Front suspension option?

[HP2]

Can you share with us beginners some tips on how to make the stock stuff handle better than the pre-fabbed units? Or is that top secret stuff?

Nothing top secret there at all. The biggest short comings of most restored suspensions is the lack of wheel rate and inadequate alignment. Alignment specs for our cars were arrived at with skinny, hard, bias play tires, so even if your shop knows how to align a mopar,and many don't, they are using 30+ year old specs for it.

To address the wheel rate use torsion bars that are .96 for small blocks or 1.0 for big blocks. Out back use the XHD type spring or a leaf pack that is around 140-160 pounds per inch.  For swaybars use a 1.125 front with .875 rear or a 1.25 front with a 1.0 rear. For shocks, buy the best your willing to spend money on. Edelbrocks are a decent starting point but Carrera, Koni, Spax, or QA1 are the best choices, especially in adjustable versions. Shocks have the single biggest impact on ride quality and transitional motion so this is not a part to scrimp on.

Alignment specs should be set up only after tires and ride height are established. Aligning the car without the engine in it or with temporary wheels and tires shouldn't be done. These are critical parameters and altering them changes your settings. Ride height should be as low as your willing to go and have a slight nose down rake. Once the ride height is set get as much positive caster as possible. This usually will amount to somewhere around 4-5 degrees. Be warned that on a manual steering car, this makes low speed turns "arm strong" style stuff, but is worth it at speed. Camber should be -.5 to -1 degree. Radials will take more camber change without detrimental wear than a bias play tire will, so be warned if you use these settings with reproduction Wide Ovals, you may see more wear than your buddy with BFGs. Toe should be set at 0. If you really want to push it in corners, you can try 1/16 toe out as this really helps corner turn in behavior, but it makes the car feel real "darty" in regular street driving.

Do those things and the personality of your car will change immensly. There are other things you can do like use Firm Feel steering boxes or even rack and pinion, tubular control arms, box the lower arms, use poly bushings, switch to larger tie rods, and so on, which are helpful as well and contribute to the whole "on rails" feel, but the changes above will net you your biggest difference from which you can build on later.

[willhaven]

I have yet to see any real G-numbers on these aftermarket cars. Just some lame footage and promises on that DreemKar show.

The XV level 1 kit allowed that red 340 Cuda to pull over 1G during cornering they said. I wonder what the level 2 kit does.

[HP2]

The level 2 kit is comparable to any modern super car; Vette, Viper, etc.

Which brings up a good point. The XV Stage 1 kit if $3000. It is completely scienced out and ready for install. All you do is unbolt your old stuff and bolt in their stuff. To try to duplicate their set up, you are going to spend almost as much. A majority of that amount is in the shock absorbers, which run about $1600 a set purchased seperatly if they would sell them independant of the suspension. However, you will have to spend weeks dialing in the valving on your own system as there are around 500+ combinations of bump and rebound adjustments on a double adjustable shock. Not bad if you love the steep learning curve and are willing to drive the pee out of your car getting there. So, what is your time and effort worth? The XV level 1 is the best all around set up with performance and comfort combined. You can build a set up that will turn faster lap times, but it will be compromising some of the smoothness of the ride.

On the flip side, a decent sized portion of their achievement was due to 17" wheels and new speed rated tires. On another site I visit, a staff member from XV is a contributor. I seem to recall that he said the modified Cuda lapped a 1.25 mile road course 10 seconds faster than a stock T/A. Of that 10 seconds, 5 seconds of it was from the new wheel and tire combo. So the 1g claim is based on following thier guidelines explicitly. It is still marketing. Is Charmin squeezable soft? Sure, but so is any other butt wipe. It is in the marketing. XV is marketing a system, but they also are willing to sell pieces, which is a pretty cool proposition. However,if you want to retain you 15" wheels and tires, don't exepect to get their 1g rating.

However, giving credit where it is due, XV is comunicating their results. I have yet to see any other manufacturer provide data other than to say their system  offers improvements in weight, spring choice, and steering response. XV has been on the tube, the radio, and all over the web providing info, they have even contributed here. DQhemi is John Buscema from XV Motorsports.

So can you get great results using mostly stock systems? Sure can. Can you get great results from using pinto style parts. Big 10-4 there too. Are you less of a mopar for it? Well, I geuss that is a matter of opinion. In my mind, that is like saying some one is rich or beautiful. It is a subjective term.

[willhaven]

They're still working on hard numbers for those systems. Hopefully they release them soon. I'm sure people are waiting to see what kind of improvements they'd get out of them.