auto cross
If you keep up with the autocross/optima ultimate street car scene, there are some insanely fast, pro-level built GM products out there. With the right driver, I don't think one of our cars could keep up with that.
I disagree. I’m not saying the driver isn’t important, they are and with amateur competitions the driver is the difference a lot of the time.
But I do follow enough of those competitions to know that Mopars do really well when they compete. The Green Brick, the Red Brick, tomswheels valiant, the Hotchkis Challenger and Taxi, and the Challenger in this thread. Except for the green brick, which is an old build, all of those other cars have pretty similar suspension set ups, with torsion bars and leaf springs. They have all done very well in competitions. And every time they come up, those big dollar GM builds all say how great the drivers are, because they don’t want to believe that they got beat by a factory design torsion bar suspension when they’ve got the most expensive set up they could afford. Not to mention that some of those Mopars are besting brand new Mustangs and Corvette’s in those competitions too.
And I’m not saying all those cars don’t have good drivers, they do. I’m just saying it’s not coincidental that they all run basically the same suspension set up either.
Look at the Hotchkis Taxi. They did that tire comparison on the TireRack track, using the TireRack test driver. He put down faster lap times with that 4-door B body than he puts down with a 3-series BMW that he drives for a living testing tires. Same track, same driver, same tires, 4 door B-body vs modern 3 series BMW, with a driver that has way more hours in that BMW and has by his own admission not driven older pro-touring style cars. I think that says a lot about what these cars can do with their torsion bars.
I have 1.14" Sway-a-Way torsion bars which are advertised at 350 lb/in rate, the ride is much firmer than stock but still very streetable unless you live in a place with terrible roads covered in potholes.
Seems like the people who say "it'll rattle my teeth and compress my spine" never actually drove a Mopar with big torsion bars. It's really not that bad at all. I've driven and ridden in newer cars, some not even performance-oriented models that had a harsher ride than my Duster. Most smaller Asian cars ride like garbage in comparison. What's cool with stiff springs is you feel the road "smooth out" once you get to higher speeds, my Duster feels like it's on rails on the freeway but you don't feel the little bumps in the road once over about 60 mph. I just don't drive it as much as I used to because traffic increased a ton in recent years, too many morons and not enough room to have "fun". Plus Dusters are actually valuable now, to my disappointment.
My wife had a 2013 Mustang with the premium option suspension for a few years. The ride on that car was very similar to my Duster. They key to running big torsion bars in these cars is matching them with good quality shocks intended for higher wheel rates. Like the RCD Bilsteins, or Hotchkis Fox’s.
