Vorshlag has 4 aspects to the business. In addition to our CNC shop (which makes many of our suspension components), parts sales of our own and other people's parts, and supporting our dealer program, Vorshlag Motorsports also performs various
services to race and street cars.
This list of
Services is extensive, and includes: suspension design and installation, custom wheel fitment design, a huge array of chassis fabrication, construction of roll cages for all sanctioning bodies, construction of lightweight/high flow exhaust systems, safety gear installation (seats, fire systems, nets, etc), custom aerodynamic aids, repair work to select makes/models/systems, complete engine swap/integration work, pre-track inspections, as well as general race preparation on street and race cars. We do work in our shop as well as lots of testing on road courses. You can read more about the services we offer below.
Suspension Design and Installation Vorshlag started out as an engineering shop focusing on suspension development. Over the years we have built a large array of parts such as spherical top mounts, camber plates, coilover shock systems, suspension and driveline bushings, and other automotive suspension solutions that we make in-house.
We use Solidworks & GibbsCAM software to design and CNC machine parts in our machine shop. Various suspension geometry mapping software and other tools are used to develop custom suspension components and complete chassis for street and race cars as well.
We install everything that we sell, including the variety of monotube dampers, springs, top mounts, bushings, braces and control arms from our own designs and other brands we carry. We can install & adjust these parts, corner balance and align chassis. We help our customers choose the right parts - and avoid the wrong ones - to fit their needs, racing classes, skill levels and budgets. We also reserve the right to NOT install parts brought to us by customers.
Sometimes the "right parts" don't exist off-the-shelf for a given car/customer/use. In those cases we can design and build a custom solution and fabricate suspension and chassis parts for a specific set of parameters. From custom control arms, subframes, IRS swaps, to complete chassis - Vorshlag has done it. We have the engineers and fabricators to build just about anything you can dream up.
Vorshlag has come to learn many tricks for proper suspension installation and set-up over the years. When it comes to automotive suspension - that's our main focus, and its what we know best. We can install high end coilover suspension, make custom mounts and chassis pass-thrus for remote reservoirs and hoses, corner weigh and balance the chassis, and give your car the race alignment it needs. We are a bit picky on jobs like this and won't just install any random coilover kit, so call for more details. We have access to dozens of brands of shocks/bushings/bars/etc and we can help you can get the suspension system you always dreamed of. Make Vorshlag your one stop suspension shop and you won't regret it.
Custom Wheel and Tire Fitment We have spent decades racing sports cars in various forms of motorsport, from autocross to road race, rally to hll climb, drag racing and Bonneville. Each type of racing has one main common component -
the tire is the most vital part of any competition car. Everything we do in the suspension is to maximize the grip of the tire. The brakes are usually tire limited. The application of power is almost always tire limited. So maximizing the tire width and compound is crucial, and it is something we are very good at here at Vorshlag.
In most forms of racing we have found - after much testing - that you can almost never have "too much tire". So we go to great lengths to maximize the tire size for a given car and class, and to do this we almost always need to specify a custom wheel. We work with a variety of measuring tools and techniques to get the correct width, offset and diameer for the desired tire. We have several "Vorshlag Spec Wheels" we have developed for anumber of chassis, made to fit perfectly for extreme tire widths.
We can always we can measure your car and specify wheels for fitments under the factory fenders, and of course we are known for modifying fenders and even making custom fender flares to cover extreme tire widths. Remember: you don't have to settle for the "standard" wheel offerings. With Vorshlag almost anything is possible, and we can get more tire under your fenders than just about anyone. We are known for "pushing the limits of possibility" for tires, and making the impossible... possible.
Roll Cage Contrustion Building roll cages is a large subject that we could write books on. We have an
extension forum thread devoted to the theoryu, engineering, class rules and more about roll cages located
here.
Please read that and if it looks like Vorshlag is a good fit for your race car's roll cage or dual puspose street/track car's 4-point roll bar, give us a shout.
Vorshlag can build a roll cage for virtually any racing class or sanctioning body, and we have examples that are legal for: NASA, SCCA, SCTA, NHRA and more.
Custom Built Street and Race Car Exhaust Systems From custom built exhaust headers to mandrel bent complete stainless steel exhaust systems, Vorshlag has the capability for making your race or street car sound good, make more power, and save weight. All of our exhaust systems are made from stainless steel tubing and mandrel bends, TIG-welded, and made to fit the chassis to offer the best ground clearance, with the best flow possible, at the lightest weight. joined with V-band flanges,
We do not make cheap exhaust systems or "quickie repairs" - this work must be scheduled in advance, sometimes requiring an appointment to put the car in the air for an estimate, to be able to properly order the components and mufflers for the particular job. Vorshlag stocks a number of stainless steel mandrel bends we can get anything needed.
