Exhaust
I'll run long tube headers then. Couldn't I raise the front end up via the torsion bars
yes you could but the further you get from stock, the harder it will be to get the alignment in, and the alignment is only gonna be close in the straight ahead position. As soon as you turn the wheel or the suspension changes with bumps or dips, the alignment is gone. So you kindof want to keep her at least close to the factory spec, as to height. So, what I did was increase the T-bar diameter and increase the shock damping and installed a bigger Sway-bar all in an attempt to keep the suspension in the best operating window.
You could use taller tires....... but this messes with the scrub radius and is counter to handling. If the scrub radius gets to be too far from stock, the car will hunt with every ripple in the road , wandering from side to side and you will tear you hair out trying everything you can think of to correct this, and cannot. Only when the scrub radius returns to stock, will it become acceptable. Power-steering will exacerbate this.
Plus if you raise the front, you kindof have to raise the rear. And in the end you get a straight-line machine, that has to slow for the turns, and slow for bumps, and is all-the-time nervous, following every rut in the road.
Ok, mine was like that; maybe yours won't be, lol.