Best dodge suspension

[mdurbahn]

Who are all the players for the old B-Bodys suspension upgrades?

Hotchkis, XV, Alter-k-tion, anyone else?

I have 67 coronet that i would to give some better brakes and suspsion to.

[wellis77]

I think you've pretty much hit them with the exception of Magnum Force and Caps. I think Caps is strictly a race setup and I don't know much about the Magnum Force for B Bodys, but with the A's the coil overs use the stock shock mount which MUST be reinforced whereas the alter-k has the coil over mount built in and appears quite a bit sturdier. I have no experience with any of them though and I'm not going to use any of them.

[ProdigyCustoms]

I have not used it yet, but the Hotchkis article I just read on the Coronet looked real good, and the price is a heck of a lot less then a complete conversion.

[High Plains Mopars]

Ther eis also Firm Feel.

When you say best suspension, you mean as in ... autocross, dragracing, street use, budget, comfort, handling, adjustability?

Poly bushings, Cordoba brakes, a decent alignment, and good rubber with lightweight wheels go a LONG way to improving a mopar without geting into a lot of expensive conversion parts.

[mikedc]

I would tighten up everything about the stock steering setup, leave the bushings rubber, give it some added caster in the upper A-arms, add Hotchkiss swaybars & Edelbrock shocks, and run it like that.

Honestly I think if you did all this stuff then I doubt you would still want more from the front end.


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You could do a lot worse than putting the Alter-K-tion front end on. It has become the standard for bolt-n'-go improvements lately. It costs some money but the price is reasonable for all the new hardware & engineering that they're sending you.


I wouldn't buy anything from Magnum Force. Just my opinion.


XV . . . well, it's pretty self-explanatory. If you really want that last 5% of improvement then pay up and go for it.


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[rjsjea]

AlterKtion or XV's ($$) setup......

AlterK solves all the fitment problems assiciated with headers,torsion bars, Kframe etc.......

I have no personal experience with XV's front end, but it looks cool. Requires more install work than the AlterK

[mdurbahn]

I think you've pretty much hit them with the exception of Magnum Force and Caps. I think Caps is strictly a race setup and I don't know much about the Magnum Force for B Bodys, but with the A's the coil overs use the stock shock mount which MUST be reinforced whereas the alter-k has the coil over mount built in and appears quite a bit sturdier. I have no experience with any of them though and I'm not going to use any of them.

i like your sig, got any pictures of that car??

[mdurbahn]

AlterKtion or XV's ($$) setup......

AlterK solves all the fitment problems assiciated with headers,torsion bars, Kframe etc.......

I have no personal experience with XV's front end, but it looks cool. Requires more install work than the AlterK

I think I am leaning towards alterk and their new rear suspension too. I live in the mountains so I am building something that will drive through the canyons fun and safely.

[mdurbahn]

Ther eis also Firm Feel.

When you say best suspension, you mean as in ... autocross, dragracing, street use, budget, comfort, handling, adjustability?

Poly bushings, Cordoba brakes, a decent alignment, and good rubber with lightweight wheels go a LONG way to improving a mopar without geting into a lot of expensive conversion parts.

I would like something to drive at high plains! And spirited mountain drives....my car is restored to a drag car now and get 4 mpgs :( I think what I would like to do is alter k front and rear, 5.7/6.1 conversion, and some unknown type of transmission.

[gkring]

http://www.schwartzperformance.com/

Don't forget the site sponsor.
I have the XV level II going in my challenger. Expensive and lots of work. Definitely overkill, but cool. For the money I like the AlterK due to the added room of getting rid of the torsion bars and it is a must have if you also want the air ride options. The level I XV will get you 90% there for the least money short of trying to roll your own deal.

[mdurbahn]

any more info on the air-ride? who makes those kits?

[gkring]

any more info on the air-ride? who makes those kits?

http://www.reillymotorsports.com/

[High Plains Mopars]

I would like something to drive at high plains! And spirited mountain drives....my car is restored to a drag car now and get 4 mpgs :( I think what I would like to do is alter k front and rear, 5.7/6.1 conversion, and some unknown type of transmission.

Okay, so at least modern sedan levels of performance. If your considering a new hemi and trans, then is it fair to say you have a decent budget to work with?

Here are some options, assuming the basics are met with good bushings and steering already in the car;

XV level 1, $2500, huge step up from stock, best compromise of comfort and handling, capable of .9-.95 g's of handling, retains stock appearance, minimal changes, easy install. You can shop around and source individual parts to build a similar set up on your own for around $1800-2000 if your so inlcined.

