Originally Posted by
Jay Boyd
What are the advantages of the hard suspension parts? My kit manual shows the standard part numbers & the newer manual on AE's site show all hard suspension components.
I just finished my kit & I'm starting to stock up on spares. My numbers didn't match up? I thought I was losing it when I went to the hobby shop & was way off compared to the TC6 part numbers they brought up on their system.(the same AE site maybe?)
Is there a way to tell the difference on the actual parts?
Thanks.
If you stock up on parts, I think that the biggest advantage that you would have to buying the hard parts is that your kit came with hard parts and you would want to maintain consistency with what is on the car. Potentially your car could behave strangely with a soft left suspension arm and a right hard suspension arm etc.
I could always tell I was buying a hard part because it said (hard) on the package. Once out of the package, it seems pretty hard to tell which ones are hard. It is much harder to thread in a droop screw or ball stud into the hard parts when new, so that would be one way to tell.
Theoretically, hard parts are going to give you an advantage on high traction surfaces like carpet because there will be less flex, and soft parts could potentially give you an advantage on low traction surfaces because of more flex. Most people just run the hards. I still have some old soft TC5 parts laying around that I'll mix and match with hard parts on my car because I'm cheap and frankly can't tell the difference. If I was going to a big race where I cared about doing well, I'd probably switch everything out to hard parts on principle.
Hope that was the info. you were looking for. I can't speak to the part number situation, but in my experience (hard) is always in the title when ordering (hard) parts.