mopar handling

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john dodge

downunder wonder
Joined
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the coorong ..south australia
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!
 
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!
There's numerous ways. Bigger torsion bars, brakes, tires, sway bars, shocks, , rear springs, even full coil over and 3/4 link conversions. I do highly Suggest reading up on the Green Brick.

But to get you recommendations specific to your car, we gonna need engine size, goal for the car(street, race car, both etc), which a body, etc
 
There's numerous ways. Bigger torsion bars, brakes, tires, sway bars, shocks, , rear springs, even full coil over and 3/4 link conversions. I do highly Suggest reading up on the Green Brick.


I'll repeat what Dukeboy_318 said........read up on the "Green Brick", 67/68 (don't rightly remember) Valient 170 2 door post car.....Richard Eherenburg, who was Tech editor of "Mopar Action" magazine owned and built it. It was surprisingly low tech, careful selection of factory parts, was clocked at 163 mph on the back straight of Watkins Glenn International raceway and only 1 car posted a faster lap time, this was against Vipers, Corvettes, BMW's, Porsche's, etc.

Cool thing is it still looked like Grandma's car...............
 
I'll repeat what Dukeboy_318 said........read up on the "Green Brick", ...............

This would be great advice if you actually could. I don't know any way to get these articles If you know how / where to get them I'd like to hear it
 
This would be great advice if you actually could. I don't know any way to get these articles If you know how / where to get them I'd like to hear it
GOOGLE DOT COM....
 
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!

1+ inch torsion bars
good leaf springs (many options)
good shocks (bilstien,fox)
sway bars (many options)
frame connectors..
 
What level of corner carving handling are you looking for?

There are several levels or steps. If you want to stick with stock equipment then of course your limited but you can make a definite improvement over what you have now by ether upgrading stock parts to heavier duty stock units or after market parts.

1 example is swapping out your /6 or 318 Torsion bars for big block bars. Mopar Performance (if there even in his anymore.... ) offers thicker than stock bars.
Anti roll bars/sway bars, brakes, shocks, same as above.

The after market can go from mild to wild. From basic sway bars up to full frames to replace everything under the car. Though I have not seen it yet for A bodies, just B & E bodies.
 
First off is this for any competitive racing ?

If it's for general improvement. You probably haven't even drove hard enough to take it to the limit of the stock suspension. This is where you got to be honest with yourself. No point of building a g machine if it's never going over .08.

Tires are the most important part generally the wider and stickier the better.
But really for most a decent sized semi performance tire like 225 or so all around and a set of sway bars will vastly improve handling that would be my first step and go from there.
 
This would be great advice if you actually could. I don't know any way to get these articles If you know how / where to get them I'd like to hear it

In my library I do have the issues of "Mopar Action" that covered the ongoing build of the car; it may be faster to Google than for me to find and dig out the back issues, give me a couple of days.
 
My daily '73 Dart has;

- 1" torsion bars from Just Suspension
- Hellwig frontswaybar
- Hotchkis adjustable shocks upfront
- QA1 adjustable shocks at the rear
- Added blades in the leafspring packs. 7 leafs per side.
- 17" wheels w/225 tires on all corners.
- Upgraded power steering w/ 2 point faster ratio (Borgeson)
- Welded subframe connectors
- Poly-urethan bushings everywhere.
- 11.75" front discbrakes
- 2.5" dual exhaust w/full length Dougs headers, X-pipe and Borla ProXS mufflers.
- 318" 4bbl, A518 Overdrive transmission, 8-3/4" rear axle with 3.55:1 gears.
- Front seats out of a '90s (?) BMW.

I'm driving around with 2 propane tanks in the trunk, so I added 2 leafs per side, totalling to 7 blades per side now.
The roads I encounter everyday have an abundance of speedbumps and roundabouts, so the suspension get quite a workout.

IMG_4949alt.jpg
 
Some good info so far, but nobody has mentioned the "Red Brick", aka "Tim's Valiant". Tim Werner took what Ehrenberg did with the Green Brick (69 Valiant, btw) as inspiration and went a step further.

I had the privilege of owning it for two years. I sold it last fall because it was just a bit too "race" for me. It handles like it is on rails. Stiff ride, but not as bad as you would think for a race car.

To find info on this car, Google "tim werner valiant".

Also, check out the Corners Are Best forum on Moparts.com. That's where most of the diehard Mopar corner carvers hang out.

Here is the description of what the Red Brick has had done to it:



Chassis: Mostly original paint, all steel body, torque boxes, frame connectors partially welded to floor. 6 pt cage, firewall to frame rail bars underhood, XV front chassis (radiator) brace

Engine, 7.0 liter dynoed at 519 hp @ 5800, 506 lb/ft @ 4100: 340 resto block, drilled and tapped for AN connections at oil filter. HV pump, remote filter and 3 QT Accusump mounted behind passenger seat. K1 4.125” stroke crank, K1 rods, JE pistons 10.5 compression. Edelbrock Aluminum heads- Stage 3 ported by Hughes Engines with 2.08 intake valves. Comp roller cam 236/236 at .050 with .545”/.537” lift, Comp solid roller lifters, Comp 1.5 ratio rockers, Milodon road race oil pan, MSD E-Curve distributor. Edelbrock Victor 340 intake ported by Shady Dell, BLP 650 CFM carb. TTI ceramic coated headers, TTI 2.5” X-pipe exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers.

