Paul Hawker
Enthusiast
To bring everybody up to speed, this is about changing the coil over suspension on my 09 Coupe from KW Variant IIs to the newest MCS (Motion Control Suspension) shocks.
These two shocks are very similiar in design, and will most likely be cross shopped by Viper owners wanting to upgrade their stock suspensions as they both are well made, and retail a little over $3,000 with coil springs.
When I purchased my 09 used it came with Nitto's and KW. The original owner wanted to lower it and that setup really made it look low and mean.
The tires were pretty worn out, and now with over 33,000 miles I replaced them with the latest Pilot SuperSports as I was intending to take the car to the track.
On the street the KWs worked pretty well, however they had an annoying click in the rear when loading and unloading, and they tended to give a pogo stick ride on the highway, or on rough surface streets. On road courses that pogo ride almost put me into a wall. The KW's had to go if I wanted to have more track days.
I had ridden in several Vipers with Motons, and wanted to upgrade to them, but the costs were pretty high.
When the latest MCS shocks (Employees from the old Moton Company) were released, the elimination of some of the valve adjustability, and external remote nitrogen resevoirs allow the prices to be lowered by a bunch.
I read the threads from Mark at Woodhouse, and he seemed to describe just what I was looking for.
I called Todd at A&C Performance and he made me an amazing offer. He has someone that needed KW shocks, and offered me a trade in on my KW's as he also wanted to check out the MCS himself.
This is where Todd really stepped up, and once again showed why he has such a fantastic reputation, and a very loyal following. I was going on a 16 day cruise. He came to my house, picked up the Viper, took it to his shop and changed out the shocks. The car was delivered back to my garage (all while I was away) and I returned home to a freshly suspended Viper.
Was great to see how Todd and Mark worked this all out, so it was seamless to me. They confered on the proper spring rates, and ride heights.
Like a kid at Christmas, I could not wait to take it out and run it around on some of my favorite roads.
While not a full evaluation (that will have to wait for the track) my initial impressions is that MCS has a winner on their hands. I immediately noticed that the annoying click had gone away, the ride was much smoother and quieter, and the car seemed to glide more that bump down the road. Then I got to a favorite curvey road....and boy did the car stick. If felt more planted than ever before. Changing directions was in complete control, and the car was much less darty. Under heavy braking the tires did not skip, and under hard accelleration the car lept off the corners, where before it seemed to woogie just a bit. This road has some pretty interesting off camber curves that used to upset the car, but now were taken with complete confidence.
These shocks seem to allow much more suspension travel, especially in the rear. You can feel the car using the suspension to keep the tires in contact with the road where with the KW the suspension felt bound up, and restricted.
These shock seem obviously better suited to our Vipers. While the KW offered adjustable ride height, they never really got control of the suspension. The MSC also offers ride height adjustability, but give far more control, a smoother ride, less noise...all at about the same price.
I believe that a Gen III or Gen IV with these shocks, and Pilot SuperSports will give the Gen V a real run for it's money. If I were to be ordering a new Gen V SRT from Woodhouse, I would seriously consider having these shock installed from the get go. (Do not believe they will fit on the GTS)
For dedicated track rats, the decision to go with the higher adjustability and remote canister resevoir MCS or Penske coil overs makes the most sense, however for the majority of us this new MCS set up might be just the solution we were looking for.
If I were Chrysler, I would buy this company...it's that good.
Again, I would like to thank Mark at Woodhouse for working closely with MCS to develop these shocks, and for Todd at A&C Performance who made the installation effortless for me.
These two shocks are very similiar in design, and will most likely be cross shopped by Viper owners wanting to upgrade their stock suspensions as they both are well made, and retail a little over $3,000 with coil springs.
When I purchased my 09 used it came with Nitto's and KW. The original owner wanted to lower it and that setup really made it look low and mean.
The tires were pretty worn out, and now with over 33,000 miles I replaced them with the latest Pilot SuperSports as I was intending to take the car to the track.
On the street the KWs worked pretty well, however they had an annoying click in the rear when loading and unloading, and they tended to give a pogo stick ride on the highway, or on rough surface streets. On road courses that pogo ride almost put me into a wall. The KW's had to go if I wanted to have more track days.
I had ridden in several Vipers with Motons, and wanted to upgrade to them, but the costs were pretty high.
When the latest MCS shocks (Employees from the old Moton Company) were released, the elimination of some of the valve adjustability, and external remote nitrogen resevoirs allow the prices to be lowered by a bunch.
I read the threads from Mark at Woodhouse, and he seemed to describe just what I was looking for.
I called Todd at A&C Performance and he made me an amazing offer. He has someone that needed KW shocks, and offered me a trade in on my KW's as he also wanted to check out the MCS himself.
This is where Todd really stepped up, and once again showed why he has such a fantastic reputation, and a very loyal following. I was going on a 16 day cruise. He came to my house, picked up the Viper, took it to his shop and changed out the shocks. The car was delivered back to my garage (all while I was away) and I returned home to a freshly suspended Viper.
Was great to see how Todd and Mark worked this all out, so it was seamless to me. They confered on the proper spring rates, and ride heights.
Like a kid at Christmas, I could not wait to take it out and run it around on some of my favorite roads.
While not a full evaluation (that will have to wait for the track) my initial impressions is that MCS has a winner on their hands. I immediately noticed that the annoying click had gone away, the ride was much smoother and quieter, and the car seemed to glide more that bump down the road. Then I got to a favorite curvey road....and boy did the car stick. If felt more planted than ever before. Changing directions was in complete control, and the car was much less darty. Under heavy braking the tires did not skip, and under hard accelleration the car lept off the corners, where before it seemed to woogie just a bit. This road has some pretty interesting off camber curves that used to upset the car, but now were taken with complete confidence.
These shocks seem to allow much more suspension travel, especially in the rear. You can feel the car using the suspension to keep the tires in contact with the road where with the KW the suspension felt bound up, and restricted.
These shock seem obviously better suited to our Vipers. While the KW offered adjustable ride height, they never really got control of the suspension. The MSC also offers ride height adjustability, but give far more control, a smoother ride, less noise...all at about the same price.
I believe that a Gen III or Gen IV with these shocks, and Pilot SuperSports will give the Gen V a real run for it's money. If I were to be ordering a new Gen V SRT from Woodhouse, I would seriously consider having these shock installed from the get go. (Do not believe they will fit on the GTS)
For dedicated track rats, the decision to go with the higher adjustability and remote canister resevoir MCS or Penske coil overs makes the most sense, however for the majority of us this new MCS set up might be just the solution we were looking for.
If I were Chrysler, I would buy this company...it's that good.
Again, I would like to thank Mark at Woodhouse for working closely with MCS to develop these shocks, and for Todd at A&C Performance who made the installation effortless for me.
Thanks will look forward to helping you.
