This is a great list, and is in no way overkill for a good handling street car. If “amateur racers” aren’t running this level of equipment they’re not really trying to be competitive. Which is fine, but they’re not gonna be competitive with less than that.
The original strut rod design with its giant, soft, floppy rubber bushings causes alignment changes. Period. The harder you brake, accelerate and corner the worse these alignment changes become. The factory got away with it because of lousy tires and overall too soft suspension. Throw some 245’s up front with big brakes and that lower control arm will start moving around with the slack in those bushings. That does not provide precise or consistent handling.
And honestly, all the OE replacement rubber bushings out there are trash at the moment. Moog rubber is hot garbage. Their ball joints and tie rod ends aren’t good either. Their production changes have made them a product to avoid. I’ve put 100k street miles on adjustable strut rods on my mopars. And I wouldn’t use factory strut rods on anything meant for the street with decent tires.
There’s fancier stuff out there, I run it on the street and love it. But you don’t need SPC UCA’s or tubular LCA’s for what you want. The rest of the stuff, the sway bars, springs etc are what you need. And really, there isn’t much in the way of cheaper stuff that will do the job. Hellwig is a little cheaper than Hotchkis, but not by much. Most of the things are pretty comparable. You can definitely spend more money than that.
I would run at least 17x8’s all around. In the front with 5.5” of backspace, in the back with around 4.5” if you stay with factory width A-body rear axles. If you go to a B-body 8 3/4 you’ll need more backspace. In the front with 17’s I’d go 245/45/17 like I said before. In the back you can go up to 275/40/17 if you want, you’d need a 17x9 for that. A 245 or 255 would be easier though.
