A body sports car handling

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Has anyone one modified the '63-'66 Dart to be a well handling street car? I have 2 Darts that I want to modify for everyday driving and handle like most modern cars w/o the harsh ride.
 
Use the Formula S package as a start. 7/8 torsion bars, factory front sway bar or larger, HD 6 leaf rear springs and Bilstein shocks all around. Finish off with good tires. The front end must be tight and steering box should be adjusted or rebuild. I can keep up or better almost anything on the street. Nothing exotic or expensive.
 
Many people like the light spring/big sway bar approach. I like big spring/large sway bar.

Check out the suspension on lilcuda's car (when I sold it to the guy he bought it from it still had stock handling package suspension. He's taken it a bit beyond that).
 
You have to step up to 15"-18" rims to get any kind of "good" tire anymore.
 
it gets expensive quick to "try" to keep up with modern cars. imo, not really worth it. you gotta accept the fact these are old outdated cars that handle just okay compared to something newer.
 
mopardude318 said:
it gets expensive quick to "try" to keep up with modern cars. imo, not really worth it. you gotta accept the fact these are old outdated cars that handle just okay compared to something newer.
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Absolutly false.... a suspension rebuild, with decent parts, a slight bar rate increase and a decent front sway bar and modern rubber, and these cars will handle as good as anything with comparable weight.. There are some guys who think you need to spend 9K on a aftermarket suspension to handle....
 
where you at OP?

and KISS works really well here...

1"-1.06" T bars
Poly Bushings
Adjustable strut Rods
Firm Feel Tube Upper control arms (for caster spec and leveled BJ angle)
Bilstein Shocks
big sway bars, at least a 1 1/8 if not a 1 1/4 front (rear is per car/driver)
74-78 C body 11/16 ties rods (moog)
solid tie rod adjusters (PST's steel ones are kinda heavy, bet the aluminum ones would be overkill on a street car)

have to measure for tire but i bet you can get a 235's on a 16 or 17" wheel under it.
 
805 is about spot on. As far as tires, Lee (lilcuda) is running 215-60-15 Yokohamas on all four corners. That is in stock wheel wells. You have to ask Lee if there is more room or how those tires perform.
 

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The stock Mopar suspension is probably the best place to begin. You can make them handle great with a few simple things. Lowering the center of gravity of the car, using performance tires and wheels that are made to enhance handling. Having a performance alignment done by someone that knows what they are doing. I agree about the SS springs.....probably not the best for carving corners. I would look at some kinda single monoleaf fiberglass dealio. They are nice and work great. I think Firm Feel sells some torsion bars that will sit the car low and still retain good suspension characteristics. See what AutoXCuda says. I think it all depends on how much you want to depart from stock, but in all honesty, the stock suspension parts will go a LONG way.
 
mopardude318 said:
well sounds like ur in luck dude. I have all that **** for sale. check out my for sale threads..

I got a hellwig bar, Firm Feel tubular uppers, firm feel tie rod ends, RMS tubular strut rods and QA1 shocks. -all for sale. :)

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=251613

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=252020

I also have just suspension 1.0" torsion bars for sale. :)
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those tie rods are murder! i mean you can buy 11/16 74 C body tie rods for 16 each thru rock auto, and the pair of billet sleeves from PST for 50 bucks, think the aluminums were 80.
 
RustyRatRod said:
The stock Mopar suspension is probably the best place to begin. You can make them handle great with a few simple things. Lowering the center of gravity of the car, using performance tires and wheels that are made to enhance handling. Having a performance alignment done by someone that knows what they are doing. I agree about the SS springs.....probably not the best for carving corners. I would look at some kinda single monoleaf fiberglass dealio. They are nice and work great. I think Firm Feel sells some torsion bars that will sit the car low and still retain good suspension characteristics. See what AutoXCuda says. I think it all depends on how much you want to depart from stock, but in all honesty, the stock suspension parts will go a LONG way.
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Rusty is spot on.........there is a place for aftermarket front suspension setups, but it is mostly for a header clearance deal, anyone who thinks the factory suspension isn't capable of awesome handling, either hasn't tried, or cant propery tune, or a combination of the two. You also don't need tubular uppers, a set of moog offset bushings cost like $30 and do everything the tube uppers do....Any more questions, just ask, I have PERSONALLY kicked all kind of *** with mopars on oval tracks, with stock suspension parts....glad to help
 
If you are familiar with "Mopar Action" magazine, Eherinberg's Green Brick is an excellent example of what can be done with stock factory pieces to make an "A" body handle, and the good news is everything done to the "Brick" can be done to an early "A" with but one exception, the idler arm. Do firm feel power steering, it's a little faster than the 20 to 1 and much less tiring.
 
replicaracer43 said:
Its a sales thing..... $$$$$$
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well i understand that but $225 bucks?

PST steel sleeves were 50 with free shipping
Rock auto (Moog)(74 C Body) 11/16 inner tie rods 16 ea
Rock Auto (Moog)(74 C Body) 11/16 outer tire rods 14 ea
rock auto shipping 15 bucks (estimate)

so were looking at exactly 100 bucks off (not including FF shipping)... i would think they would want to be competitive...
 
805moparkid said:
well i understand that but $225 bucks?

PST steel sleeves were 50 with free shipping
Rock auto (Moog)(74 C Body) 11/16 inner tie rods 16 ea
Rock Auto (Moog)(74 C Body) 11/16 outer tire rods 14 ea
rock auto shipping 15 bucks (estimate)

so were looking at exactly 100 bucks off (not including FF shipping)... i would think they would want to be competitive...
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Do people actually have problems runnning the stock "A" body size tie rods when upgrading
Their suspension systems? Is it a common problem that they break
 
zhandfull said:
Do people actually have problems runnning the stock "A" body size tie rods when upgrading
Their suspension systems? Is it a common problem that they break
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i dont think they break, but deflect and change alignment angles when running the car hard
 
They don't break, its the flex, and resulting toe pattern change...
 
Jim Lusk said:
805 is about spot on. As far as tires, Lee (lilcuda) is running 215-60-15 Yokohamas on all four corners. That is in stock wheel wells. You have to ask Lee if there is more room or how those tires perform.
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The Yokohamas are pretty good, although I haven't really put the car hard into a corner because the alignment is not where I would like it to be. They couldn't get any negative camber on the passenger side. I need to put some AR Engineering washers between the spindle and the lower ball joint and have it re-aligned.

Another issue is sloppy steering. I have to take a close look at the steering box, but I also have my eye on the Borgeson PS box. It just might fit...

As far as room, there is plenty with the 215s. I wanted 225s, but could not find any performance tires in that size. I will probably end up with 16s on it eventually so I can have more choices. Of course by the time I go to put 16s on it, 16 inch performance tires will probably be scarce, too.
 
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