A-Body Rear Suspension advice

[UMI Tech]

Good morning BB. Thanks for considering UMI for your build.

The QA1 front coilover kit is super simple to install and really makes it nice to easily set ride height. You can choose non-adjustable, single adjustable (controls both bump and rebound in the same adjuster, spreads the entire damping curve in or out), or double adjustable (bump and rebound completely separate).

The rear QA1 coilover kit requires a bit of fabrication to install the top mount and brackets but is easily within the scope of most Pro-tour style guys. Once again the main benefit is ease of ride height adjustment and I can see from your signature you like the ability to manipulate your "stance".

We never got a chance to baseline our LeMans with the factory suspension and tires. Mainly it felt like a big marshmallow. With the UMI Stage 3 kit, it cornered flat, transitioned nicely and was pretty well balanced on the skidpad. Strangely enough our main problem on the skidpad was trying to stay put on the flat factory seats. This spring we plan to revisit the test track, with new seats and belts, and devote a day to tuning and finalizing our numbers. We are also going to set up an industry standard slalom and publish that info.

Our LeMans has Hotchkis 1" lowering springs with 500lb/in fronts and variable rate 124-159lb/in rear.



As for coilover vs standard big springs, we have cars on both and both have their advantages. Really, a car can work well on either.

We use a 1" diameter rear sway bar instead of 7/8" to allow the car to rotate a bit better. That's something we can address with spring selection as well.

Have a good day and thanks for considering UMI.

ramey