What is the manuf and model upgraded handling shocks that you guys recommend? 68 Charger. I have Edelbrock IAS's in the rear and they are OK, not great.

Thanks!

Don't do KYB, Bilsteins are great.

=Daty

I have KYB on my AHB M body, with alot of poly bushings too, and the ride is harsh. Next time I am going to try something else.

As others have said, there is no comparison between KYB's and Bilsteins. Bilsteins are far better

Pay the extra money for the Bilstein shocks. Firm Feel over in Vancouver can take care of you. They'll know what shocks will work best for your combo.

I have eddy ias on the front of my 69 charger it rides like a tank .putting monroe back on in the spring .I will only put adjustable shocks on next time . The old you get what u pay for .

I'm a fan of regular old Monroe-matics. If the rest of your suspension is in good shape, that is all you should need for any regular hot-dogging. You should never use shocks to compensate for lousy spring rate, but often that is what Joe Carguy does.

Not only did I find KYBs to be excessively harsh, they didn't let the suspension do it's job. As a result, I was a lot less comfortable with the car. For the same reason that people want manual steering for increased road feel, or manual brakes to push it to the ragged edge, a little body roll here or nose dive there is a good thing; all that feedback lets you push it a bit farther, and keeps you from overdoing it if you're paying attention. Not to mention it's more fun - most people expect a big block monster to rear up and plow into the corners, and it's quite a show when it does.

I must be in the minority. I always liked the KYB's for handeling. I admit they ride smoother on coil spring GM cars but I found then acceptable on torsion bar B bodies.

Hotchkis/Bilsteins made a noticable improvement on the Coronet.

Dennis how much of the Hotchkis stuff did you uby?

Thanks!
mark

I tried several brands of shocks on my Volare RR. I had the car for 31 years, then finally sold it.

The KYB's that I installed 20 plus years ago made a drastic improvement over any available brand.

People would often comment on how good my car rode and handled.

I'm going to try them again on my '74 Challenger that will have some Hotchkis components as well.

They have to be a hell of a lot better than the drag shocks that were on the car. If not, they were a bargain price compared to the high end shocks, and can be replaced when I have $400 for shocks.

30 plus years ago there wasn't a choice like today.

I got the car new with the factory RR/Superpack options.

After a few years I tried the best Monroe available, then the best Sears Steady Riders. At this point I had already flatten 3 out of 4 header pipes on my high dollar headers (I think they were a set of Dougs). Going through intersections at high speed made sparks on the driver side header.

The frame was tied on the car. That made a difference you could feel,
I bought the complete S-21 cop handling package (less shocks) from the dealer. This was about year four of ownership. This made a big improvement on the car.

Year 5, I installed a 440/727 from a '68 RR with RR exhaust manifolds and custom bent exhaust with '81 Imperial tailpipes on the passenger side. The bounce in the intersection was back with the extra weight on the nose. That is when I tried the KYB shocks. The combination worked well from that point on. 25 years with the KYB's.

I put 2" TTI's, 3" self made x pipe with cutouts after the X on the car when the eddy heads went on the 440. The heads, headers, and rpm intake made about a 100 plus hp difference, which I verified with timeslips and 3 pulls on an old mustang chassis dyno.

That car was a sweet riding/handling street car. However it was a year round driven car, that was parked in the weather. Certain kinds of rot are just too hard to fix for me, and didn't justify the $$ involved to repair.

That's when I bought an e body to spend $$ on, because anything can be bought to repair those cars. E body cars can be decent handlers. Hotchkis, Firm Feel, XV, etc, etc.

Sold my FED, and other racing related interests, to build and own just one ride that can do it all. By that I mean race a little, drive it a lot; as a daily driver if I wish, or add one of my higher compression 440's, a converter, and a gear for drags, or perhaps try my hand at a Hotchkis sponsored event if I can time things right.