Frame or chassis options for A bodies
Some of the things I would pay attention to:
You need to know what your car weighs how it is distributed and
the center of gravity. The lower and closer to center
the weight is in your car the faster and flater your car can go thru a turn.
You may not end up with 50/50 frt to rear but you can get real close if you keep this in mind
while choosing and placing parts in your car. Shoot for a center of gravity close to12".
Solid greasable bushings frt and rear. Delrin is a good choice for most as aluminum would hammer out and need replaced more often. Steel in the front leaf spring eyes. They can be drilled to lighten them some.
300 lb/in. front torsion bar rate. 125 lb/in. rear leafs. 450 lb./in. front sway bar. No rear bar.
8" &10" width wheels. 4.10 - 4.88:1 gear.
11.75 front disk 11" drums rear brakes.
16:1 manual steering box.
Lower front roll center to 3 or 4 in. 5°+caster 1°-camber 3/32" toe out.
Control fluid weight. Oil pan and fuel tank baffles.
This would be stiffer than you would want on the street. You would need to glue all your
dash screws in place. And check the car often for loose fasteners and stressed sheet metal.
Run over a dime and you could tell if it was heads or tails.
This is almost identical to the set up currently on my Duster, most of it has been on it for the last year and a half.
-1.12" Firm Feel torsion bars (300 lb/in)
-Afco leaf springs, 120 lb/in with Afco leaf spring sliders
-Hellwig 1 1/8" tubular front sway bar
-Hellwig 7/8" rear sway bar (e-body application)
-Hotchkis non adjustable Fox shocks
-13" Dr. Diff cobra style front disks, 11x2.5" rear drums
-16:1 flaming river manual steering box
-18x9 front rims with 275/35/18 BFG KDW2's, 18x10 rears with 295/35/18's same tires
-lowered to ~1" clearance from frame to .375" thick LCA bumpstops, ~5" from ground to K-frame, 4" to the Dougs header flanges
-Milodon road race oil pan (baffled, trap doors, 6qts)
-3.55 rear gears with 833, 68-70 B rear with 1/2" spring offset
-frame stiffening: subframe connectors, tubular radiator support brace, torque boxes, "J" bars tying firewall to front frame rails above radiator support brace, shock towers tied in and reinforced to J's. Stock LCA's boxed
-currently running non adjustable tubular UCA's and stock LCA's, soon to be replaced with Bergman double adjustable UCA's and gusseted QA1 tubular lowers for easier alignments and additional frame to LCA clearance for further lowering.
A couple of notes on the car- it's not too stiff for the street. The key is good shocks, and the Hotchkis Foxs are the best I've tried so far. They work better for the really large bars than the RCD Bilsteins I had before, at least in my opinion. The car is my daily driver, and I haven't had any issues like my dash screws being rattled out. Also, the rear bar doesn't seem to make the car too tail happy. I'm on the lowest of three settings though. The 1/2" spring offset and 295's play a part in that though. I suspect like autoxcuda found some courses will be faster with the rear bar while on others it may need to be disconnected. The 3.55 gears aren't ideal for my cam or short courses, but they keep me from getting run over on the freeway until I can go T56.