1971 Duster Handeling

This one?

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Tom Condran’s book. I have it, it’s a decent read but I think it used to be a lot handier than it is now. Basically it covers a lot of upgrades from later model cars, adding larger brakes and things. Stuff you could mostly get out of salvage yards.

I bought it close to 10 years ago and even then it was a bit outdated. He doesn’t spend much time at all on anything you can get now, like larger than 1” torsion bars, bigger than 11.75” brakes, etc.

Basically it was a great book before the whole pro-touring movement. Back when if you wanted your Mopar to handle you were basically on your own. And there were still Mopars in wrecking yards that had those parts on them. Nowadays all the parts to make your Mopar handle are readily available in the aftermarket (and not so much in the yards) and you can go above and beyond the capabilities of the parts and handling described in the book. Same for the green brick for that matter. Was pretty novel and ground breaking at the time, but now it’s a pretty basic set up.

Back in the 1990s when Tom's book was pretty new we were at a show in the Bay Area (Fremont, CA). I got to talking to Tom about his book and the parts he was suggesting. It was pretty much what I had done on my old '67 GT hardtop (and now on my son's Dart and my Barracuda). His eyes lit up as he was only working on theory and had never got around to building one. Also beat him to a factory big block sway bar at a swap for $40 in the 1990s. We used to spent time talking when we saw each other at the shows. I suspect his health hasn't held up as I haven't seen him in a few years. I did build him a Direct Connection k-member, too.