compression? Very confusing...

Wow Glen, can we combine all of these threads? Your bump travel is limited to the point where the tires hit the fender and the droop is limited (maximum) by the upper a-arm hitting the spring. If your shocks are topped out at static ride height, then you cannot keep the tires in contact with the road when going off of a drop off or on an off camber turn. Here are a couple of pics at NHMS where a Noble has (pick one or more) a) too much sway bar stiffness, b) not enough droop travel, c) too much rebound damping, d) not enough bump damping, e) all of the above. Compare to my C6Z with almost 6 inches of total travel.

[IMG]http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/gshoffman/20080527_NHIS_INS_5949.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/gshoffman/20080527_SCDA_NHIS_INS_5914_HiRes.jpg[/IMG]

Great pictures!

It would appear you're not talking about crazy handling characteristics there, but rather the fact that your car appears to have four nice solid contact patches and the Noble is showing daylight under both tires on the unloaded side?

Good point about the A-arm and the spring; I had completely skipped that in my head thinking only of the chassis and wheel and not of how it actually all fit together!

What would the "not enough bump damping" option be? Now we're joining another thread and I see why you're looking to combine them! So bump on the loaded side -combined- with rebound on the unloaded side is the roll control, not one or the other?