Transparency

Transparency

At HRD, trust is not a tagline. It is a requirement. As part of that commitment, we are open about where our products are designed, how they are manufactured, and who we choose to work with. Enthusiasts should know what they are buying, and manufacturers should be proud of their supply chain. Any good relationship is built on trust, and for us that trust starts with real transparency.

This page is our transparency report for the HRD catalog. It explains where key product lines come from, how we think about partners, and how the enthusiast aftermarket actually works behind the scenes.

HRD Damper Kits

Our Street Performance Damper lineup begins its life at our ISO certified damper manufacturing partner in Taiwan. Over the last three decades, Taiwan has become one of the leading hubs for suspension component production. That ecosystem gives us consistent material sourcing, precise machine work, and deep expertise in performance suspension manufacturing.

By working with an experienced suspension manufacturer, we can bring the HRD Dual Duty ethos to life with confidence. Over the last two years, we have invested heavily in research and development to define what makes an HRD damper an HRD damper. That work was done side by side with our partner, using our own valving philosophy, internal components, and strict quality requirements.

All HRD dampers are built to our original specification and design, using components that are unique to us. The individual parts inside our damper assemblies originate from Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. Each damper kit is valved to match within 5 percent corner to corner on a Roehrig shock dyno by technicians who specialize in performance suspension.

We use high integrity raw materials for our 6061-T6 aluminum, Ti-6Al-4V titanium, and steel alloys. Our machining requirements include extra time for smoother faces and softened edges on aluminum components, followed by a Type II anodize. Outer steel components receive an EDP coating (Electrophoretically Deposited Paint) to significantly improve corrosion resistance over time.

Quality assurance starts at our manufacturing partner. Damper kits are shipped to us unassembled, and we have a dedicated product manager and lead technician embedded with that team. Over the last two years they have worked closely with our engineering group to build HRD specific requirements, procedures, and standards. We iterated both the product and the QA process until they met our internal bar.

Final assembly is conducted in the United States by our engineering team. Every kit goes through a second round of quality assurance before it is signed off as ready to ship. Our suspension QA process includes, but is not limited to:

  • Variation of less than 5 percent between corners

  • Adhesion, uniformity, and thickness of the EDP coating

  • Strength and visual quality of welded components

  • Surface finish and smoothness of machined aluminum components

  • Accuracy of pressed components such as top hat studs

  • Verification that all hardware is torqued to specification

We believe in our damper kits enough to back them with an industry leading five year limited manufacturer’s warranty.

HRD Machined Components

Our mainshaft thrust tool, throttle body adapters, drivetrain mounts, and modular vacuum block are machined at our ISO certified machining partner in China. Every machined component starts its life as an HRD CAD model, engineered in house. For each application, we have the actual chassis on hand during research and development. We 3D print rapid prototypes for fitment and design validation, then move to in house CNC machined functional prototypes for real world testing.

Once a design has been validated on the car, our machining partner manages production scale runs. Aluminum components are crafted from 6061-T6 or 7075-T6, chosen based on the specific demands of the part. All of them are finished in a Type II anodize for corrosion resistance and a clean, durable appearance. We also require additional machine time for softer edges and smooth faces on our machined aluminum parts, which improves both feel and longevity.

We believe in our machined components enough to support them with an industry leading lifetime limited manufacturer’s warranty.

Fast Response IAT Sensor

Our Fast Response IAT Sensor was engineered in house by the HRD team. We partner with an ISO certified semiconductor factory in China that produces the proprietary thermistors used in these sensors.

Only the thermistors are sourced internationally. All soldering, potting, and final assembly are handled by our engineering team in the United States. Every sensor goes through rigorous quality assurance before it leaves our facility.

We stand behind our Fast Response IAT Sensors with an industry leading lifetime limited manufacturer’s warranty.

How it really works

If you are looking for an honest view of our industry, you are in the right place. What follows is part insight and part business lesson.

The enthusiast aftermarket is tiny

You will often see headlines that say the "aftermarket automotive industry" is a 400 billion dollar market. That number mostly refers to what we would call regular people parts. Replacement tires, brake pads, oil changes, OE equivalent service components. Every car on the road eventually touches that side of the industry.

The enthusiast aftermarket is a very small slice of that pie. Exhausts, tuning devices, fuel systems, coilovers, big brake kits, specialty tools, and the kinds of parts that our world gets excited about. In the larger economic picture, this segment is a blip, but it is the part we live in every day.

Economies of scale are real

Economies of scale are not optional. They are reality. It is not a secret that most coilover kits on the market come from either China or Taiwan. OEM suspension factories and their extended supply chains are heavily concentrated in those regions, which creates an ecosystem of suppliers, tooling, logistics, and expertise.

The same is true for many machined components. There are highly capable machinists and factories in China and Taiwan that live and breathe this work. That context matters when you are trying to build a high quality product at a price that still makes sense for enthusiasts.

Good and bad parts can come from anywhere

A "100 percent domestically made" label does not automatically make a part good. International sourcing does not automatically make a part bad. There are excellent and terrible manufacturing partners in every region of the world.

What matters most is the stringency of the quality assurance process and the depth of the relationship between a brand and its suppliers. Just like in any other business, who you choose to work with is everything. People with high standards tend to refer and collaborate with others who operate at a similar level.

Overseas does not mean copy paste

All of our machined components, electronics, gaskets, and suspension linkage products are original HRD designs created by our engineering team. Our damper kits were designed in collaboration with an ISO certified manufacturing partner that specializes in performance suspension assembly and advisory work, built to our proprietary HRD specifications.

We do work with overseas partners who specialize in specific categories of our catalog. Many brands do the same. The important distinction is whether a brand is producing a generic off the shelf product or bringing a fully original design and set of standards to a specialist manufacturer. Lumping those cases together ignores a lot of important nuance.

Specialization matters

Specialization is a feature, not a flaw. We are huge fans of titanium at HRD, and many of our customers are as well. Even so, we will never know as much about titanium as our dedicated titanium partner, who has built an entire career and network across mines, processors, and machining facilities. His city quite literally revolves around the titanium market.

Our engineering team may design a part that uses titanium components, but it makes far more sense to have those pieces produced by a true specialist to our spec than to pretend we can replicate an entire supply chain under one roof. The same principle applies across the industry.

Almost no one does everything in house

Very few brands manufacture every component in house from start to finish. The majority work with partners in some capacity. Think of it as a sliding scale. How much real research and development went into the product? What requirements were set for materials and tolerances? How involved is the brand in the standards and procedures of its partners?

On one end of the spectrum you have copy paste brands that pull generic parts from a catalog with minimal R&D. On the other end are teams with original designs, tight specifications, and serious expectations of their partners. Most companies live somewhere between those extremes.

Perception and mission

For us, perception starts with being proud of our supply chain and the people we choose to work with. We engineer our products in house, put them through real R&D, and partner with specialists we have known and trusted for years. We sweat the small details and accept that sharing this level of information might feel risky to some.

We think it is the right thing to do. Enthusiasts deserve to know where their parts come from and how they are built. The more insight people have into how this industry actually operates, the better choices they can make.

Your mission as a brand matters. The "why" behind what you do shapes every decision. At HRD, our goal is to build products that create genuinely great driving experiences and to do it in a way we can stand behind for the long term. When your heart is in the right place, you tend to find the right partners, make better products, and build better memories along the way.