Upon further review...the breakdown of the new Honda F1 car at the Tokyo auto show clearly identified the vehicle was using a centrally-located independently managed (read, adjustable from computers sitting miles away in race stations) system that allowed the vehicle to act as a single proprietary unit. The central processing systems regulated the activities of the nitrogen-assist units built into the shock system, allowing the shock itself to be nothing more than a constantly adjusted 4-way valve. The cost of the F1 computer system is astronomical. However, the cost of the actual shock is contained in simple matierials being constructed into a valve/canister configuration, which, given the cost of F1 materials, could reach $10,000 easily. In NHRA, this procedure would be illegal (read: traction control) for a team to run centrally operated computer systems that monitor and adjust all vehicle functions. If there is an individual or team running self-contained, individually monitored shock system, the cost of construction for a batch of shocks (if you include research and development) could run in the range of $100,000 quite easily. Specifically, the cost of having to create multiple versions of the boards and firmware to go with the shocks themselves could increase this cost dramatically, whereas F1 would not have this limitation. The bottom line is the cost of an individually computerized, self-contained dampening system would FAR outweigh the costs of an F1 shock, which is controlled through the central computer system.
