I've been drag racing for over 40 years. My kids are road racing with BMW's. Their cars have suspension upgrades, tires and a slight tune. I'd like to prepare one of my early A's with vintage iron and dog them around the track. Building HP won't be a problem. So I need some thoughts for suspension and how to drive that car w/o anti lock brakes.

Look up the Green Brick by Ehrenberg. Pretty much sorted out the A body handling there.

And he embarrassed a lot of high dollar teams, even an engineer from GM. Enough of an embarrassment that they could no longer run the brick.

Well, not exactly, as far as I understood it.

I thought that the Valiant was not banned, just that the regulations were changed in the class in which it competed. I read that the cars were allowed modifications that Ehrenberg didn't want to make to keep it competitive. If the cars were required to retain a stock based suspension, the Valiant would have remained a top contender.

I helped Tim W. build a '68 Valiant into a very mean road racer. It would go 160 mph on the front straight at Portland International. Would also hit 160 mph on the local freeway if you were brave enough. Suspension was still a stock design although every part got modified to some extent. It takes a lot of work to build one of these cars. Definitely cheaper and easier to just buy a used Z51 but if you need a project to keep you busy it is a good one.

A/MP, I like your thinking.
Agree on the Green Brick and that super-cool red car as references/benchmarks.

The one thing I think is important is that you need to know going in that old school Mopars are never going be to as good as a modern chassis no matter how much you work on them. So if you plan to get really serious you should start with something modern. If you are just going to have fun and want to do it in a Mopar then no problem, go for it. But if you start with a muscle car Mopar and gradually want to go faster and faster at some point you'll hit a wall (maybe literally) because the suspension wasn't ever designed to do what you are asking it to do. The front torsion bar suspension doesn't have very much travel once you lower the car and put a big bar in it. It will work fine on a smooth track but if you hit a bump at speed it can be all over. Just depends how serious you are. If you really want to go fast then start off with a chassis that can go fast. If you want to have fun and love the classic Mopar look then go for it.

Andy,

My Challenger suffered from the ill effects of being lowered, big torsion bar, and bigger tires that you mentioned on the highway at high speeds. Are drop spindles available for E bodies, and would they help alleviate the problem by providing more suspension travel?

Drop spindles would help but I've never seen any dropped spindles for a Mopar that I'd use on a serious road race car. I'd want a forged knuckle for that type of application not something cast offshore in a sketchy environment.

You can check this forum for inspiration

https://www.pro-touring.com/forums/60-Project-Updates

I'd imagine that a 2000+ Mustang could get me there quicker but then again .... I don't need the best, just keep up with the pack and maybe lap a kid or 2. I read a few fluff articles on the green brick but most were about the motor. So what I found in general, 73+ upper and lower control arms, 1"+ for the torsion bars, adjustable gas shocks 4 corners and 2 left side 2800 lbs SS springs. The front and rear brakes, I have no idea. Sounds like a reasonable package?

Doctor Diff has everything you need for brakes. Factory 11.75 discs up front with B body or C body rear drums will work for a slower car. A faster car should start off with 13 inch rotors and 17 inch wheels. Figure out how fast you want to go first or else you'll spend 2x the money replacing all the parts on the car every time you decide to go faster.

Get the car as light as possible and ditch the t-bar front end and you'll be fine.

Pretty sure the fastest cars still have t-bars and leaf springs....
IRS or an invasive 3 link would add some improvement.

Dear OP
I do not post much anymore for a number of good reasons but I can't sit here and let them lead you astray. I spent over 22 years running hot laps on “Thunder Road", Watkins Glen International Raceway. 2x per year so 4 days a year for 22 years...a lot of laps. The measure of success is lap times.

I set up 6 different vehicles, drove 5/6, I did not drive the bird.

AAR Cuda 4 speed
70 Charger R/T Auto
1996 Dodge Intrepid ES with the GT package – no speed limiter, autostick etc 125+ mph car
1979 Chrysler Newport – you would really be surprised!
SRT 10 Pickup - boring
Superbird 440+6 4 speed

Don't laugh about the Intrepid and Newport as they had suspension/tire/wheel/swaybar improvements and the Superbird was set up as well with shocks, brakes, tires and firm feel sway bars. The Bird, the AAR and the Charger all put the other newer stuff on notice!. The AAR and the Charger ran under the number for a full lap at the Glen which is 2.5 minutes. Run under the number and they will come, look and wonder how that old iron can do that. Nothing exotic in any of the cars btw..

It looks like you are out for fun not racing so YES you can set up those antique torsion bar leaf sprng suspensions to allow the car to handle – read “rotate” thru the turns beat up the kid's imports.

The Charger [with factory cruise control] has hemi leaf springs and hemi torsion bars yet handles so flat the instructors that rode in the car were quite perplexed by the performance and ride quality. Your wife can drive the car to church without issue [no cage, drives very nice]. It received a ton of welding and unibody reinforcements that cannot be seen and I know some things about reinforcing unibodies that I won't share online as I may have learned something in 22 years with the help of others not on here. The AAR would run an honest 155+ mph without handling/high speed issues and would put down 130mph on the back straight. Yehaaa! The Charger is hp limited but ran a faster lap time that the AAR due to better chassis. Both cars ate imports and other so called newer faster cars like SRT Challengers etc

I still have the Charger but it is probate so maybe next year I will get to use it.
If you want technical support PM me as I do log in from time to time

what car? Please don't say F1. There is a reason you don't see old Mopars at tracks all over but you do see GMs. Because the suspension on a Gen II F-body is way better than the Mopar. Can you make a t-bar work? sure but it will cost a ton. Show me one Mopar that competes (and wins) in NASA or like league. Ever been to a NASA, AER, Champ or even Lemons event? None of top teams run a t-bar set up. I love Mopars, but the T-bar isn't a good set up for road racing. One can make it better, but it will never be as good as a BMW or similar car. Last I looked the Hotchkis kit.. no brakes, no spindles, no rotors was close to $3800. If I wanted to do some road racing and be serious, I'd go with an aftermarket rack/coil over kit. way more adjustment.

Dan has just a little experience in this. Just check out the history of his Road Runner.

I stand by what I said, I never said you can't get a Mopar to handle, it takes more effort, more time and more money than a simple rack/coil over system. If Mopars handled so great you'd see them on every track, you don't. A Gen II, III or IV GM F-body would run circles around a t-bar Mopar $ for $. You cannot compete with a car that has factory camber plates, coil overs, better geometry and a 4 link..(not Gen II) If I thought we could compete in a Mopar. I'd buy and build one. Most racing body's have rules for non-stock components. Can you get an A-body Mopar to compete with BMW's and keep a T-bar set-up? sure. can he go have fun? sure but it would cost $$$,

MoparMitch’s Challenger is a SCCA Solo II National Champion and has trophied over Gen II Camaro’s and Firebird’s. That’s classed competition.

But yea, $ for $ and effort for effort the Chevy will win out.

That’s true for most drag racing too…. So have you traded your Mopar drag car for a Chevy?

Tim and I had this conversation multiple times. We probably should've gone with a Gen 3 rather than a 427 inch LA engine on the last build. A Gen 3 with EFI and a 5 or 6 speed transmission might have made the car more competitive without blowing the budget, but the conclusion I came to after several years of work was that the smart money was buying a used Z51 Corvette for racing. Starting with a '68 Valiant was a cheap entry point, but the project wasn't cheap by the end because almost everything other than the sheet metal was replaced or modified. A used Z51 gets you around the track pretty quickly right off the lot.