Disappointed with the old ride

If you care to read the long post, thanks...I had to vent a little about my car.
I have had a 72 Challenger for many years now. Its was restored back in the early 90's somewhat stock with several custom touches here and there. The last 5 to 10 years the car has taken a backseat to life, kids activities and other interests. The car always comes out a few times each year, not nearly enough though.
Anyway, through a series of events, I had the car running and drove it last night and today. While there is that old car cool factor, the ride quality and overall experience is lacking. There is this hard, rough and tumble nature of it. I cant put my finger on what it is exactly. My 1980 Buick Regal drove better than this thing ever has. While I don't expect the 72 to be like my 2013 Challenger, I do wonder if something is wrong with the car, or if my age and expectations of the car have changed.
While I would never sell the car, its been a big part of my life, it needs something. Just not sure where to go as the car starts okay, drives and brakes straight. Its not like I can point to one thing that would improve the experience.
Any body else feel this way?


Thanks!

The only thing I can ad to your story is , you didn't mention any specs on the car ?

Engine ? Transmission ? Rear gears ? What modifications have been made that make this an

un-enjoyable car to drive ????

Does the fact that our oldies ride like a brick mean anything. You have gotten used to the comfortable seats and the softer ride of the new cars. Which is not a bad thing as we get older ourselves.

It is old technology. I had the same thing happen years ago when I was driving my wife’s newer charger and later drove my satellite. Thinking back, that’s the day I began losing interest in the old cars. I still have the satellite, but sold my barracuda in October and bought a new widebody challenger.

stumpy is right. Every time I jump in the wife's '17 Challenger it makes my '00 Durango 4x4 seem like a dump truck. As I have gotten older, the ride quality & convenience features of a new car are very desireable. While I love a short cruise in an old hot rod (driving my sons '71 Charger still gets MY motor running ) or everyday driving in the Durango, I honestly do not want to take either on an extended trip. And while I am still semi-searching for an early A, I have asked myself would I really enjoy it.



Tim

My newest car has a much stiffer ride than even my son's '67 Barracuda with 1.14" torsion bars. Cars handles great, though...It does have more comforts than any of our other cars, though...

i can't wait until i can take a ride in my humpback hot rod. [if i live long enuff that is !]
it is still super close to the vision i had way back in the 1973-74 time period, but still has a long way to go.
as it is now, i can barely get myself through the door & into the seat, even with the tilt/tele/removable wheel column, although the cage gives me things to grab onto to get in and out.
but once inside, the view from the windshield gets me pumped !
and i'm sure the ladderbar suspension and the almost solid motor mounts [just a urethane bushing for each side] will give it a "thrilling" ride !
i have a pic of me getting in it, but you guys would make fun of "butt crack bob"......

It's called VISCERAL. I love the raw, unrefined feel & sound & smell of an old musclecar. Newer cars don't have it. My 2016 Scat Pack shaker Challenger doesn't have it. I prefer the old. My "new" Challenger just doesn't excite me that much, plus there are SO MANY of them on the roads around here, they are nothing out of the ordinary.

this is what happens when we don't drive these old cars regularly. When I had my '68 Charger R/T, it was my dailey. It took me 5 hours one way to Kentucky, and 7 to Michigan without thought. Now that my road runner is done, the world has changed. It's not just a 10 year old car, I am more picky where I drive it, so it doesn't get driven as much. But I drive my '81 D150 dailey, so the '69 isn't as much of a change, and I prefer the two older ones to driving the wife's 2015 Journey.

The car has a 340/727 and 3.91 gears out back. The engine has a mild Comp 262 cam. Suspension was rebuilt using stock parts with a mix of poly and rubber bushings.

I guess I think it should ride/perform like an 80's Camaro or Mustang. It seems pretty far off from that and not in a good way.

Never owned an e-body, but have ridden in one nd it did have a nose heavy feel to it. Short trunk + less overhang over the rear,makes the all the pony cars ride rougher as well.

I had a 68 Coronet 500 years ago and it rode very smooth so you can get the old stuff to ride nice enough to go on rod trips with.

Maybe your car needs a firmer steering box and some better shocks, ect?

Sorry but 'THAT IS' the experience. The sound of the engine, smell of rich exhaust, big tires, smell of vinyl take me back to my teen days of the early 80's when i had a 396 Camaro and 327 Chevelle....no radio, manual windows and you can feel the road. the new muscle would take mine easily in a race, but it is not the same to me.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ask and You shall receive!

