50" Width Suspension

[Paul_J]

Hey guys, I'm building a car that has a narrow track width. All my experience has been in the Street Rod area and I'm familiar with Mustang II so naturally I wanted to use the uprights. I want this project to be a step above "Street Rod" and move toward performance handling. This will be a street car primarily and I want it to be safe and fun to drive. It must also be able to "prove its metal" and not just look the part. My wife ordered 'Chassis Engineering' for me as neat gift and I'm waiting for it to arrive. I need a good starting point so here's what I've got.

Mid-engine car
Approx. 2200lbs.
98" wheel base
50" front suspension width (bolt flange to bolt flange.) this is from the mock up.



I have Mustang II uprights already but is there a salvage yard (or cheap) alternative that would be better? (I was thinking the late S-10?) I'm not asking to design the whole package but I'm curious if there is a better starting point. I would like to do as much of the design myself with help and guidance from anyone interested.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

[Paul_J]

Anyone? I'm thinking the S-10 offers better brake choices using stock off the shelf components. But is there a better spindle I could be overlooking?

[pdq67]

You may not want to go this way, but the old '65 to '69 'Vair's have 5 on 4.75" b/p hubs and a drop out complete front cross member that I figure that you could narrow to however width you want.

Just a suggestion.

I once had a complete stripped '66 spotted that I wanted to get to install a small SB mid-engine located and use something like a F/G kit car body to come up w/ what you want to do.

Have you looked through Kit Car mag yet? They usually have one issue a year that list's everything for sale. Great place to look for stuff to create a homemade car., imho..

pdq67

[Paul_J]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had thought about doing just that. I have worked on them in the past so I am somewhat familiar with the setup. I finally got my copy of Chassis Engineering and have read it at least three times now. I am playing with several layouts in AutoCAD now and I think for what I want to do the Mustang Spindle will be just fine unless I run across a set of S-10 spindles in the next week or so. I want to start fabing up lower control arms in the next week or so so I'm just going to move forward and get this thing done. Second question is about the rear suspension. Would there be any problems duplicating the same geometry in the rear as in the front?