Rear suspension choices, 67 Camaro

[sharp67]

Im looking for some advice. I did a quick search and did not find quite what I was looking for, so here it is! I have a 67 Camaro with a sb chevy, Im currently running Hotchkis front springs, Hotchkis sway bar and all new urethane front bushings. My question is what rear suspension setup would complement this? Im not looking for trick or flash, I want a system that will work well. Im currently looking at the Hotchkis rear springs, Global West Category 5 rear springs, the Hot Rods to Hell rear long arm setup, and the most recent, the Air Bar setup from Air Ride Technologies. I realize there is a pretty big swing in price here but Im trying to make a somewhat educated decision with a balance between performance and cost. Any thoughts, insight or experience here would be greatly appreciated.

[MrQuick]

Doing the rear Hotchkis spring and bushing should be fine to balance the front. My friend has a total TVS kit and it is a vast improvment over stock.
If your looking to do some heavy track time then you wanna spend the money. If you go with Cat 5 then you'll wana redo your front.

[atomic-punk]

Hey gents,

A friend of mine working on a 68 sent this to me for the Air Ride - Air Bar stuff..

http://www.ridetech.com/news/defaultpopup.asp?mode=shownews&id=92

Anyone ever used them? I'm running DSE lowered multi-leaf on my '69.. works OK but it hops a bit when I jump it.

TJ

[Travis B]

BAG IT!

NO I have not actually used this set up or seen it used yet! But we have used several of Air rides products and they all work very well! What are your intentions for the car?

If it was mine it would be on air!

[PAI Racing]

Make sure you stagger the shocks if you are going to stick with a leaf sprung rear. GM did it in '68 to counter diabolical brake induced rear hop. I didn't change it on my car and guess what... I have diabolical brake induced rear hop. Good shocks will fix it but it is cheaper to do the stagger than to buy a set of tripple adjust Penskes.

[sharp67]

Im setting the car up to be drivin on the street. I just want the car to perform as good as possible. Im also interested in open road racing events such as SSC but that is probably sometime away. There seems to be a few different ways to go. Im trying to compare the dollars to performance gain. If I get a significant gain in performance by going from Hotchkis to Cat 5 Global West Im willing to spend the dough, but to go from Cat 5 to the air ride it would have to be a very significant increase in performance to justify the $1200 difference. Many of the people on this site seem very familiar and knowledgable with the different systems, so Im trying to make the best choice based on the feedback? So any help here is greatly appreciated. Thanks again Jay.

[baz67]

Stick with the leafs. Either the GW or Hotckis will be fine. From the pics I have seen on the air ride stuff, the geometry looks like to much of a comprimise for packaging reasons.

[chicane67]

Make sure you stagger the shocks if you are going to stick with a leaf sprung rear. GM did it in '68 to counter diabolical brake induced rear hop. I didn't change it on my car and guess what... I have diabolical brake induced rear hop. Good shocks will fix it but it is cheaper to do the stagger than to buy a set of tripple adjust Penskes.

Depends on how the leafs were constructed. The spring pack can determine many things and influence other qualities in a 'hotchkis' style rear leaf set-up.

My 67 still has parallel rear shocks and doesnt have the associated problems mentioned above, with either $25 a pop KYB's and stock or $120 custom valved Bilsteins. I have run the 67 on the street for 12 or so years to include some pretty hard track sessions, with my spring design and have had no wheel hop induced from acceleration or braking. In fact I improved the braking ability from building them a specific way.

The next closest thing would be springs from Global West, DSE or Hotchkis. The Cat5 is a cool set up, but for primarily a street driven chassis, maybe not worth it for most.....but if you have the means, I would recommend any of the aforementioned companies.

[sharp67]

Chicane67. Do you build springs? or can you recomend a particular way to build the springs to get ideal results? Im leaning to the cat5 setup but am concerned that the springs might be a bit stiff. I m also concerned that all the vibration and stress might cause some issues in the stock rear frame rails, such as cracks or stress issues, what do you think?

[chicane67]

Do I do springs ?? Yes, but I will say up front, there is alot involved in doing a set for a peticular- one off -chassis...... but when done, it is done correctly and it is balanced. You are however, looking at about the same cost if you use my springs, or there is another builder that has done a copy of my design that has been used by quite a few others on another Camaro site, with excellent results..... at a much reduced price.

Cat5 Stiff ?? Uh, no. For a street chassis with the proper front springs, it is an excellent choice.

The current spring build in my 67 is at a 720 rate front and 320 rate rear...... which the rear is about 2X of the Cat5 offering. I have had this set-up in the chassis since 93 and havent had any problems with the rear frame rails concerning cracks or stress issues. Ride quality is exceptional........

I will say, that whatever you decide in the end, definately use the GW bushings..... thats for sure. They make a high rate sprung chassis ride like half the rate, with correctly valved shocks.

[PAI Racing]

Funny, I run the front biased spring packs on my car (can't remember who built them, but they are loaded to be way stiffer, swingarm like almost, in the front) and I can get brake hop like you'd read about... I've seen Carl Chicca's car and it runs the shocks parallel in the front as well. The change to the staggers was a fix the Penske guys came up with as I recall. You'd think it would work and not be much of a hassel to do.

[chicane67]

It is the rear of the spring pak that controls the braking issues.

I agree, it shouldnt be too hard to accomplish and it would be benificial anyway you look at it..... I was just trying to go enroute to lesser modifications to get there.

[PAI Racing]

Good to know, thanks! I'm guessing that the springs were set up to run the staggered shocks. I switched shops mid-project and the guys who finished the work just put the shocks on the way they came off. By the time I noticed, I decided to say, f'it, but it is on the list.

[HLSASS]

I was reading the thread below, hoping to find some help. I have a 67 with Global west upper and lower control arms in front, and their 5 leaf springs in back with bilsteins all around. The GW are all the delalum bushings. I noticed after I got all this on that the reaf is SUPER stiff, like almost no travel at all. Any suggetions? The bilsteins are brand new as well as the springs.

Thanks!