If you have airshocks it will ride like a buckboard and handle about the same

I'm a perfectionist in a lot of ways, so I'm right there with you when it comes to ride quality and refined driving experience. I keep pushing my cars to get better and better on those fronts. I have a 71 Satellite, 71 Road Runner and 70 Challenger. Here's what I've found:

Your immediate inputs to the car are gas, brakes, and steering. What you feel/sense from the car are what you feel from the seat, the wheel, and what you hear. If the old car is in tip top stock condition (which most are NOT), what are usually sub-par are brakes, steering, and seats.
- Upgrading brakes are easy - 78 Magnum discs are one step under anti-lock and you can swap them out for a few hundred dollars.
- Steering is a little more complicated. A Firm Feel Stage 2 is nice, or Borgeson if you don't mind higher costs and labor.
- Seats are easy to upgrade and in my opinion make the car feel dramatically different! The stock seats in my Challenger suck. The aftermarket seats in my Satellite make it feel like a brand new car!

That's if the car is in great condition, which most aren't. If your car is like most, then perhaps you need a tune up, or a new carb, or your suspension bushings are worn, etc, etc. There's so much that could be in need of maintenance.

And then there's noise. There's good noise, like the exhaust of a 440, and there's bad noise, like the rattles under a 50 year old dashboard that eat away at your sanity one mile at a time. I spend a lot of time chasing after these squeaks, but it's worth it. Perhaps your car has lots of peripheral noise that is just plain annoying?

Anyway, your car looks great and you're lucky to have a Plum Crazy Challenger! I hope you enjoy it!

Pop a Gear Vendors O/D on there. 3.91 with a stock 727 must rev pretty high at highway speeds.

It comes down to what tires and shocks you have on your car. When I had radials and normal shocks on my 70 cuda I couldn't believe how nice it drove. Now with bias ply tires and stiffer shocks not so much but if I put the radials back on and adjust the shocks to loose it's still a surprisingly nice ride.

Tires do matter a bunch.

I bought a project car that came with firm, but not stiff, shocks and large sway bars and found it rode reasonably smooth while still being able to hold a corner like a new car. It was lowered about an inch or so as well.

If I drive the girls '12 enough I kinda get used to the comfort factors. Tight steering, 4 wheel disk, auto temp, steering wheel controls for the radio and cruise. I don't really embrace it because I've always hated FWD but I start to dig it enough to window shop one for myself. That generally lasts until I have to work on it. Waaaay too many plastic snap together parts and more than a few interior pieces that break when you unsnap them. Stupidity like taking the fender apart to replace the headlight or the battery. Throw away rotors and rims. Aluminum and steel parts that have fused together.

I'm generally pretty happy to climb back in to my old stuff, sloppy steering and all.

My 70 cuda Convertible rides so smooth compared to my 71 cuda both small blocks..the difference is that I wanted a nice crusin car compared to my 71..this is what I did..stock suspension front and rear..no poly crap..moog rubber, has a frt and rear sway bar, bf goodrich ta radials but the best part that made it smooth is the shocks..the fronts are old school oil shocks and the rears are mopar 50-50 race shocks..my friends are amazed at the ride ..even me..its like a daily driver

Well my 69 B'cuda is kind of a brute. Stroked big block,3" exhaust,4 spd, 3:73 gear, man steering and brakes. I've made it as comfy as possible with sway bars,sound deadner and a sound system but still a cranky ole muscle car.

We just bought a 2018 Mustang GT convert. It has all the bells and whistles. The 5.0 rpms like a chainsaw so it's a blast to drive and comfy for road trips(taking it to Yellowstone this summer)

I get a ton more attention and thumbs up with the 69 compared to the Mustang

Two completely different rides....both make me smile!

While my ride quality is a bit stiff [in the name of handling], I can put my finger on what made me fall in love with my car again. Most of which has to do with EFI, overdrive, good sound insulation and a/c.

I'd suggest writing down a few things that annoy you about the car and potential fixes. It rides stiff? Shocks are a quick place to start at a relatively low cost. Does it run too slow/high rpm on the highway? An overdrive makes highway cruising completely different.

