Match Race 1972 ~ 'Road Runner/GTX 440' vs. 'Buick GS 455'

OldmanRick said

One issue the "GM" A body needs addressed vs the B body, is the rear suspension. As bite increases, IE stickier tires, the coil sprung 4link will show it weaknesses fairly early, with twist/hop. A lot of people just went to the bolt on ladders, and while they did a reasonable job, I used "no-hop" bars on several cars with decent results. A right side air bag for a little preload on big torque/hp cars can make a big difference also.

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I painted with kind of a broad brush with my above post, so to explain more of what I experienced........

The "sway bar" cars along with the boxed lower control arms vs the flimsier open stamped units were actually pretty good, as long as the stock ride height was maintained. I found that along with a good 50/50 shock, it was a decent system for street cars...especially automatics.

The real issues came with increased ride height, which many people did back then via bigger coils or air shocks.

The geometry of the short/angled upper control arms was easily thrown out of wack as the height increased. That's where the "No-Hop" bars really did their thing by raising the rear mounting point back to a more favorable position.