Originally Posted By dusterpt440
Originally Posted By 68rrunner
What front coil system do you have? None of the kits currently offered are very good for performance driving.


Thanks for the input.

I have ordered a Gerst kit. I'm curious as to why you claim no kits offered are very good, have you in fact driven cars with all those kits?

My experience is that in most cases, the driver is a huge part of the problem. What I mean is, these aftermarket kits have to be put on and properly tuned. Do they come with the correct spring rates for your car? the same 2 Duster per say can weigh vastly different depending on how they are set up. This would change the spring rates need to be in the right spectrum. Also, how many of those cars with aftermarket kits are still running factory rear suspensions, or slightly modified rear suspensions? How's the weight balance of the car? There's so many different factors that I don't think its fair to just lump all aftermarket kits into one and say they all suck for performance driving. Especially since 9 times out of 10, the people making those comments haven't messed with one. Not saying this is your case but im just making a general assumption.

Good news is that I have some baseline numbers to compare with out of my car so I'll post them when i get the ones with the Gerst. I will say this, I watched a 68 dart tear it up at a bowling green event earlier this summer, I got to talking with him and he's the one who turned me onto the gerst idea. I got to drive that dart and was pretty happy with how it handled, it drove flat, tires hooked and didnt push, very predictable landings. Something my duster never has had. Gentleman said he picked up over 2 seconds on the same course with the swap. But take that with a grain of salt of course as I have no way to verify that for you. Plus, like I mentioned above, there's so many factors in setting up a car, that's why I wanted adjustibility.

I'm not married to the Gerst watts link, so if there's other off the shelf options out there that have that much tuning capability, please link me.

Thanks for the opinions all. Keep them coming

Doug


I've built and set up some of the fastest Mopars in the country. I've played with all the coil over kits except for the Gerst. None of them have the tunability and adjustability of the Hotchkis System. And the durability has usually left something to be desired. NONE of them are sold as a tuned kit and most don't use quality components.
None of the aftermarket systems have been able to beat the Hotchkis Torsion Bar and Leaf Spring setup on the track or at the Autocross. Good luck with the Gerst setup, if you would like to share the Camber, Carter and Bump curves when you get it, I'd love to see it. Maybe they figured it out.