What he forgot is that he still hadn't beat the Valiant at Qualcomm, and the old guy wasn't going to just hand him a victory. The Hankooks were heated and happy....

This is definitely an exciting season with you guys all going head to head and sharing the podium at different events.

Two '67 Valiants is the top 5? Why do they have your's listed as a '69? You had more than a full second on him on a minute long course.

Who's George R with the 67 Valiant (co driver?) and who's Kenneth F with the 72 Barracuda?

Pics?

Owned....

Awesome Tom! Great job

Ya both Valiants were my 67, they had my year wrong. George is my Bodyman/Painter so as he tries to fix all his Chevys, he co-drives my Valiant

Thanks Samy, Emil, and Wade! It's been a lot of fun so far this year wheelin this Valiant around, but I'm planning some mid-season upgrades in May to see if I can get it fast enough for Optima.

The Barracuda was cool, young guy who's Father apparently owns a new Fuel Injection company called "FI Tech". It had some suspension upgrades and sticky front tires, but drag radials in back. You can definitely see the dividing lines in times (6 seconds between 8th and 9th) between the guys who do this a lot with sorted cars and those just starting to get cars into it...

Ya three of the cars that were there are their test cars, A heavily raced El Camino, the 72 Barracuda, which is a blur in the background of the photo of Mike Youngs 65 Mustang...

Its always fun beating the other brands!!!

Mo Power to ya!

Yes it is Mitch!

So I've decided to try and address some of the shortcomings in May and get the Valiants performance absolutely optimized to the extent financially practical.

1. Better front Brakes!
I was able to find a no-longer produced set of AR engineering caliper brackets so I upgraded to the 11.75 inch 1978 Córdoba rotors, and Wilwood 4 piston dynalite calipers. Total cost right at $500. The braking seemed improved already, but I have not had it at a track that demands a lot of braking yet.

2. Better Gearing!
I bought a used A833 that I believe has "normal" 2.66 first gear gearing. This will get installed later in the month...

3. Higher spring rates...
The car just looks like it leans ALOT in some corners, particularly when the sticky tires are gripping well, so I am thinking of jumping to 1.12 or 1.18 bars in front, and trying to figure out how to up the Hotchkis rear leaf rates in the rear... Any ideas?




I finally had it correctly corner weighed, with a full tank, battery in the trunk, but no driver...

I plan to add lower leafs out of an old set of Mopar circle track springs and at least one,maybe 2, half leafs to my Hotchkis packs. Also have a Hellwig adjustable tubular E body rear swaybar to take it from there. Time will tell.

Is it important to increase spring rate or total roll rate? If the answer is total roll rate you can add rear bar could you not?

I'm at full stiff on the Hotchkis rear bar now...

Is there any way these would help?:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GBP...pf_rd_i=desktop

They would but for the money , if you have time, I would just add a leaf. Also since our current leafs have 0 arch those things are not very effective.

My understanding is most of the leaf's spring rate is in the portion behind the axle. The Hellwig product you posted helps with axle wrap more so than increasing spring rate.

Which front sway bar? Hotchkis 67-72 a body bar? With rubber bushings? How tight are the end links?

You should consider swapping to a ball joint style sway bar end link. Really helped with the lean on mine. Doesn't change your roll rates, just brings the sway bar in sooner.

I agree with upping your spring rates as well. Which you are doing. May just need to buy new leaf springs though.

What kind of chassis stiffening has been done to the car? Looks like it has a cage, which obviously helps a bunch. But call me crazy, it almost looks like chassis compliance is adding into some of that roll when the pic is blown up, like the bottom of the door is kicking out.