Lateral Dynamics "Next Gen" 3-Link Suspension Systems

[Mark@lateral-dynamics]

Greetings Pro Touring enthusiasts!

Lateral Dynamics have been working hard, quietly, to develop the “Next Gen” 3-Link Rear Suspension Systems, and we are now ready to release the product for sales. We have had a very long standing relationship with Pro-touring.com dating back to when the whole P-T movement was in its infancy, and as such, we wanted to use this platform – even before updating the company website – to introduce the new configuration.

For those familiar with the legacy 3-Link systems, you know that the original setup was competition proven; with class wins in the One Lap of America with James Shipka’s epic “One Lap Camaro,” our customer from the Montreal area, winning his class in the extremely challenging Targa Newfoundland, and perhaps the most notable overall win of the Inaugural optima Ultimate Street Car with Steven Rupp’s iconic “Bad Penny.” Beyond the competitive events, our customers have also taken country-wide, multi thousand-mile road trips while reporting back comfort and exceptional wet weather handling – the systems were proven to be capable everywhere.

So of course, what do engineers do? Make things even better, and that’s what we have done. Virtually every aspect of the system was scrutinized, data from our own testing as well as our customer’s feedback was critically assessed, and improvements in other areas of the hobby were also considered – namely tire technology.

We had three main goals for the Next Gen Systems:

• Broaden the overall geometry adjustment “window”: We enabled customers to focus the main performance parameters to not only augment driving styles and overall vehicle setup, but to further maximize the performance of today’s extremely capable tires – with focus not only on racing slicks/”R” compound selections, but today’s incredibly popular and capable “200 Tread wear” tires required in a multitude of competitive driving series (works amazingly with any other performance street tires too!).
• Dramatically simplified the installation process: While the systems still require welding to complete the installation, the amount of cutting and sheet metal work has been significantly reduced. Further, we incorporated changes to minimize frustration due to the very loose OEM tolerances in these 50+ year old cars, as well as frame and sheet metal repairs commonly found on restored cars. The result is an installation process that can easily be managed by a capable enthusiast in a typical home garage.
• Maximize the Performance to Cost Value: We arrived at a price point, along with the simplified installation updates that we feel is the very best in the industry, and not just the initial cost, but through the lifetime of the product. All serviceable/routine maintenance items are readily available from multiple sources. We use the best quality components throughout, the vast majority of which are sourced within 100 miles of our So Cal location.

Displayed in the photographs is the 67-69 Camaro and Firebird system, which will begin shipping within the next two weeks. The system comes standard with “Late, Big Ford” housing ends (not shown here), in two standard widths (optional with virtually any type of housing ends/full float options/width, per quotation). Early Mustang, and Second Generation Camaro/Firebird will be available in approximately 4 – 6 weeks.