How to Choose a JRZ Suspension Setup for Your Car

There is a clean ladder inside the JRZ range, and it maps to how you actually drive. Below is the whole line from the simplest RS coilover up to the electronically controlled PROactive, matched to real use.

Before the ladder, here is the single idea that ties it together. Moving up the range is not about more firmness. It is about how much control the damper puts in your hands, in this order: whether you can set compression and rebound independently, whether compression itself is split into low- and high-speed (body control versus impacts), and whether the damper has the hardware (external reservoir plus adjustable gas pressure) to hold its damping under sustained heat.

And one caveat worth repeating: the adjusters set a range around a baseline, and the baseline is the valving and the spring rates JRZ builds for your car. Matching those to your use matters more than the knob count. The ladder below assumes each unit is specced correctly for the car, which is the part MME and JRZ handle with you.

Firmness is a byproduct. Control is the point.

The ladder

RS One: single adjustable. Street and spirited, occasional track. One knob, and it adjusts compression and rebound together on a single circuit. Every click firms both at once (21 clicks). Twin-tube construction, with gas pressure preset at the factory and not adjustable. No reservoir. This is a ride-firmness dial, not a corner-balancing tool, and for a street car that sees the occasional track day that is exactly right. Simple, comfortable, rebuildable, and it does not carry hardware you will not use. JRZ is also developing a revised monotube RS One, available on some applications rather than all, so check with MME on the current construction for your platform. MME best fit: street plus light track.

RS Two: double adjustable. Serious HPDE and track days. Compression and rebound become independent (compression 14 clicks on strut applications or 9 clicks on damper applications, rebound 21 clicks). Both are single overall adjustments, one for compression and one for rebound; the low/high-speed compression split does not appear until the RS Pro3. Twin-tube, factory-preset gas, and JRZ has revised the RS Two’s internal design. This is the first real tuning tool in the line. You can balance the car front to rear and separate body control from ride quality. Step up to the RS Pro when your sessions get long or hot enough that you need the reservoir to stop fade.

RS Pro: double adjustable, external reservoir. Frequent, heat-cycled track use. The RS Pro is essentially the RS Two’s adjustability delivered as a monotube with an external reservoir: the same two-way logic (one overall compression at 14 clicks, one rebound at 21 clicks), but now with the remote reservoir and adjustable nitrogen pressure (150 to 350 PSI, 250 from the factory) that hold damping consistent under repeated hard use. The practical benefit is heat and thermal management. This is the point where the RS line stops being a nicer street coilover and becomes a repeatable track tool. For serious track use where heat is a concern, MME generally recommends the RS Pro over the RS Two. MME best fit: heat-cycled track use.

RS Pro3: triple adjustable, external reservoir. Time attack and fast solo, curb-heavy. Adds a low/high-speed compression split on top of the reservoir. Low-speed compression (8 clicks) and high-speed compression (14 clicks) are adjusted on the canister, while rebound (21 clicks) stays on the shaft at the top of the damper. That lets you hold a flat platform and keep curb compliance at the same time, tuned from the two compression knobs on the canister. This is the one for a driver who uses curbs hard and has felt a single compression setting become a compromise. MME best fit: time attack and racing.

11 Series: Motorsport, 2-way. Club racing and serious HPDE. The entry race damper. Monotube, high-volume canister, 22 mm shaft, adjustable gas (150 to 350 PSI, the same range as the RS reservoir models), custom valving, and clean separation of compression (14 clicks) and rebound (24 clicks) with no cross-talk. Choose this over the RS Pro when you want full race-damper construction and JRZ valving service, and two-way tuning (compression and rebound) still gives you all the adjustment you need for club racing and HPDE. You only step up to the 12 Series when you want to split compression into low and high speed.

12 Series: Motorsport, 3-way. Wheel-to-wheel and pro club racing. The race standard. Everything the 11 Series has, plus compression split into low-speed (10 clicks, pitch/roll/balance) and high-speed (19 clicks, impacts/curbs) on the canister, with rebound (24 clicks) on the shaft. That is the tuning you can actually use when you are racing hard. Add the 50-DA double-adjustable shaft for a four-way: it puts compression and rebound bleed adjusters (27 positions each) on the piston rod, tuned independently of the reservoir blow-off, to shape the low-speed part of the curve and the hysteresis. Worth it only if you have an engineer and data to exploit it.

PROactive: electronically controlled, continuously self-adjusting. A different kind of product from the manual-click dampers above. Instead of setting clicks and living with them, PROactive changes damping in real time. Sensors read the car’s motion, a dedicated JRZ controller decides how much damping is needed at that instant, and a fast valve delivers it, thousands of times a second. JRZ calls it active damping, and its brand term is “PROactive.” The controller plugs in and runs on its own private harness, a standalone JRZ system rather than one that piggybacks the car’s electronics. It is the choice for a driver who wants adaptive behavior across changing conditions rather than one fixed setup, on the road or the track. See the dedicated section below.

