Torsion bars

Living and driving in an around a large European city I can say I encounter all kinds of roadtypes, from brick stone roads, infested with speedbumps, upto smooth asphalt, also infested with speedbumps usually. And ofcourse the overabundance of roundabouts which seem so popular overhere.

Before I upgraded the Dart, coming up to most speedbumps made the car behave kinda 'ridiculous' if you didn't slow down enough; LCAs pretty much bottoming out on the upramp, suspension way unloading shortly after that, and the same happened in reverse on the downramp of the speedbump, followed by a few 'afterbumps' in the suspension.
In relation, newer cars don't really have to slow down.

Now, with the better torsionbars and shocks, I can drive over the speedbumps with the same speeds as all the other traffic around me, without causing unsettling suspension movements, making my car look like a cartooncar. (Well, not more than usual ;) )

On pretty much all road surfaces the car drives and handles much more 'serious' and modern than before.

If you look at the 1:19 mark in the Hotchkis videoclip below, you'll see exactly how my car also behaved after a dip/bump/speedbump;
Development of the New Hotchkis Tuned APS Adjustable Monotube Shocks - YouTube

My car now seems to behave pretty much just like the endresult in the clip.


With a smallblock and the PST 1.03 bars my car rides about like the car in the video at about the 2:08 mark.
Runs a lot flatter on corners also, and I don't have sway bars.

Our roads suck due to potholes and height variances as well as no curbs or sidewalks to speak of so dropping the the wheels off the inside edge of a corner into the dirt wasn't even close to a possibility without bottoming the suspention.
Now it just blows right through that like it wasn't even there.
Same with those little 2-3 inch deep water runoff troughs in housing tracts that are concrete.
Don't even have to give em a thought anymore.