jbc426
Well-Known Member
I upgraded to Koni shocks front and rear on my '68 Barracuda over 10 years ago. When the front shocks failed a few weeks ago, I switched to QA1 Stocker Star shocks and love them.
Background: It's a convertible, is rust free and I welded in a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening kit. Originally a Slant 6 car, the brakes and suspension were the first things I upgraded. The rebuilt factory drums were downright dangerous given the speed that modern cars can stop these days. I almost wrecked the car twice because of the inefficient factory 9" drums, so I contacted Dr Diff and swapped the car over to the BBP 8 3/4" rear with his Econo Brake Kit and his 11 3/4 one piece Police Taxi front discs. Along with a stiffer pair of 3200lbs Passenger side SS Springs I added a pair of 1.03" torsion bars. I also welded the K-member, installed Firm Feel front and rear sway bars and upper control arms. I gusseted the lower control arms and welded the upper shock towers to the inner fender well and welded some other questionably welded seems on the car. These upgrades greatly enhanced the car and the Koni shocks were 5 way adjustable. I ran them one notch away from fully stiff. The weak point in the handling was the Radial T/A's I was running.
A few weeks ago, I pulled my rear end out to have it inspected because the Eaton TruTrac was kind of noisy. I adjusted the rear Koni's to max stiffness and reasembled everything. I wanted to match the front shocks to that setting, but when I checked them, I found out they were toast and would no longer properly control rebound.
After some digging on the web, I decided to try the QA1 Stocker Star shocks. I installed them and was pleased with the wide range of compression and rebound settings available with the twist of a knob. 18 settings to be exact. I always test drive the car at the lowest and the highest settings, so I can better gauge where to set the shocks. I have them currently set at 5 clicks from full soft. This setting matches my rear Koni's on their max stiff setting. When I drag race, I will turn the front shocks to setting 1 or full soft. I am very impressed with the ride quality, adjustability and quality of these shocks, and highly recommend them over anything else I have tried so far including Billsteins, Koni's and AFCO double adjustables.
I have AFCO double adjustables on my 1970 E-Body, and have had to send them back to be revalved to their "Big Dog" valving most likely because of the Hit the manual trans puts through the rear suspension. It takes some pretty stiff valving to control my chassis separation. I now believe the QA1 Stocker Stars would have been a better choice because of the range of valving I have experienced on my '68 with them.
QA1 Stocker Star Shocks - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing
Background: It's a convertible, is rust free and I welded in a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening kit. Originally a Slant 6 car, the brakes and suspension were the first things I upgraded. The rebuilt factory drums were downright dangerous given the speed that modern cars can stop these days. I almost wrecked the car twice because of the inefficient factory 9" drums, so I contacted Dr Diff and swapped the car over to the BBP 8 3/4" rear with his Econo Brake Kit and his 11 3/4 one piece Police Taxi front discs. Along with a stiffer pair of 3200lbs Passenger side SS Springs I added a pair of 1.03" torsion bars. I also welded the K-member, installed Firm Feel front and rear sway bars and upper control arms. I gusseted the lower control arms and welded the upper shock towers to the inner fender well and welded some other questionably welded seems on the car. These upgrades greatly enhanced the car and the Koni shocks were 5 way adjustable. I ran them one notch away from fully stiff. The weak point in the handling was the Radial T/A's I was running.
A few weeks ago, I pulled my rear end out to have it inspected because the Eaton TruTrac was kind of noisy. I adjusted the rear Koni's to max stiffness and reasembled everything. I wanted to match the front shocks to that setting, but when I checked them, I found out they were toast and would no longer properly control rebound.
After some digging on the web, I decided to try the QA1 Stocker Star shocks. I installed them and was pleased with the wide range of compression and rebound settings available with the twist of a knob. 18 settings to be exact. I always test drive the car at the lowest and the highest settings, so I can better gauge where to set the shocks. I have them currently set at 5 clicks from full soft. This setting matches my rear Koni's on their max stiff setting. When I drag race, I will turn the front shocks to setting 1 or full soft. I am very impressed with the ride quality, adjustability and quality of these shocks, and highly recommend them over anything else I have tried so far including Billsteins, Koni's and AFCO double adjustables.
I have AFCO double adjustables on my 1970 E-Body, and have had to send them back to be revalved to their "Big Dog" valving most likely because of the Hit the manual trans puts through the rear suspension. It takes some pretty stiff valving to control my chassis separation. I now believe the QA1 Stocker Stars would have been a better choice because of the range of valving I have experienced on my '68 with them.
QA1 Stocker Star Shocks - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing
