Suspension

[chevy72]

Hey guy, just signed up to the site after reading a lot of posts. I have a 72 Nova and want to do suspension soon and thought I could use some good guidance. I have a lot of friends with new fast and really good handling cars and want to be able to keep up with them in the canyons and take it to the track and have fun when I can. I wanna spend around 4k maybe. Thoughts?

[Rod]

handling is a combination of many parts of the car? What are you starting with such as drum brakes or disc brakes? engine? wheels and tires etc

[chevy72]

Right now I have the 350HO crate motor, stock discs up from and drum in the rear, 15" American racing wheels. Stock springs and shocks. I would want to get wheels and brakes also, just not at the very moment, but soon. I do realize the handling has many aspects to make it all work right so I wanted opinions on where to start and good suggestions.

[Rod]

Hotchkis 80013 TVS kit $1503.95
QA1 front shocks(pair) $279.90
QA1 Rear Shocks(pair) $319.90
Rear Disc Conversion from
the right stuff detailing $295.95
total $2399.70

that's a budget start
Lowered matched suspension, Tunable shocks, basic 4 wheel disc brakes and money left over to get some wheels and sticky tires
and since this is pretty basic stuff you can put it all in your self

[DEIGuy38]

Start here for front/rear suspension kits and talk with Blake http://www.speedtechperformance.com/...cat/cat246.htm
Check here for good big brake kits and talk with Tobin http://www.kore3.com/categories.php?cat=7

[chevy72]

I would keep my stock control arms for this? and the leaf spring set up would still handle much better than I am thinking? and I have a friend who is trying to convince me to get 4 link for the rear. the set up you just said you think would do justice for me? I do like the price though so I could get some wheels also.

[chevy72]

That pro touring kit for the front seems like a very nice set up

[chevy72]

Hey Rod I was looking at that Hotchkis set up and it seems like people who have it like it. I was looking at the QA1 shocks and there are so many. Which would you recommend using with the set up you recommended?

[Rod]

Hey Rod I was looking at that Hotchkis set up and it seems like people who have it like it. I was looking at the QA1 shocks and there are so many. Which would you recommend using with the set up you recommended?

that basic set up is great for any car and as money allows you can up grade to tube control arms, and add in a posi for tight track driving (like goodguys autocross) as for the QA1 shocks just the single adjustable is a very capable shock, the leaf springs in the TVS kit are very good for daily driving and with the QA1 you can soften the damping for the track.....there are some very good Triangulated 4 links and you can still stay under you're budget

[shep]

Call Marcus at SC&C for suspension. Call Tobin at Kore3 for brakes.

[Hotchkis]

Hey Rod I was looking at that Hotchkis set up and it seems like people who have it like it. I was looking at the QA1 shocks and there are so many. Which would you recommend using with the set up you recommended?

Chevy 72,

Have you seen this Super Chevy article?

http://www.superchevy.com/technical/...ion/index.html





The article is very in depth and you can use it for reference when you start working on your upgrades. We’ve had customers switch from the adjustable shocks to our Hotchkis HPS shocks built by Bilstein to our specs because the adjustable just weren’t performing as well as they hoped, no matter what they tried.

Good luck on your project! We look forward to seeing more Nova’s here on this site.

[chevy72]

I just thought of another question. I planned on getting about 10 inch wide wheels in the rear. If I were to mini-tub it would that effect the Hotchkis TVS system? I just saw a post somewhere with a similar question and no responses. That is a good article from the chevy magazine. So would the bilstein shocks work better front and rear than the QA1's??

[marolf101x]

How about a 4-link, tubular control arms, tall spindles and coil overs?
How about all that for $3800 (just under your budget!)

http://www.ridetech.com/store/suspen...er-system.html

[chevy72]

That does look like a sweet set up, and is in my budget. I like Rodney's idea because it would leave me some $$ to start looking at wheels too.