Safety Gear Installation No matter the type of motorsport when you end up in timed competition you almost always have some safety upgrades that must be performed to your car. Running a bone stock street car with no safety preparations on a race track can lead to driver fatigue, injury, or worse. No matter how "good you drive" there are always things outside of your control - the weather, oil spills, other idiots on track. Nobody wants to end up broken, burned or killed in racing, so when you get serious about your safety, we can help.
Virtually all forms of competitive racing require you have to use a miniumum amount of safety gear, which is specified by the rules makers or sanctioning body. You can almost always use even more safety gear than required, and in situaitons like HPDE and autocross you are left almost completely on your own for making your car safe.
Trusting just any random shop to install a racing seat, plumb a fire system, specify your harnesses, or design and build your roll cage is a path to doom. Luckily Vorshlag is well known for the installation of racing seats, fire systems, roll cages, nets, even parachutes and harnesses. We have many decades of racing experience and fabrication to handle the most basic to extreme racing safety upgrades.
Custom Aerodynamic Work When your racing car gets serious enough to need aero improvements, you need to work with a shop that has the engineering and fabricaiton chops to get the job done right. Most factory built street cars have aerodynamic downforce (or lift!) and aero drag heavily compromised for exterior styling or Federal crash requirements. This can lead to a car that doesn't exactly "cut through the air", and some car shapes (with unintended lift at one or both ends) have downright scary handling characteristics at high speed.
Air is Fluid and somehting we know how to divert, slip through, or force into various areas to improve downforce and cooling, and to recuce drag and lift. We can design, builkd and install wings, splitters, ducted hoods, diffusers, canards and other devices to improve aerodynamics on any type of car, for almost any type of racing.
Circuit road racing in NASA, standing start (drag) racing in 1/8th mile t full mile events, rallye cars at Pikes Peak, even top speed trials at Mojave or Bonneville - we've built it, raced it, and won in it.
Testing At The Track
One item that virtually all HPDE track day groups require is a technical inspection. Sometimes this can be handled at the track the day of the event but most HPDE groups prefer that the car is checked out stem to stern at a qualified shop. This way the car can be put on a lift, the various suspension and brake nuts and bolts can be checked, systems can be inspected for leaks, brake pads can get a look, wheel studs and lug nuts can be torqued, and a brake fluid flush can be performed if necessary.
Vorshlag is a NASA approved HPDE tech shop and we have done hundreds of pre-track inspections for a variety of HPDE groups. We are a stocking Motul dealer as well and can get your brake fluid flushed with RBF600 or 660.
General Racing Related Installation Fabrication Work Vorshlag has the capability to do many fabrication jobs that most shops cannot or will not tackle. These are outlined below. Basically, if something needs to be cut, welded, machined, bent, or joined, we can handle it.
Chassis Repair and Reinforcement We are familiar with many generations of various chassis, and some cars almost always suffer the same issues. We know the weak points of some chasiss and are skilled in tier repairs. The trunk floor of the BMW E30 and Z3 have a tendency to fail from the single ear differential cover mount, and we have updated a number of these to dual ear mount with our own custom fabrication work.
Another common problem is cracking at the the rear subframe mounting points on BMW E36 and especially BMW E46 3 series. These will
all crack over a long enough time period of use, no matter if its a street car or a race car. There are a variety of laser cut and CNC bent chassis reinforcement kits avilable that we can weld into the these weak points to fix cracks and prevent them from happening again.
There's more to it than just "slapping the plates on and welding it up". We have done 100+ of these BMWchassis repairs and have a good grasp of the hours, parts costs, and the procedures - we are known for this work and have customers ship us cars from across the country to get it done right at Vorshlag. There are associated bushing replacements that should be handled at the same time as this repair - call or email us for more details.
Racing Seat Installation
Let's say you are ready to step-up and install a race seat into your autocross, track, or race car. The company you get the seat from might even have brackets to install them into you exact car. Trouble is, they never fit just quite right. The seat is sitting too high (your helmet is touching the roof), too far to one side, the seat is hitting the door, etc. So many variables go into proper seat installation, and many of them depend on your body type and seat position. Vorshlag is known for handling these tricky installations and doing it right. Low profile dual-locking seat sliders, custom floor brackets, integral harness mounts - we can help with all of that.
Click this link to see more race seat installations performed at Vorshlag.
At Vorshlag, we don't make the car you drive. We make the car you drive faster.