Quote:

---

I guess my question would be what do you consider to be good handling? What or how do you intend to use the car? What type of budget do you have to apply to the suspension? Is the perception of other important to you?

Lesee, typically when asked what good handling is, most will reply that they want their muscle car to handle at least as good as their late model sedan. Since most late model sedans are pulling mid .8 G and stock muscle cars are in the mid .7 range, a slight lowering of the car, larger sway bar, wider tires, and a radial friendly alignment can get you to the mid .8 range. Good enough yet?

So you want to drive it more aggressively than that, okay. The benefit I think people are seeing with these "modern" systems is having someone else spec out all the wheel rates neceessary to balance out the car, thus achieve the perception of excellent handling. With the proper application of formulas, the same results can be produced with the OEM suspensions, but most people do not how to get there, or if they have the books with the theories, have not bothered to do all the calculations (they can get extensive). Tires only care about the force acting on them, not the system appling the force, so whether it is a leaf, coil, or torsion spring is irrelevent to the tread face of the tire.

So lets say you spec out a tricked out stock system that can pull mid .9. Is this still enough? What are your abilities? Are you really pushing the car that hard? Do you need a large selection of spring rates and quick and easy adjustability? Coil overs are nice in that they are lightweight, quickly adjustable, and have a plethora of available springs rates. All great things in a competition environment that require quick, minut changes to adjust the car. For street applications, most drivers will never bother to change rates or perform the adjustments that make coil overs the prefered method of suspending a competition vehicle. Dollars to donuts that 90% of the drivers with an Alterk have never changed their springs rates from Bill's original recommendation. I will grant you, at the limits of capability where cars are pushed to their maximum, many new coil over systems will produce more linear and predictable performance than the original suspension. But, how many drivers on here are really in the realm of that capability where they can tell when a spring rate is off 50# and their track bar needs to go up 1/2"? Not that many I'm guessing.

Do perceptions matter to you? Not many people will stop and gawk at a stock system that has no bump steer, leaf springs, and corners like a fiend. Put coil overs under a car and suddenly peope are dropping to their knees to look under it. Compliments will flow and you'll be voted most popular at the local cruise in meet. Well, maybe not, but a lot of people will be impressed.

So, once again, what do you consider to be good handling? What or how do you intend to use the car? What type of budget do you have to apply to the suspension? Is the perception of other important to you? Answer those questions and you can usually decide on a course of action.

---