AlterK, CAP, Magnumforce, $3500 front, $2000 rear with coil overs. Add air and it goes up from there. Considerable deviation from stock, may require some mods to fit/support the changes, takes 150# off the car, adds increased clearence for everything, has infinite adjustability. (BTW, there is also Street Freaks or something like that out ther that is a reveresed engineered AlterK set up)

XV level 2, $7500 front, $3500 rear, pretty much the ultimate set up. Would be suitable for heavy duty competition applications like American Iron or IMSA GT classes. Significant changes from stock and fabrication required. Guaranteed to have people gawking at your car at every show.

[mikedc]

By the way . . .

It probably goes without saying, but you really wanna improve the floppy stock unibody chassis for this deal. Any of the big-time front & rear suspension setups are only ever gonna feel as tight as the car's frame between them allows.




I would go to XV for this job. They probably researched this one better than anyone else has done on muscle era Mopars since the factory in the 1960s. They strapped down some B & E-body cars to computerized rigs and twisted them to figure out where the realistic improvements are.


-- subframe connectors

-- factory style "torque box" plating on the rockers

-- a front crossbrace under the radiator

-- some shock-tower-to-firewall braces


I think XV sells all their stiffening pieces separately for reasonable prices. They were using U.S.CarTool for the subframe connectors because those fit against the floorpans without hacking.

[wellis77]

i like your sig, got any pictures of that car??

No pics as of yet, it's completely disassembled and gutted. Working on a rendering which is going to be real cool and I can't wait to get that finished. When it is I'll post that up. The visual in my head is freaking sweet, but we'll see once it's on paper in front of me.

Based on what your talking, I would probably go Alterk and Street-Lynx and like others have said, definitely put up some stiffening gear. I was going to run all the Reilly Motorsports stuff before I decided to go full chassis. The US Car Tool frame connectors are great and fit awesome with a little bit of tweaking depending on how unshapely your unibody is. I have no experience with the XV stuff but I hear it's good quality, depending on who you talk to. I've also heard their service isn't the best but that's all second hand as well. They are usually a bit more $$ but I think their chassis stiffening stuff is reasonable. The Schwartz chassis looks pretty nice too but they don't build one for A-bodies so I haven't gotten too in depth with them.

[Gtrpunk23]

Bill Reilly is awesome to work with. He is very helpful and his product is nothing sort of phenomenal. I went out to his shop to pick mine up since I am not to far from him, the place was very impressive. His stuff is very reasonably priced and is engineered way better than the magnum force system which mounts the coil overs in the shock tower. I have one of his setups for my car and just had a friend order one from him last week. Definitely worth giving him a shout.

[Gtrpunk23]

I would definitely stiffen the whole car up though, I used xv's parts as a baseline idea and just made it myself its very straight forward. I have a set of US Car Tool stiffeners for an e-body unused if your interested.

[mdurbahn]

thanks for the info, i guess i kinda overlooked stiffening up the unibody. I have not heard of the street lynx before, i will have to research them a little.

[wellis77]

Street-Lynx is also built by Reilly Motorsports (same as the Alterk). It's a 4-link rear also, very reasonably priced I think. A lot of positive feedback on it as well as the Alterk.

[Hotchkis]

We've logged close to 1,000 hours testing in CAD, on the autocross and the skid pad. The key with the B & E Body cars is to stiffen the platform and then change the geometry. Adding spindles and other parts from a Mustang II isn't necessary if you can fix the camber curve and correct the excessive caster gain. We can tell you that our system would work really well on that Coronet, since we had one in-house for a while for that Hot Rod story in the last issue.

The key with our parts is that just about everything bolts on except the subframe connectors. Use your stock K-member (if you're really hardcore you can stitch weld it, but it's really not necessary), preserve the soul of your car with mopar-style parts that have been redesigned with radically improved geometry and stronger materials.

Our A-arm actually relocates the mount and pivot point. when combined with steering and strut rods and front/rear sway bars it makes a HUGE difference in the way the car drives. Sport springs lower the car slightly and reduce body roll, but they are also designed to reduce axle wrap and prevent wheel hop. They can be mounted in the stock location or inboard if you've already made that mod.

Overall our system isn't the most expensive or the most radical, we've been hammering on it with B and E body test cars for over a year and we know the parts work really well with almost zero fabrication required. Just bolt 'em on and have fun.