QA1 Aquires Speedtech Performance
 

QA1 has acquired Speedtech performance, wonder how that will impact the Speedtech products?

https://www.motortrend.com/news/qa1-...ch-performance

Most notably, the ATS AFX uprights are a Speedtech anchor product, but it will probably impact the lineup of full chassis offerings.

Glad I got a set of the AFX spindles before the changeover!

Should be interesting on how the product lineup will change.


.

That's interesting. For starters, the Viking shock lineup at Speedtech will likely be replaced by QA1 shocks. That's kind of a no-brainer.

Speedtech has been trying to do more full chassis stuff, in direct competition with Roadster Shop. This may aid in their ability to do that.

I just hope we don't start seeing a product substandardization. At least they weren't purchased by Holley Group.

I'm using viking coil overs on the front of the vega because no one else made a kit for it.

I'll be curious if that offering sticks around or disappears. I was going to do matching adjustable shocks for the rear, maybe I better get on that, lol.

Is there a downside to the Holley group or Mr. Gasket group? Haven't really heard too much bad about them.

Yeah, I was wondering if the QA1 & Viking shock lines would be combined. Was literally on the verge of buying a set of Vikings for the A body. Not sure the diff between the 2 lines but had decided on Viking due to a recommendation.

.

Holley group has been buying up performance brands. Holley owns MSD. MSD bought Mallory, and promptly discontinued the mallory ignition boxes like the 685. Man, that was a good bug zapper.

Time to panic buy the AFX spindle?

I don't think you'll have to worry about the AFX spindle. It's a staple of the market. However, the two companies now have products like control arms and other suspension components that directly compete against each other. You could see some consolidation there, especially the stuff designed for factory frame cars.

SpeedTech always catered more towards the hardcore crowd that actually races these cars. They routinely dominate the Optima challenge. I could see the brand being segmented purely towards the extreme build while QA1 continues to cater to the street rod crowd. Just a guess, but that's probably what I would do.

I've read Race Winning Brands is buying a lot of performance based companies.

Both companies are known for buying, destroying, and then offshoring replacements under the old brand name. Look what they did to Weiand. Scrapped everything good, now they sell cheap-junk manifolds from China.


"MSD" didn't buy Mallory, although I think it was written that way in some articles. Anyway, that's a common mistake.

The company that bought MSD, bought Mallory and a bunch of other companies. Then that company got bought by Holley.

Little fish get eaten by bigger fish, then the bigger fish get eaten by huge fish. Conglomerates rarely care about the end product--they're more worried about profit margins and the next quarterly report.

Is there a downside to QA1? I haven't owned any of their products but I haven't heard anything bad about them (and they're an American company, based here in Minnesota.)

QA1 has a stellar reputation among the car circles I'm around and have used their products more than once on a few car builds with excellent results. Dad currently runs their double adjustable shocks on his car and they've done an excellent job on the amount of compression and rebound I needed on the rear end at the track.

I've seen failures of the entry level QA1 hybrid coil overs where the pressed on adjustment sleeve frees itself from the shock body. I almost exclusively hear great things about their shocks however.

I haven't seen or used a coil over with a pressed on adjustment sleeve,....yikes. that sounds like a bad idea before we even get started

Yeah, it's a bad design. A guy I communicate with frequently had both of his front QA1's fail in this manner while the car was driving. This was on a 72 Luxury LeMans.

Now to QA1's credit, they stepped up and made it right, upgrading him to their higher tier offering.

Think I'm going to make an effort to get a set of Viking shocks soon. I do hear more success stories with the Viking shocks.

The QA1 coilover setups are, um, 'good', but nothing 'fantastic'. In competition, generally, the tried & true standard coil spring cars seem to be pulling off more consistent wins. Definitely so in the heavier cars.

I have an issue with variable rate springs, too. I just don't believe that's the proper way to control wheel/tire movement.


.

Tons and tons of QA shocks in the late model racing divisions. We ran them for years with no issues. Of course they get taken apart and rebuilt pretty frequently. Our shock guy liked them.

I ordered the AFX spindle in December from Speedtech, before this acquisition was made public. Still don’t have them, and am beginning to wonder if I’ll ever even get them.

A little frustrated with Speedtech… can’t even get them to send me a simple emailed receipt for the purchase.

My spindles finally arrived yesterday. I’m happy.

I can say, every time I called they answered the phone and were helpful. Don’t know why I never was able to get any email receipt for my purchase - but, I have my parts so I’m satisfied.

Now to get the brakes and get these things installed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The more homework I do on shocks, I'm going to get the 2x adjustable QA1s. Will probably order those in next few days.

That will give me a decent comparison to the Vikings, which will be on another car.



.

I'd go Ridetech(Fox) shocks all day.....

Ridetech doesn't make double adjustable shocks, and their' focus is mainly on bag suspensions.


.