.87 V8 bars are the absolute minimum i would run with a 6, with factory big block bars being next at .89 and if you can find them .920 bars being my 1st choice. all of these can be run with off the shelf shocks. from there .990+ bars really require a better shock such as the bilstein or QA1, etx.
specifically because you're trying kinda sorta retain originality, not have a buck board ride, do this on a budget, and you're not running big sticky tires, and you have a front sway bar, i'd err toward the smaller side of bars with .920's where you can get away with stock shocks if you want, or buy bilstein's and really compliment them. though i understand that the 1.03's are more available and afforable.
au contraire pierre... you can indeed make an old *** mopar handle like a E46. here's the hotchkis taxi besting a bmw in a tire rack shoot out-- with the same driver laying down laps a full second faster than the ringer test car.
somewhere, footage exists of me in my 64 dart out hustling some E46's at buttonwillow on a track day. so, yes, it can be done. i have no doubt that the duster built by @72bluNblu would absolutely embarrass all but the top tier of modern performance handling cars, and that's all "old school" t-bar suspension.
Well, had. 1970 911E Targa. Actually had two of them, and one motor, which I built myself.
Dumbest mistake I made was to sell it, figuring "I'll just buy another."
... and the E46 (which i owned one as well) so you know what a performance car handles like and how it rides. with the dart because of where you're starting at, you can tailor it to where you want to be-- wanna go point and shoot 911 or taut and responsive like the 330? easy to achieve.
but like those cars it's about system and about balance. big bars and a sway bar with weak *** saggy rear springs will just make it push. big burly rear springs and a rear bar will make it tail happy.
i wouldn't screw around trying to "add a leaf" or anything. i'd just buy springs that have the rate that compliments the front bars.
so, either you build out with the goal in mind from your designed system, or you make your decisions to "get there" with maybe doing the front first and then the rear as money provides. but just throwing parts because "that's what everybody is running" is a great way to wind up with something that rides like **** and handles like two wet cats in a burlap sack.
the bilsteins will not suck. they are 100% worth the money. even if you're running small bars, the difference in ride is noticeable and, if in the future you want to upgrade you can do so confidently without having to upgrade again.
This is the piece of information I need right now.
Parts is parts. I can always change torsion bars and springs down the line.
I know I've had good results with Bilsteins in other cars. Since being advised in this thread that I can get Bilseins for this car, I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't some tricky reason why I shouldn't.
The consensus seems to be that they're worthwhile, as expected.