Are you a purist?

This is one of those things I end up on both sides of the fence on.

I'm not an electronics guy. That's why I daily drive a '72 Challenger. No computers, no ECU's, no television screens, and if I talk to my car it doesn't say anything back to me. If something goes wrong, it comes down to air, fuel or spark, and not a sensor or a computer. That's how I like it. So while I understand that fuel injection and some of the new whiz bang stuff can make things more efficient, I keep it off my cars. All the new Hemi's are great, but its pretty much impossible to make them run without a whole lot of computer stuff. And I just like how the old engines sound, smell, and drive.

But, from a chassis and suspension standpoint, I'm very much on the more modern side of things. I'm not a drag racer. I grew up around old British sports cars, and I like things to handle. But I also like to keep things simple. So, my cars all have (or will have) big torsion bars, welded K frames, frame connectors, torque boxes, etc. And modern shocks, and bigger brakes. And yes, bigger rims. My Challenger runs 17's, and I have 275/40/17 tires on all four corners. Normally, I would say that's as big as I'd go for a rim. On E and B bodies, that works because the tie rod interference issue only comes in at about the maximum backspace possible anyway. But my Duster will have 18's, because A bodies need more backspace to run the tires I want than I can get before I hit the tie rod. And I'm not at all opposed to the larger rims. I can't say I'd ever go bigger than 18", because after that you don't have enough sidewall to keep things practical (and I'm sure some would disagree with me even there). But to get decent handling street tires, you can't run 15's. They just don't make good handling street tires in the sizes needed anymore. Sure, there's still DOT spec race stuff, but that doesn't work on the street for any length of time.

I try to keep things to the "essence" of the original car. No coil overs, no air ride (more electronics anyway!), just bigger torsion bars, better shocks, 11.75" mopar rotors (except the Duster), same old leaf spring suspension out back, big sway bars, etc. And bigger rims with MUCH bigger tires, set as low as I can go before I hit every speed bump in town. And none of my cars are anything special. They're all just plain jane grocery getters for the most part, 318/904 cars at best, that's all I can afford. The GT's are a little special, but honestly they aren't worth a ton more. And the modifications I do to the GT cars will all be reversible, more so than the Duster or Challenger.

I think the modernization of these classics is a good thing. Not everyone will do it, there's still all the factory specials out there that will stay original because that's how they're worth the most money. There's more than enough purists that want original hemi cars, or T/A's or R/T's etc to keep those cars bone stock original. But dropping a modern hemi and updated suspension into a plain Jane car allows another group of people to enjoy them. Folks that don't like how old musclecars handle or want something reliable and efficient. And as these cars get updated, they stay on the road. And appeal to a new generation of owners. So, from that standpoint, I think its a GREAT thing. The more of them on the road the better. And if the pendulum swings back to more original stuff later, I'm sure you'll see some of these updated cars being switched back. But at least they're still around and taken care of.