Suspension upgrades
You can achieve your goals of great handling sticking with the stock suspension format. So just keep that in mind.
agreed. just updating and upgrading with out going whole hog makes a ton of difference if you're spending the money in the right places.
for all intents and purposes my car is fairly vanilla. 73~76 set up, all rubber bushings, Moog offset upper bushings, .890 bars, 10.87 cop rotors, pro stop plus pads, 1" addco bar with poly bushings, older KYB's, firm feel #2 box with a flaming river coupler. out back older formula S springs, custom front hangars with 3 positions, poly bushings, and a small 5/8" bar that's frame mounted. 10X2.5" drums with sintered brakes. manual 15/16 master from a Dakota and a prop valve. I'm rolling on 15" cop wheels. the only frame modifications are subframe connectors.
this is nothing earth shattering. it's basically all stock components. the car handles quite nicely, you don't have to fight it at all. it's taut without being over bearing and the steering inputs are crisp. it's much like driving a newer BMW 3 series.
I've built stuff with 1.14 bars and all the adjustable bits and don't get me wrong, they are quite nice and handle phenomenally. but sometimes a little less is a little more.
when somebody asks me to build out suspension on their car, the first thing I do is take them out in mine and have them drive it. I tell them to note what they like, what they dislike and what they want more or less of. the benefit to starting with a 73~76 platform is that you can then tailor and tune that set up to individual tastes.
