Quote: I was hoping this thread would see some good ideas but I think someone has already said it. The mopar guys are to cheap or don t like change/different the point was there is no need to cut the car up or continue to use stock type parts to make it handle.
From my perspective, I see it as the original Mopar designs being much more capable and not requiring as much work to be effective as the original Chevy and Ford designs. Think about it, in 1966 when Trans Am first started and was predominately independants, Chrysler won 50% of the O-2 races. Once Ford and Chevy stepped in and began lobbying for rule changes to allow changes to pick up points and alterations to the stock layouts, only then did they begin the dominance that carried through the rest of the series. That upgrade and modification mindset has continued to this day to overcome OEM design deficits. That isn't to say Mopar doesn't have their own issues, but we tend to start at a much higher point in the curve.
Quote: My car currently is all mopar old and new but I plan to upgrade it using DSE parts due to the fact I have taking it as far as it can go with simple bolt on parts.
So, I see it this way...if you are using all DSE parts then the only real difference between your car and any Camaro will be the sheetmetal. If that is the objective, why not just start with a Howe chassis and hang the sheetmetal on it and make it easier to build and work on them messing around with the stock unibody structure?
This is part of my issue with "pro-touring" as a genre. The group think mentality that only new is worth a crap and the level of modification is such that so many guys are running such similar set ups, where is the real ingenuity and variety in equipment? How many $100k cars can be outrun by a $10k, well thought out and refined stock set up? Probably more than a few. I think Mary Pozzi has proven that theory out several times over.
If you have topped out your car in bolt on equipment, then get creative with engineering, geometry and fabrication. The biggest issue I see with a stock Mopar front suspension is the whole caster/camber compromise and the lack of t-bar rates, which actually lends itself well to the big bar, soft spring approach and the shock technology is there to support it.
Simply adapting DSE equipment to a Mopar is a comparable cop out to just buying a Camaro and bolting on DSE parts. It just takes a bit more cutting to do what your suggesting.