Trans: A-833 with 2.66 first gear in Passon Performance aluminum case. Hurst shifter solid mount. Steel flywheel - McLeod clutch

Rear: 66-7 B-Body housing with 2.94 center section, Dr. Diff clutch type differential. Aluminum driveshaft.

Brakes: Front-- Baer 6 piston, 13” two piece rotors Rear—Mustang Cobra rear disc kit from Dr. Diff. Mopar aluminum master cylinder 15/16” piston dia. Wilwood rear pressure valve - adjustable from drivers seat. Carbotech pads all around.

Suspension: Front- 1.20 T-bars, 72 K frame seam welded, reinforced with FFI kit, notched for oil pan clearance, boxed for NASCAR-style Speedway Engineering sway bar, FMJ spindles, FFI upper A-arms, Lower arms boxed with AR Eng plates and setup for heim style endlink. Poly lower control arm pivots w/AR Eng retaining plates, FFI C-body tubular tie rods, FFI Stage 3 steering box with PS cooler mounted behind grille. Poly strut rod bushings. Bilstein shocks. Rear- AR Eng front hangers, F-body rear shackles, 340 rear springs with poly on both ends. Adjustable frame mounted rear sway bar .875”. Bilstein shocks.

Misc: trunk mounted battery, light weight Toyota 60A alternator, custom dash insert with Autometer gauges 3.375” dia. speedo and tach, 2.625” big mechanical oil press and water temp, 2.125” fuel and volts. Extra-large warning lights for oil press, H2O and volts. Aluminum radiator with SPAL sucker fan – Manual switch and thermostatically controlled. Corbeau seats with 4 pt harnesses. Heater/defrost removed, factory glass all intact, wipers & turn signals function as factory.

Wheels/tires: STREET 17x8 OE Bullitt wheels with 245/45-17 Goodyears and TRACK 17x9 Konig Villains with 275-40-17 Kumho V710’s -- Car WILL accept 275/40-17’s on all four corners with no clearance issues

IMG_0989.JPG
 
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!
What speed limit?
What road surface?
What A-body?
What engine transmission?

There would be not much you could do with the biggest,fattest,most under-powered A, for on the street with 35mph speed limits, except throw a wheelbarrow of money at it.'Course it might not need anything.......handling is subjective.
And; in Australia, none of this might apply.
 
From December 1994 "Mopar Action" the Green Brick

Engine/drive train: 360/360 crate motor, 833 4spd, RARE aluminum case, 6 cylinder gear set, 3.09 first gear, 8 3/4 rear with big bolt pattern axles, 2.94 gear set with clutch type sure-grip, in an ultra rare M/T magnesium housing.

Brakes front: 73-76 "A" body steering knuckles with 76-79 2 door "B" body slider caliper mounts, 73-75 "A" body single piston slider calipers with 2.6 dia piston, 11.75 dia uni-cast rotors, master cylinder from late model Dodge pick up truck with 1 1/8 inch bore, Dot5 silicone brake fluid.
Rear brakes: 10 inch finned drums, stock linings, 7/8 inch dia wheel cylinders from a late 70's B100 van/D100 PU.

Front suspension: 383 "A" body torsion bars, a 1 inch dia sway bar from Just Suspension, MOOG offset upper control arm bushings, lower control arm bushings were polyurethane, shocks were a used set of Armstrongs.

Rear suspension: "A" body Super Stock springs de-archched to be flat, shocks were "C" body units along with a set of MP kicker pickup truck shocks P/N: P4349509.

Steering: Stock 16 to 1 manual box, 11/16 "C" body tie-rod ends, gusseted, reinforced "K" member to reduce steering flex.

Tires: Goodyear GS-C's on a set of Weld wheel road race rims, 15x8.
 
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!

Start with a Formula S factory suspension up to snuff. At least 7/8 torsion and front sway bar. Next good shocks, Bilstein. An alignment for handling from someone who knows wat he is doing. HD rear leaf springs, 6 leaves. Tires with a high speed rating and wear of 300 or less. That should be enough to embarrass most cars. As others have said, go from there.
 
Tires and alignment are a HUGE deal!!! Start off with a good set of tires on some decent width wheels, then go from there. In order I'd go with tires, quality shocks, Tbars and leafs, swaybars, quick ratio steering box, after that comes all the frame stiffening stuff which is gonna take some welding! Oh yeah, and real seats! All of these suspension mods with stock seats will leave you holding on to the steering week for dear life in a corner!
 
ok guys I have been lurking and reading,
obviously drag racing is king ....
but what about real life advice on making your a body handle !!!
please post away!

Keep the vegemite off the tires...
 
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