Quote: but when you bray about your superiority it brings to mind the mopar action article about putting viper brakes on a B body---they put on one side and went out to test the brakes--60 mph panic stop the car stops straight---their conclusion mopar made good brakes to begin with---if you want to spend the money on new shiny viper brakes--ok---just dont start bragging about how superior you are-
this it the reason I take a lot of what "experts' say with a grain of salt....
1) this is not a repeatable scientific test in a controlled environment 2) the point of the viper brakes isn't necessarily total clamping force--a single panic stop from 60 should lock up the wheels, even with the standard 10.87" rotors as tire grip will be the limiting factor. the advantage to a viper brake swap is the rigidity of the caliper, which helps in brake feel and modulation, and the larger swept area of the pad, which should help in heat dissipation and fade resistance, as well as the larger diameter rotor (11.75" using the larger R body rotors) which also have better heat dissipation due to larger swept area AND more mass. Try this test from 100mph or 4 back-to-back-to-back-to-back stops and lets see if it still tracks straight.
stuff like this, or beating on a spindle clamped in a vice with a 20lb sledge are some of the "testing" that makes me shake my head....
there are advantages and disadvantages to each system (as Andy noted, the larger driver of a modern coil over system like the alterKtion are 1) rack and pinion steering 2) package savings and 3) weight savings; the lesser advantages are more adjustability/tunability and a larger choice of brake options
as far as lack of 100k hour durability testing, etc on aftermarket setups, yeah, that's true, but with most well engineered designs (which IMHO the alterK is one of the better engineered designs out there), they are typically overbuilt with a bit of a safety factor in them. With some of the "sky is falling" statements throughout this thread, makes me wonder if e-booger's head may potentially explode looking at any street rod that has a coil over front suspension and ladder bar/coil over rear suspension in them because they're not OEM parts....
While Mr E's sledge hammer test on spindles may not be the norm for stress analysis on parts, it's still acurate from a real world perspective. The cast spindle broke, the forged one didn't. I guess he could've made a fixture for a press and used that to get them to break and noted the force needed for each, but still, the final outcome would be the same.
Mr E's points seem valid to me, and in your own words, the Alter K HASN'T had the 100K hour durability test, while the factory stuff has, and has been shown to more than competitive with any other suspension system.
Again I don't hate the Alter K and it has it's place, I just don't think it's any better than what the factory stuff can be made into, and inferior in alot of ways.
AND I'm not a purist in the sense that if it doesn't have a 509 cam and a torker intake it's junk. I personally dig on the Predator heads, although other guys lose their minds over them for not being "traditional" (although, they have a striking resemblance to a poly head, which Mopar used since '51, 14 years before GM, and 18 years befor Ford). So I'm not a hater of anything "not traditional" and relish in the past, I just don't think Mopar's NEED a coil over suspension to handle, plus they're expensive
