Blucuda413
Well-Known Member
Does anyone make a kit to install a late model Challenger IRS suspension under a 67-69 A Body??? If I buy a car for the engine it's a shame not to use as much of it as I can to upgrade an older car!!
New Challenger Suspension??
- Thread starter Blucuda413
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rustycowll69
Well-Known Member
I agree.
Yunick13
2 Time FABO NASCAR champ 2023 FABO NHRA champ
I doubt if there is a kit, however, you'd have to order custom length half shafts due to difference in track width.
Super-Cuda
MOPAR .. Move Over, Plymouth Approaching Rapidly!
You will have to cut out the complete trunk area and rear floor area . Then, major modifications to the rear frame rails to build mounting structure for the rear IRS cradle. Then , as Yunick13 mentioned, the rear track width has to be taken into consideration. I'm pretty sure the rear cradle is a Mercedes Benz E-Class design left over from the merger so you would have your work cut out for you. I watch the Martin Bros. and Kindigit fabricate these all the time on their shows and it takes incredible skill and the proper facilities to pull it off.
You’d be better off to do a body swap. Cut the chassis out from the challenger and cut the frame and floors out of the A body. Probably have to widen and lengthen the body to make everything fit, or shorten the challenger chassis. Just depends on your willingness to experiment.
that said, I have to agree with Denny, why
It only takes money. How much do you have ?
Blucuda413
Well-Known Member
Only thought it would be nice to have a modern suspension under an A Body. Asked about a kit because other cut and weld work might be minimal. Obvious by responses that it won't be done because my engineering/welding capability sucks. As with many others just a thought that won't pan out!!!
BobW
Curmudgeon At Large
You never know 'til you ask! At the very least, crawl underneath with a tape measure and start eyeballin' everything.
Agreed. We’re in the middle of putting a 48 dodge 2 door business couple on a 2006 Charger SRT chassis. Surprisingly, it fits dang near like a glove.
There’s a gentleman over on Moparts that took a c5 corvette suspension and stuffed under a 73 cuda. Anything is possible, just depends on your skill level, time and money
The whole idea of “modern suspension” is pretty silly. Almost every style of suspension used on modern cars was invented a hundred years or more ago. Yes, even the most of the fancy independent suspension.
Things like traction and ride control require the sensors and computers that run them, the suspension in those systems itself isn’t really mechanically all that different. Torsion bar suspensions are still used on brand new vehicles. Leaf springs and live axles are still used under brand new vehicles. Heck both can be found under more than a few new, or recently new trucks.
What keeps your “old suspension” from handling like “modern suspension” is a combination of worn out components, inadequate factory spring rates, alignment specs and ranges of adjustment that were intended for bias ply tires, and a relatively flexible chassis. If you replace the worn out components, increase the wheel rates to better match the traction provided by modern tires, replace some of the factory components with ones that allow for modern alignment numbers that match your tires, and get a set of shocks that can handle your new wheel rates you'll find the car handles MUCH better. Add some chassis stiffening and again, you'll greatly improve how these cars handle.
And truly, even if there was a IRS out there that bolted right on, it would not make your car handle just like the car it came off of. Chassis engineering has changed far more than suspension design, and bolting new suspension onto an old chassis without improving the chassis as well will leave you far short of the performance of your donor vehicle. And then there's the traction and ride control stuff, which you can't use without the ECU that goes along with it.
Even doing something like grafting the old body onto the pan of a modern car will not give you the handling of the modern car unless you bring the ECU with it. Even then, the changes in the weight and the chassis could cause issues. A big change in weight, wheelbase, or chassis stiffness could really mess with the algorithms the ECU uses for things like traction control and suspension modes. That would come down to how they're programmed.
Yes sir! There's this thing too-
This Plymouth Duster Rat Rod Sits on a C6 Corvette Chassis
Like you said, time and money...
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