Tech Articles

I've always wanted to do this, and the time has come to make it happen!

Part of what sets AAD Performance apart from many other aftermarket parts companies is that we take an engineering approach to solving problems.  Those solutions often come in the form of parts, and those parts show up here (and other places) for sale!

Many customers buy parts because they have heard they need them, have read they need them, their friends have them, or people who are better than us at marketing have convinced them they need to buy them.  There are, however, some out there who are rightfully skeptical of the ability of a capitalist market to deliver things that people NEED to those who need them.

Well, for the skeptics among you, for those of you who ask "why," and for those of you who just like to know more about how and why your cars or parts work, these articles are for you.  We'll try to do them semi-regularly, but over time we'll build a body of knowledge about all things automotive-performance related.

Some of it will inevitably be more favorable to products we sell than others - if we feel the perfect product already exists, we typically will not produce a competing product.  But, we'll make every effort to stay objective both about how things work and why various solutions might work well or less well.  Our goal is to legitimately educate customers on what to look for and what to expect when you spend your hard-earned money on parts from us or from anyone else.

Without further ado, here's a list of anticipated topics.  As we complete each article, we'll link to it from here.  Feel free to email requests to sales@allanglesdesign.com or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram!

• The CCV Bible - More than you ever wanted to know about Catch Cans
• Automotive Wiring 101 - Intro to Doing it Right

Future Articles:

• Why Replacement Control Arms?
• Alignment Considerations - High-Performance Street
• Swaybars 1 - The Basics of Reducing Grip to go Faster
• Swaybars 2 - What's the Actual Point?
• No Bunny Likes Wheel Hop
• The Reality of Ride Height
• The Cheapest, Most Effective Mod on the Planet

Read more →

All our Adjustable Control Arm kits are primarily designed to allow adjustment of Camber so that you can optimize contact patch and performance.

Most often, lowering a vehicle with upper/lower control arm suspension will cause the Camber to go towards negative - tilting the top if the tire in towards the center of the vehicle.  Driving your car with excessive camber leads to:

• Decreased straight-line traction
• Increased rate of tire wear
• Potentially decreased lateral grip

So, the most common Variant that is selected on our parts is "Less Negative Camber"  meaning we will ship you Arms that will be set up to cause your wheel to be closer to vertical.  Depending on the car and the Arms in question, this could mean arms that are longer (upper arms) or shorter (lower arms) than stock.  The extra alignment tabs we include in the kit will also be geared towards reducing negative camber.

There are occasionally folks who want to get their Camber further from vertical even if it's already outside factory specs.  An example might be a car on air bag suspension that's trying to tuck the top of the tire inside a fender, or simply a "stanced" vehicle that is okay with running way more negative Camber than performance would dictate.  In these cases, choose the "More Negative Camber" option and we'll assemble the arms and include extra alignment tabs to increase that negative Camber and tilt the top of the tire further "in" away from vertical.

Finally, maybe you don't have a Camber issue at all and are buying the parts for another reason.  In this case, select our "OEM Length" option which means we'll ship your new arms assembled to be exactly the same length as the OEM arms, and we'll send you tabs to make adjustments either direction.

If you're unsure about which kit is right for you, just hit us up with an email at sales@allanglesdesign.com and we'll help you make certain you choose the right option.  And, all of our arms can be used for any of the above cases, so if you need different alignment tabs just let us know and we'll help you choose the right ones and get them headed to you ASAP!

Many of you who find our products have heard some of the story about why they look the same as products being sold by a couple of Florida-based companies.  I don't want to wade through all that mess, but here is the gist of the story.

When I first started my company in 2009, I did a number of design deals where we would do all the design work without getting paid, then we would receive a perpetual royalty on all sales of the parts we designed.  We also, obviously and necessarily, retained ALL OWNERSHIP of all aspects of the designs.

27-MAY-2017 EDIT TO ADD:  

Our ownership of these designs is documented through Copyright.  I have been asked many times why we do not/did not patent these designs.  The simple truth is that for most of these parts, the sales during the lifetime of the part would likely never generate enough profit just to pay for the patent.  Were I a patent attorney, I could confidently do them myself, but good patents are hard to write and expensive to defend.  So, while some of our designs are protected under patents, in most cases - especially for automotive performance products in a specific market - it's not feasible to do so.

As my patent attorney said to me: "A patent is a very expensive piece of paper that states you have the right to pay attorneys to argue on your behalf with other attorneys."  I think that about sums it up. :)  Okay, back to the story...

A "manufacturer" and retailer in Florida (Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, respectively) who sold our designs decided in 2014 that they really shouldn't have to pay us for the designs anymore.  They took parts to a machine shop and had them copy everything about our parts.

They have even gone so far as to do slight redesigns on some pieces and claim they are "fully in-house designed..."

Anyway, tired of watching our stuff getting ripped off AND seeing unhappy customers because the impostors don't know/understand (care?) how to make them right, what tolerances to hold, etc., we decided to go direct to the customer with the best parts you can get.

So there you have it - now you can get the parts that we design directly from us.  No middle man.  No superfluous markup.  No bullshit.  Just great parts!

We engineer, manufacture, and assemble our parts to perform specific functions.  We do these same steps with an eye towards aesthetics, but the appearance of parts always takes a (way way) back seat to performance of intended function.

For most of our customers most of the time, this is exactly what they expect.  There are some people who, for various reasons, are more sensitive to the appearance of parts that they get.  If you fall into that category, please know that we do not and cannot guarantee that the part(s) you get will be 100% free from nicks, small scratches, tooling marks, clamp marks, etc.

Sometimes mistakes happen and parts just turn out fugly.  They might get dropped, gouged, crushed, have a bad anodize trip (ha), etc.  That's not what I'm talking about - those parts would either get trashed or possibly sold as cosmetic blemish items at a discount (no, there's not a waiting list for that!).

Even on our best parts, we make no effort to hide the machine tool marks - we are PROUD that are parts are machined here in the US of A and proud that they look like machined parts, not like plastic parts!  Notice in the picture for this blog entry there are small scuffs/scratches on the side of the can - those are jaw marks from where the spindle jaws grabbed this part during transfer.  This part would be 100% acceptable to ship.

So, if you are interested in some of our products but you just cannot bear to have any type of cosmetic blemish, please contact us ahead of time at sales@allanglesdesign.com to inquire before placing your order.  We want you to get exactly what you expect every time.

Here is our official Product Cosmetics Policy:

AAD Performance utilizes primarily CNC machined parts that may contain small scratches, nicks, dents, scuffs, and other visual artifacts that normally occur during the manufacturing, finishing, and assembly process.

AAD will NOT accept returns under any circumstance for a cosmetic blemish that does not otherwise affect the performance of the intended function of the product.

If a customer notifies AAD before purchase that they have a particular sensitivity to cosmetic issues for a particular part, AAD may agree to make a reasonable effort to pick the "prettiest" part(s) from inventory and send pictures before shipment.  There may be an up-charge for this service depending on the specific need.