History

Gerard Seesing had no money to buy new shock absorbers for his motor back in 1977. He went to the car graveyard, bought all broken dampers, and built.. a damper. It worked, and he won the next race. Of course everyone wanted that same damper that he had, and that is how Reiger Suspension started.

It wasn’t until 1989 that he and his wife Anja started working on Reiger Suspension full time. Until then, Gerard made dampers at night and in the weekends. From 1989 on Reiger gained momentum. In 1997 the Ford rally team gets told that they really should try some dampers from a really small company in Holland. Juha Kankkunen and Carlos Sainz are in the team. Carlos Sainz is usually ahead of Kankkunen and does not want to try something new. Kankkunen however tried our Reiger dampers and immediately takes first place. Sainz changes his mind, they assemble the spare set of Kankkunen under Sainz’ car and they have their first 1-2 in a long time.

We don’t need to tell you that this made a huge impact in both the rally world and our home town Hengelo. Nowadays we have over 50 employees that make dampers for every class in off road racing, from motocross to trucks and from sidecars to historic rally cars.

-2017 –
Reiger Suspension exists for 40 years. This milestone was celebrated during our anniversary celebration and open day.

-2016 –
SidecarCross: Team Jan Hendrickx & Ben van den Bogaard world champion
Dakar: Complete top 10 trucks on Reiger Suspension

-2015 –
Reiger extends with the construction of a new business hall. The building is now around 3300 square meters.
RallyCross: Petter Solberg second time world champion RallyCross
Mike van Grinsven: Winner Dutch championship Quads
Emma Bristow: Winner world championship Trial women

-2014 –
Dakar: Complete top 3 at the cars & trucks on Reiger Suspension
Mini: Third time winner of the Dakar Rally.

-2013 –
We made the very first backflip with a car happen on this planet. We won first place in the Dakar Rally with trucks and cars, won the ERC and South American Championship with Skoda, win the European Championship, Junior World Championship and get second place in the World Championship trial. We also get OEM on Gas Gas Enduro bikes.

-2012-
For the first time in the Dakar rally history, the entire car top 10 had the same damper brand: Reiger Suspension. M-Sport / Ford had their 50th WRC win. Daniël Willemsen wins his 10th World Championships in sidecar cross, all of them with Reiger Suspension.

-2011-
First order for the OEM on Gas Gas trial motors. For the second year in a row we win the drivers’ and manufacturers championship in the IRC and SWRC with Skoda.

-2010-
The first IRC title is won, and how! A double one: together with Skoda Motorsport we win the driver’s title and the manufacturers’ championship.

-2009-
Reiger introduces ICS (Intelligent Compression System) with motors and sidecars. We expand our workshop.

-2007-
The FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Championship is prolonged with M-Sport.

-2006-
Reiger wins the FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Championship with M-Sport / Ford.

-2005-
Reiger expanded auto sport activities to the DTM. Opel chooses Reiger Suspension in an ultimate attempt for the title.

-2004-
Reiger introduces and patents Corner Control Valve (CCV). World Champion Rally Raid with BMW (Khalifa Al-Mutawei), World Champion Sidecar cross (Daniel Willemsen), JWRC with Suzuki (Per-Gunnar Andersson), European Champion Rallycross (Ron Snoeck) and many many more.

-2003-
Reiger introduces Rebound Control Valve (RCV) and starts developing (knee) prostheses.

-2002-
Five year agreement with Ford International regarding the development and supply of dampers for the WRC team.

-2000-
Introduction of ball bearing dampers.

-1999-
Colin McRae wins the Safari Rally in Kenya with Reiger Suspension.

-1997-
Juha Kankkunen and Carlos Sainz drive their first rally with Reiger Suspension.

-1996-
Reiger Suspension moves to a new, bigger building in Hengelo Gld.

-1995-
Introduction of thermostatic shock absorbers.

-1994-
First dampers are built for private Ford rally teams.

-1989-
Full time development and production of dampers for car and motorsport, lots of dampers for international sidecar cross.

-1981-
Development schokdempertestbank.

-1979-
First dampers built for customers (motocross and autocross)

-1977-
First damper for private usage is built.