Spring surprise in Manila

It’s not everyday that you meet any of those people whose products bear their names. Ok, so he may not be a Bill Ford or, say, a Calvin Klein. But Andok of litson manok fame he’s definitely more than one either. Every self-respecting car and racing enthusiast swears by and almost always positively adores his product. His name is Ralph Eibach. And yes, he’s part of the clan that has churned out all those suspension systems so beloved by car nuts the world over.

Coming over to Manila for a few days upon the invitation of ATI Racing, it was a pleasant surprise to meet the man. Eibach held a rather detailed presentation of his products to selected members of the media last Friday. An avowed Ralf Schumacher fan (he says he hates Michael), Eibach laments the fact that there aren’t too many sources of information out there regarding springs, dampers and other suspension concerns. Which explains his trip to our neck of the woods, marketed to the rest of the world as WOWPhilippines.

Eibach Springs, as the company is called, has been in the suspension business for nearly half a century now. The company said that it combines traditional steel milling and metal processing craftsmanship of its native Westphalia region in Germany to the state-of-the-art modern technology of today, while stressing its high-degree of flexibility in production. Needless to say, possessing a high degree of flexibility is a good trait in a company involved in the suspension business.

Used chiefly in numerous high-grade industrial applications worldwide, Eibach’s springs and other suspension pieces can be found in various types of vehicles, non-motorized ones included. Eibachs are used in flimsy looking yet high-tech mountain bikes to the fastest two-wheeled vehicles on the planet, aptly called Superbikes. The Eibach brand also appears on varied types of heavy-duty people- and luggage-haulers like motorhomes, and forms of mass transport systems such as the ICE and Pedolino high-speed trains.

But it is in the area of motorsports where the name Eibach is as common as popcorn in a movie house. Referring to its products as "the necessary muscle in order to transfer the high performance functions of a racing car onto the road by means of optimum grip," Eibach cites minimum weight, the smallest mounting space possible, high product quality and extreme flexibility as its formula for racing success. After all, engine and brake performances are useless in an ill-handling car.

The practice of neighborhood talyers and rice boy racers of cutting the stock springs to lower the vehicle is obviously frowned upon by Eibach. While acknowledging every suspension tuning is a compromise between ride quality and stiffness, merely cutting the springs simply do not, well, cut it.

To meet this balance of a pliant enough ride (which ensures the tire’s road contact) and taut, stable handling, Eibach offers the Eibach Race Spring System (ERS). With this ERS, one can choose from more than 500 spring components, thereby resulting in virtually unlimited main and tender spring combinations, and thus, infinitely variable suspension settings for all types of road surface conditions.

Which is something that various car manufacturers and racers–from Formula One to Champ to Rallye and Touring–have known all along. But it shouldn’t take long for Libis rice boy racers to start using Eibach springs too.