Frame or chassis options for A bodies

joes68340s said
Something I have watched over the years is the aftermarket k frames might gain you coil overs and rack an pinion you cant run a very wide tire up front not much more than a 235. Stock suspension modded fronts can get up to a 295 tire.

Not true, on either account really.

Wracks71 is running 18x9's with 275/35/18's on the front of his Duster with his RMS Alterkation (his specs are listed at this Hot rod mag article, scroll most of the way down the page http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/1312-2013-muscle-car-of-the-year/. I suspect with the proper wheel and backspace it would be possible on the HDK and others as well. That's basically as much tire you can run on an A-body because of the frame and fender clearance.

A 295 on the front of an A-body would require serious fender modification regardless of the type of suspension. I have 275/35/18's on 18x9's on my Duster which still has it's torsion bar front suspension, but there's pretty much no room to the fenders or the frame at my ride height. I know Tomswheels was running 285's on 18x10's on his Valiant, but he also pushed his fenders out with a jack. I suppose 295's would be possible by doing something like that, but at that point you're basically flaring the fenders. And you could do that with any of the coilover conversions too, as long as you didn't mind the bodywork.

Maybe on some cars a 285 would work with the right amount of trimming and fender lip rolling, if the 285 was on the narrow side (actual tire width depends on brand and model of tire). I have 295's on the back of my car, it's a BIG difference compared to the 275's I have up front. I know, I tried- the 295's were outside of the front fenders. ;)

Also, for the "coilovers are the only way to go fast crowd", go back to that Hot Rod article. You'll see that the Hotchkis taxi, a '70 Satellite 4 door, ran over a second faster on the autocross than Wracks's duster did. That's a big car with torsion bars and leaf springs coming in faster on an autoX course than a fully coilover converted duster. Not only that, the Taxi was the 2nd fastest car on that autoX, faster than all but one of those other fancy rides. And that Satellite is at a huge disadvantage, pun intended, because of it's size. Wheelbase and weight are very important in autoX. Yeah here's that link again http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/1312-2013-muscle-car-of-the-year/