rear sway bar recommendations
That Austin looks like a blast to drive !
I sold high end cars for 25 years …. BMW , Porsche, Mercedes,Jag , Acura and Audi.
( 2 different dealers ) and the manufacturers would put on “Ride and drives”…. They would have their newest models and the competition there to drive . Some events were in parking lots others on tracks . Ripping around a track in 911 Turbos , BMW M-Series , AMG Mercedes and Acura NSX’s was pretty cool ! They would always have professional drivers at these events . One time in Pheonix AZ I had een driving all morning with a pro and when we broke for lunch he shook my hand and said “see you after lunch” … I looked at his name badge and realized I had been driving around a track with Roberto Guerrero ! It took me a second to process his name and by that time he had walked away . At lunch I went over to apologize for not paying attention to who he was . He said no problem… BTW this is Davey Jones” !
Man those guys can cut a lap time SO much faster than the average guy and look slow doing it !
I also spent a week at the old AMC proving grounds in Wisconsin with Audi . The Germans know how to put on an event ! No expense spared .
Acura sent me to the Honda proving grounds in Ohio to drive NSX twin turbos and 911 Turbos for 3 days . It paid off for Acura as I sold 5 NSX’s at $230k a pop . Not bad for a little dealer in Boise Id .
Anyways I just thought you autocrossers would get a kick out of those stories .
Thanks! Yes, it's a blast to drive. My dad built it for vintage racing, but never ended up doing it. He had built the Healey to be my car right after I was born, was gonna put a more stock engine and running gear in it before he gave it to me but I ended up with it in full vintage race trim. Put it back on the road as soon as I got my license, drove it all through high school and most of college. Put tens of thousands of miles on it as a daily. Made plenty of 8+ hour trips to SoCal and back in it. I mostly just did autoX's at Healey meets. I drove it all the way to Silver Star British Columbia for a meet once, about 1,100 miles one way. AutoX'd it there, then drove it back.
And you're telling all of us that they competed on a race coarse with a factory body and No stiffeners. No cage, No frame ties, No unibody support. at all. I couldn't tell you how many Hard tops that I cracked the quarters on top behind the doors . You state I yell at the clouds. At least I am not next to you in the clouds. These unibody cars fold up like a tin box . There is nothing to them.
I ran 1.12" torsion bars in my Challenger for 70k+ street miles with 275/40/17's on all 4 corners. NO subframe connectors, NO torque boxes, NO cage. No chassis reinforcements of any kind. In fact, that car had significant structural issues -it had holes in the floor boards, rust in the frame rails, rust in the hard top structure, well, you name it, that car has rust in it. A Utah car that went to Florida before I got it, so rust from the bottom up
and the top down. A flexy flyer for sure, but, it never let me down and it certainly never folded up despite the rust damage. It wasn't ideal by any means and I don't recommend it, but, it never failed.
So no, large torsion bars and large sticky tires are not going to destroy the unibody. Is it better to do some chassis reinforcements? Absolutely. But suggesting these cars can't handle wheel rates higher than factory BB bars is just asinine. Clearly shows your lack of experience with that kind of set up.
How about you just admit you've never run an A-body with 1"+ torsion bars and front and rear aftermarket sway bars and leave it at that? You've got no clue how a Mopar equipped like that will perform or hold up, because you haven't done it.