Matched to how you drive

A note on PROactive (electronically controlled active damping)

PROactive is JRZ’s real-time adaptive damper, which JRZ calls the next generation of active damping. Here is what it is and how it works:

• The system: three parts that can work as independent units or in unison. A Valve Control Unit (VCU), the patented MFC valve inside the dampers, and the control algorithm with its sensors.
• The sensors: 3-axis acceleration sensors and 3-axis gyro sensors read the car’s motion. The acceleration sensors catch braking, accelerating, and cornering, and the gyro sensors catch roll.
• The brain: the VCU is a 1000 Hz control unit. It reads the sensors and calculates the damping needed to control the motion, continuously. It is a dedicated JRZ controller that plugs in and runs on its own private harness, a standalone system rather than one that piggybacks the car’s electronics.
• The valve: the MFC (Multi-Function Control) valve is what actually changes the damping. JRZ describes it as ultra-fast, bi-directional, and direct-flowing, with one moving part, dynamically lubricated, and temperature stable across a wide range. JRZ says it is the only valve fast enough to control damping for both road-induced and driver-induced disturbances. Patent pending.
• Control: it self-adjusts continuously, and you can also set it to preference. Tuning is done over Bluetooth from an Android or Apple app, or from an in-cabin screen or selector knob. Full functionality of the OE buttons through the car’s CAN bus is in development.
• Two variants: a Stand-Alone system that can be configured for almost any application (dampers with the MFC valve, the VCU, wiring harness, Bluetooth module, and the control app), and a Plug & Play system that is a direct replacement for the factory dampers on cars with compatible electronically controlled suspension, using the car’s own connectors and inputs.
• What JRZ says it delivers: consistent comfort and handling, plus reduced tire and road wear, reduced fuel consumption, and reduced brake pad and disc wear, from keeping the tire in better contact more of the time.

How to think about where it fits: the RS and Motorsport dampers hand you a set of clicks and you choose a setup. PROactive changes the setup for you, continuously, as the road and your driving change. It is the adaptive option for a driver who does not want to compromise on one fixed tune.

Add-on: JRZ PROlift (front-axle nose-lift)

PROlift is a new JRZ product, and it is not a damper tier. It is a hydraulic ride-height system that raises the nose of a lowered car for ground clearance, then drops it back down. If you run a low setup and you flinch at every driveway, apron, speed bump, and parking block, this is the option that solves it without giving up your ride height. The front-axle system is available now and is the one detailed in JRZ’s current spec sheet, and a rear application can be adapted on request. The front-axle system retails at US $5,895. Contact MME to confirm current pricing and fitment for your car.

What it is and how it works. PROlift does not change your springs or your damper valving. It sits at the spring perch and varies spring preload hydraulically, and changing preload changes ride height. A small hydraulic pump feeds a hydraulic adjuster that rides over the damper body, and a control unit drives the pump to a target height and holds it there on closed-loop position feedback. It runs on 12V, uses motorsport-grade wiring, and the hydraulic circuit is closed, so no air bleeding is needed during installation.

Key specs, front-axle only:

• Lift: up to 50 mm measured at the spring, dependent on application. For context, JRZ’s install guide suggests around 40 mm of adjuster lift on a strut car gives roughly 45 to 50 mm at the wheel; on aluminum coilovers it depends on the installation ratio.
• Weight: the complete front-axle system is 5.13 kg (11.3 lb).
• Power: operates on 12V.
• Compatibility: compatible with all RS-line and Motorsport-line dampers.
• Serviceability: 100% serviceable, consistent with the rest of the line.
• Hydraulics: closed circuit, small hydraulic pumps, no bleeding at install.

How it is operated. The front-axle-only kit uses a single momentary push switch: press and hold it for about a second to lift. An LED ring reads out the state, off at base height, blinking while it moves, and solid once it reaches the lifted position. Above a set speed the system lowers itself back to base automatically. That speed is set in software, with a default around 85 km/h (52 mph), so the car raises for the obstacle and settles back down on its own once you are moving. Speed can be read from a JRZ GPS module (standard) or, depending on the application, triggered from the car over OBD. CAN bus control is an option, and a rear or four-wheel application, available on request, uses a three-mode rotary switch (base, a custom “street” height, and full lift) instead of the single push button. Fine setup (the base position, the lift height, and the set and reset speeds) is done through a dealer-only software package, and the lift amount itself is a software parameter, so it is dialed in at install rather than left to the owner.

Install, at a high level. On the front-axle-only fit, the damper’s lower spring seat is replaced with a PROlift threaded adjuster that screws onto the strut or damper body, the hydraulic adjuster slides over the body, and the springs and top mount go back on. The small pump unit mounts somewhere secure and vibration-isolated (JRZ’s preference is the engine bay, away from the exhaust), the control unit and wiring go in, and the whole hydraulic run is treated with the same care as a brake line. One real setup caveat worth flagging to customers: the more lift you dial in, the less down-travel the damper has at the raised height, so JRZ recommends keeping at least 20 mm of downward wheel travel at the highest setting to avoid topping out. This is a dealer or professional install, not a driveway job.

Who it is for. Street and spirited-street owners who run low and want to stop scraping, and show-car owners who want to sit on the ground and still drive the car onto a trailer or out of a show hall. It is an add-on to an existing RS or Motorsport setup rather than a replacement for it. The convenience and wear benefits (raise for obstacles, auto-lower with speed) are the selling points, and the engineering point for us is that it changes preload only and leaves the valving and spring rate you specced untouched.

Written by Sven Husbands, founder of Meisterschaft Motorsport Engineering and a mechanical engineer with a background in OEM vehicle development and professional race engineering. MME is the official U.S. importer of JRZ Suspension.