When Ford built the S550 platform it was regarded as a well handling chassis, as the IRS allowed it to take corners with ease, and so a rise of Mustangs started to appear on racetracks like Road America. That being said, the Mustang has always been a point of passion for drag racers. S550 owners who enjoy drag racing were left looking for shock options to eliminate prominent wheel hop. And so Viking Performance invaded the marketplace with a great selection to meet this need.
Ross Hulleman from Viking explained, “while 35-50 percent of our coilovers are used for autocross and handling, we see a large majority use them for drag racing. After seeing the market trend we decided to come out with a three-way adjustable shock for the rear.”
Hulleman knows his products and informs us of the shocks offerings, “We offer the S550 shocks in two different options. We have one that allows you to mount to the stock location. We then offered one for the more hardcore drag racers that mounts to a T-Bar.” When asked about the advantages of the T-bar Hulleman added, “its preference-based, but the nice part of the T-Bar setup is it deletes the factory bushing and goes to a spherical bearing. While this introduces more NVH, it performs very well at the drag strip.”
Viking’s signature chrome with purple accented products are showing up on more and more street, strip and autocross cars. Hulleman explains, “We’ve seen an exponential growth in the past few years. We are still a small Minnesota company, but we’ve amplified our product line and customer support.” Thankfully, we’re able to watch this company grow and reap the benefits of new product lines, such as its high-end Crusader lineup.