Just to remind you of a fact - Alberto's shocks have no knob. He can't change the damping, nor would he need to. We've looked at the whole damping range he'd need his suspension to cover and every aspect has been carefully tuned with the right equipment and understanding so he just turns the key and drives. It's a common (though erroneous) expectation that a 'good quality shock should have a knob' so the user can change the settings to what I want, for different surfaces and conditions, blah blah blah.' On the surface, this seems to make sense but in practice (mine and many customers who are very serious about their racing results) you get better results focusing on tire pressures, ride height, sway bar, and alignment settings than screwing around with damping. Yes, I know what you're thinking -

I knew his FCM Elite-equipped FD RX-7 would be a flagship vehicle we could proudly showcase, since he wanted our best technology and did not want one, two, or more knobs to tweak here and there. He'd come for a ride in our FCM Elite-tuned BMW 330i sedan with KBO and Ripple Reducer and was very impressed - "I want my RX-7 to feel like that." You got it!

So why the 'cult of adjustability?' Indeed, nearly all aftermarket shock suppliers have programmed customers to OBEY that standard idea that knobs are necessary and beneficial. Of course, those same designers don't tell you about things like rebound-to-bump ratio, gas charge pressure (& effective shaft gas force), jacking down, etc. But go ahead, trust us - we know better than you poor silly consumers! I know the story, 'cause I used to be one of those enthusiasts. Proud of the Koni Sports on my Neon, then my Miata; constantly running for the adjuster after each autocross run, and especially to soften then after the race event so I could drive home with LESS discomfort. Funny, I never found a setting that worked quite right for that ride home. I had to begin exploring the magic of a quality monotube (Bilstein) and the build quality and consistency, plus understand what off-road and rally suspension tuning could teach me before seeing the lies of 'rebound is your friend!'

Converting from being a "knob-goblin" to accepting an un-holey-damper was actually a liberating experience! As I coudl see and feel what created grip, and how grip and comfort were intimately related, I started experiencing the full potential of a well-balanced suspension. The first time I experienced a suspension that DIDN'T jack down (meaning, the rebound damping was NOT higher thant he compression damping, at any shock velocity!) was a total relevation. I felt like I'd been given cheat codes to the game of Life. My car could corner, handle bumps, and grip better than ever before. People I'd give test rides were amazed, and still are. I loved giving those test drives to show off what a 'supportive' suspension could do, instead of suffering with 'abusive' relationships with poorly-tuned shocks. It was ignorance of the 'physics of suspensions', beyond marketing, hype, and misinformation, that had kept me in the dark but I was stepping into the light and bringing my customers with me.

With further testing, modeling of settings, damping ratio calculations, and careful attention to driving dynamics I've become convinced that NO KNOBS is the right solution for 99% of Elite customers and situations. Knobs are unnecessary and create just another potential failure point (as anyone who's been around the block has seen with many adjustable shocks leaking from their adjusters!). Well, what are those driving dynamics to consider? The interplay between driver inputs / road disturbances / chassis response; a solid real-world understanding of how to select spring rates and sway bars (not just 'stiffer is better!') plus how those factors tie in to the shock absorber (or damper) tuning.

Over the years, from extensive data acquisition efforts on my own, I've designed and refined our FCM Elite build process so we're able to build optimal settings into each FCM Elite damper set. Those Elite customers who actually NEED knobs are 1% of our users and are nearly exlusively competitive racers who have the necessary experience (and usually data acquisition (DAQ) tools) to really benefit from that adjustments. Most crucially, we design adjusters that provide some fine-tuning BUT with a fundamentally sound and well-chosen baseline damping curve. Even more ironically, I've heard from multiple customers of ours with single- or double-adjustments that their final settings were very close or identical to what I recommended from the factory. And those settings were the same as someone who got a knob-less setup would have had. "I wish I'd just trusted you and left the knob out!" is something I've heard many times.

But the desire to tweak is very powerful - we are curious creatures after all! So this tendency to tweak PLUS an expectation that the knob gives you some secret power combine to create an important and subversive psychological effect! I would actually call it a psychological crutch, because having the knobs is satisfying to your ego, but you also end up thinking that the knob is going to help you 'dial in' the shock to where you really need the car to be (whatever that means!). How do you know that's true? You really don't, in point of fact. A generic off-the-shelf shock is designed for some typical setup, but you have NO IDEA if the damping provided was determined through an intelligent, careful design process, or was just copied from some OE design curve (what often happens), or was designed to intentionally give someone the 'sensation of performance' while not actually allowing the tires to work at their 100% best.

So instead of choosing a highly-optimized suspension (such as we produce and provide evidence for) and learning to extract all the capability from it, making you a better driver, someone who 'just really needs a knob' might go somewhere else and be smug in their belief that their non-optimized suspension is better. It's not, my poor misinformed friend, as Alberto has demonstrated through his years of testing and evaluation before coming to an FCM Elite solution. But keep reading and you'll visually see why our solutions are better than anything else - period.

You have two chocies: tell your ego to chill out, let go of the knob, and savor the supple control and capability of a fantastically optimized suspension. Or go get that baby bottle, a blankie, a pacifier, that wee little knob. "Here little one, chew on this - ah yes, it'll make you feel better! Whoops, gotta change your diaper now!" Your butt won't be able to tell you what setting is actually giving the best grip. Mine certainly didn't, except when I realized the fastest setups were also the smoothest and best riding. The tires need to stay in contact with the ground at all times, and recover from disturbances quickly and smoothly. I've hit berms at high speed with shocks half the rebound of what they came with from Bilstein. I know I'm a good driver, but it's not just the driving ability - it's the confidence, the calmness, the ease behind the wheel that makes me and my vehicle one integrated unit. I dare say, if I was still a knob-boy, I wouldn't appreciate what a relief it is to know, from feedback in my body and calculations with my mind, how . Would you feel this intuitively confident doing a mid-corner slalom at 70mph to avoid a squirrel? I never did when I was dealing with too much rebound in those 'other' shocks I owned and tested!

The typical knobs on your typical aftermarket shock is a tool for confusing the mind and frustrating the body. They NEVER get the setting you need - NEVER! I've seen this fact on every single damper I've every looked at, no exceptions. Yet because you DO have a knob, and you think the designers are smarter than you and know what you need even though you probably have no idea what the knob is doing, you trust that just playing with the knob will get you to the right setting to make everything better. And worst of all, when you can't find that ideal setting you usually think something is wrong with YOU - and you doubt yourself instead of pointing the finger back at Koni, or Ohlins, or AST, or KW, or anyone you're getting the knob from and asking 'why can't I ever find a setting that isn't harsh?' To see what I mean visually, watch the Playing With Knobs videos (from about 10:00 to 13:00 is the part I'm referring to here).