Aussie damper tech takes on Mustang – and the world

Given the recent furore around the new Ford Mustang, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ford’s muscle car future is untouchable… but an enterprising Australian engineer thinks otherwise.

Brett O’Brien, the founder of bespoke damping and braking specialist Shockworks, has been busy in the background, perfecting a damper design for the latest pony car that has already been proven under the body of Craig Dean’s imposing Targa-spec Mustang.

The best bit? The complete spring and 12-way adjustable damping kit is in stock and ready to be fitted to Mustang road cars, too.

It’s a sign of moving with the times for O’Brien, who established Shockworks out of necessity, his consultative position with Prodrive evaporating in the wake of Ford’s decision to wind up local manufacturing.

“What do I do now?” he recalls thinking at the time. “Well, I’ll make my own shock company.”

Time is showing the foresight of his decision, while fortifying the fact that Australia’s engineering ingenuity remains a rich resource, even without the backing of a local vehicle manufacturer.

O’Brien unassumingly runs his shop behind the hum of tourism trade, up in the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria. When your trade is centred on making cars work with a road, the otherwise out- of-the-way location makes a lot of sense.

“These are the best testing and development roads in the world,” he says, “better than any proving ground or track I’ve ever used, in terms of variation in surface.”

O’Brien’s chassis engineering credentials are impeccable, though he left school at 16 and wasn’t formally trained in the black art of vehicle dynamics.

That hasn’t stopped him carving out an enviable reputation among ‘those in the know’; ask people from Prodrive or Premcar about O’Brien, and the praise is universal.

“I’d recommend Shockworks dampers over anything on the market,” says Premcar Engineering Director Bernie Quinn. High praise indeed.

O’Brien was originally in the music industry, earning his keep via a couple of DJ and sales gigs as he saved money to race karts on the weekend.

“That gave me the groundwork to understand dynamics,” he explains. “I don’t know where I would be today without that grounding.”

He eventually moved on to work as an instructor with Murcott’s driving school and continued to be fascinated by what made a car work around a racetrack… and on the road.

“It gave me an opportunity to feel how different cars and layouts responded, and allowed me to question why and how.”

It also allowed him to develop real feel as a driver, another string to his future bow.

A stint at Quadrant Suspension further honed O’Brien’s skills, but it was while instructing that he was poached by Delphi Automotive.

Employed as a chassis engineer focused mainly on damper tuning development, the Delphi opportunity allowed O’Brien to combine his driver training skills to bring global chassis engineering employees and clients up to driving speed, while working on projects such as the first BMW-owned MINI Coopers and the BMW X5.

After seven years with Delphi the business went into bankruptcy, but through working on several Ford OE projects (including the BA Falcon), O’Brien became known to Prodrive Automotive Technologies Asia Pacific. It was here that he consulted next, and where he was able to move beyond damper specialisation to better understand the entire chassis.

Once it became clear business would dry up with Holden, Ford and Toyota closing its local manufacturing doors, O’Brien took his plunge into bespoke damper design.

As he sought to implement strict quality controls (a legacy of his OE work) and create his own kit, O’Brien rebuilt and revalved the established shock brands to order, and it was this comparative analysis that further convinced him quality, not quantity, was what should be sought.

“I was amazed at some of the shock internals I discovered,” he says. “Some of the bigger brands look great externally but pull them down and there were all sorts of quality issues, in terms of manufacturing and tolerances.”

It’s this fastidious nature that led O’Brien across the world in search of a manufacturing partner that could produce his designs to OE standards.

He settled on Neotech in South Korea. “We tore down so many dampers in that first year, and Neotech proved the best from a quality control standpoint.

“They were willing to partner and introduce our core ideas, and it’s enabled us to really take off.

“We have a special relationship, and it enables me to quickly design a system that is then sent to Neotech for prototype manufacturing. Being small and responsive, the turnaround times are much reduced,” says O’Brien.

Combining the might of Neotech manufacturing capacity with core design, development and testing undertaken in Australia has enabled O’Brien to flourish, keeping a growing team of Aussies in work in the process… and overseas opportunities on the table.

The resultant product is called the ‘Shockworks by NTS’ damper system, which uses O’Brien’s ‘secret’ high-flow digressive monotube piston and is designed, developed and tested in Monbulk and the roads surrounding it. Bespoke top-mount designs and the use of items such as spherical bearings ensure strong, consistent performance. The shocks are 12-way adjustable for bump and rebound.

It may sound like black magic, but it’s working; besides the Premcar endorsement, the business is constantly expanding and now includes big brake kits (complete with high-carbon rotors and one-piece callipers that are used on racers across Asia and modified to suit individual applications) as well as an ever-larger range of dampers for local and imported machines.

Beyond the Mustang kit, which Dean used to win his class in the 2015 Australian Targa Championship, there are also packages for Ford’s outgoing Falcon (from BA, though a kit is currently being tested for AU) and FPV vehicles.

JDM favourites such as the BRZ/86 twins, and their AE86 Corolla ancestor, are also catered for. Skyline, Lancer Evolution and MX-5 kits are also available.

Although Brett is a ‘grip’ guy, a recent trip to Korea saw him damper tuning for a couple of drift machines. He also designs shocks that maximise traction for drag racing applications.

As for the future, O’Brien is currently tooling up to provide trackside customer service, via a service van with damper dyno and other facilities.

Beyond the highly personal service (O’Brien takes several calls during our chat, making orders, booking services and providing a mountain of advice in the process), the best bit about Shockworks kit is that it is affordable.

Prices vary depending on application, but a set for a Falcon costs $2200, plus $200 for fitting and ride height setting, conducted on-site in Monbulk or at other approved fitting workshops. Try finding a set of bespoke-valved Ohlins or Bilstein adjustables for that outlay.

At a time where Australian ingenuity is constricting, it’s refreshing to see such a business embracing global opportunities to deliver local expertise. Now, about that Shockworks-equipped Mustang drive…