I ordered the XIDA ACE's with BCM mounts for my ND a few weeks back. After reading Andy's feedback, the wait is killing me even more!

Disappear for a few months and look at all the stuff that's gone down.

The old Xida are now the race?

I admit I was excited about the Ace until I saw the price edit- mentioned the price to the wife and she didn't care, maybe ACE then instead of regular old xidas

And if things couldn't get any better...this addresses one of my few peeves...no memory/presets.

Yup. We gave Tractive a list of things we wanted to see in the controller. Presets among them. He asked us to just wait a bit :)

I went from Xida Race to Ace's, I have zero regrets. If you dont want to go low like the xida race give you, then Ace's are the choice.

Does this mean upgradedable controller boxes?

Yeah for years I've been trying to figure out how to live with a street driven car with really low ground clearance and it's mostly just terrible. I've pretty much written off the idea of having any sort of meaningful aero up front. So yeah, ACE does seem pretty amazing for such a small trade-off.

What's the longevity like on the ACE shocks? And when they wear out, what is required to service them?

The shocks always remain the same. It's just a matter what you plug in it to control the system. DSC Sport has a fully programmable, GPS & multi input box you can buy today for any Xida Ace. When we have more information on the new controller from Tractive we will publish it.

I'm not sure when I will be down in Tampa next with my car, although I might be getting LE interior in Sarasota.

Hey, dumb question.

I was just thinking back to how normal adjustable shocks work and... how do you adjust one end of the car vs the other to control how oversteery or understeery the car is? For example, say that I have a slightly too small rear swaybar and I want to stiffen the rear end just a little to bring the car back to neutral. Normally I would just go back to my illuminas or whatever and stiffen the rear shocks a little so the car comes around a little more easily. Or soften the front of the car, etc.

When using ACE, are you just supposed to adjust that sort of thing with tire pressures and roll bar diameters? Or am I missing something really obvious? The DDA adjustment controls stiffness equally for all four corners and roll and yaw control just control how stiff the shocks get to resist yawing and rolling, no? Or does the system use the accelerometers to keep the car perfectly neutral? How magic is this system?

The ACE controller adjusts front and rear independently. One would make the same type of suspension adjustments as you would with a manually adjusted shock.

Oh ok, I didn't get that you could dial in bias like that from looking at the two button controller pictures. The more I learn, the more awesome this seems.

Default = rear. Hold down both and it toggles to flashing, flashing = front.

Additional variant for the Xida XL now available.

For those competing in SCCA's E Street category, we now have a lower perch adapter to fit XIDA dampers with stock springs.

Double adjustable version shown here:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...13345b23f2.jpgXida XL for SCCA ES Autox. OEM spring, double adjustable.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1b4a9fdc04.jpgDouble adjustable cans with a block-off in the high speed location.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4a16a74fca.jpgLower spring perch adapters for OEM springs.

I almost wish I kept my Miata in Street class.

facebook video from Tractive showing how the ACE valve works.
Neat.

click to play

Since my 30AE ST has been successfully ordered (with delivery scheduled for September), I'm mulling over some of the mods that might be applied. It'll be pretty much a street car and the current plan is to leave it as stock as possible. Midpipe and exhaust are possibilities, plus maybe a tune (if someone ever releases a good one). I'm fairly certain that I won't be thrilled with the stock suspension and wheel/fender gap. I've been spoiled by the AFCOs on my L.E. (which ride sooo much better than stock, even with 450/300 springs) and the Xidas on my MSM, which are superb on the track but actually fairly cushy on the street (given the 800/500 spring rates). I'm thinking I might as well do it right the first time with Xida ACE - giving me all-day comfort on our bomb-shelled roads but also more-than-ample performance on back roads and/or the occasional track day. I'm leaning towards the 400/200 "Sport" combination but have a few questions:

1. What to do about the anti-roll bars. Leave the stock ones in and let ACE control body roll? If not, then change the front (which is a PITA, from what I understand) only or both front/rear?
2. What is the expected time to budget for installation, over and above standard coil-overs? From the installation posts I've seen, the interior has to be partially dismantled and wires run hither and yon.
3. What is the expected lifespan of the shocks, given a street-mostly, summer-only application? I assume they're rebuildable, same as the standard Xida?

Inquiring minds wish to know. Thanks.

In my experience swapping sways is really easy. Suspension install will be more work and require more strength.

Also in my experience, upgrading them is not worthwhile, especially in the rear. Most aftermarket rears are way too large and make the car super twitchy when pushed. After years of experimentation, I ended up going back to FM front, stock rear and 5.5 inch ride height xidas. Car handles awesome and has 90 percent less headaches than my old lowered and overly swayed setup

1. Start with stock, drive it, learn it, go from there. The ACE alows some real trickery with the active compression damping.
2. Combine a coilover install, a rollbar install, and a car alarm install. That would be a good starting point. "1 weekend" for a first time home mechanic, maybe.
3. Same as other Xida. Primary concern is salt/dust/gravel damaging/contaminating the seals. They are still low friction race shocks, but the electronic piston doesn't accelerate the wear in any way.



Not so on the ND. Front bar is a PITA.

Good stuff - thanks Dan. I've been running "socks" on my AFCOs after a couple needed rebuilding far too soon after being installed (worn seals). They've been rock-solid ever since. Any issues doing the same with Xidas?

Unrelated to the previous discussion, but I have my eyes on a set of XL for my NB. Problem is..Europe. Once you add up shipping and import taxes, you are looking at approx. +1000 which is ridiculous. I was wondering if you guys are considering the option of a European vendor; Tractive Suspension maybe?