After doing my Hemi swap, 6-speed conversion, good brakes, etc, if I could feel comfortable leaving it at walmart occasionally and could avoid bad weather days, I'd daily drive it without hesitating.

I feel that way every time I drive my Coronet. These cars are pigs compared to anything built in the last 20 years. You can close the gap pretty well with a good set of radial tires, high quality shocks and upgraded torsion bars/anti-sway bars. You'll need disc brakes to close the gap even more. Just pick a compromise that works for you. If you want to keep the car 100% original then it will be a pig to drive. Either accept it or sell it. Ever drive a stock Model A? Those are even worse. Try a stock Model T sometime. Most people can't even figure out how to drive those stupid things.

Sorry, but I wasn't impressed with the ride quality of 70-74 E bodies back in 75 or 76. I can't imagine they could come anywhere close to the ride quality of any modern car. That said, sound deadner goes a long ways to help the rattles and squeaks.

I had a buddy that bought a high optioned 74 Challenger 360 Rally (or whatever they were calling the "high performance" Challenger during that time frame. It rode like crap brand new, and the 74 was supposed to be the 'refined" Challengers. I'd take a B body over E an e body any day. The A bodies were about in the middle between the B and the E in ride quality.

But that all went out the window if the car mentioned was the cheap no frills model of any thing. Chrysler had the corner on cheap seats, and cheap cars. If you bought the cheapest version of any model, it was likely a pretty big pile of cheap. Gene

I look at it differently. My Duster has radial T/As, and KYB shocks with manual drum brakes and steering. No it doesn't handle or brake as good as my 2006 Charger Daytona but for it's age and technology it tracks and stops straight and handles okay for what it is at legal speeds on modern roads. I compare that the 1956 Chevy was only fifteen years between the two and having owned one I can say it rode like a truck, didn't like turns at all and the fact that a passenger side sun visor was an option, the technology and ride is night and day. You have to enjoy an old muscle car for what it is and was, a different time. I wouldn't compare a 1971 RCA Television with rabbit ears to a 60 inch smart LCD flat screen TV either.

I would LOVE to go for a ride in my 69 Dart, maybe someday again...

You never could expect what you expect ride wise from a E-body !

Wow...That is a devastating image, Rhino.

My wife says her 72 challenger was the best driving riding car.
Without driving or riding shotgun I'd suggest dump all the poly and go back to rubber, get some good shocks (not performance). Good tires properly inflated, aligned and perhaps put highway gears in it. I think I ended up with 293's living in the mountians, drop to 2nd (auto no kit) and never touched the brakes running downhill on one of the twistiest highways in nor cal.
I also added some nice soundproofing, quiet, low restriction exhaust and a nice stereo. She loved that car and still brings it up even though it's been gone 20 yrs.

I think all the views stated are probably true, despite some are conflicting. You might need to get more specific on what it is you don't like and determine if it's the car, or the expectation, and if it can be made better. Maybe ride in some other Mopar muscle cars and see if it's much different.

My personal experience and opinion is that the E-Body cars are the worst cars for their "feel" of any muscle car I've owned or been in. From the moment that I open the door, it feels like a cheap cheap car to me. Unfortunate, as they are such great looking cars.

But I'm not sure we're necessarily talking about the same thing.

And what is it you do with this car? Shows? Cruise-ins? Is what you do so far away that you hate the drive? Sure after almost 30 years you can dump a ton of money in it again to make it ride and handle like a new Challenger, but is that what you really want? If you're not going to part with it maybe you can mothball it for 5 or 10 years then see how you feel.

..it needs new tires.


I Have Spoken.
- Art

I think once you've gotten used to newer stuff and the nicer ride etc., and aged and honestly, testosterone may have dropped, you might not have the passion anymore. Plus, 3.91 gears with a 727 aren't so fun. I find joy getting out of my newer Charger and back into the old stuff with that sound and feel. Btw, an 80's Camaro is a rattle trap POS.

time ti slide into a C Body.......

Listen to Art. Old tires wreck the ride and drive experience of our cars. Start by putting new tires on it. If that doesn't make it better get it aligned and put new mild shocks on it. If you still want more improvement look into sound deadening improvements.

Seriously, if your tires are more than 10 years old replace them regardless of remaining tread. A more conservative approach from others is to never use tires over 6 years old.

Tires.

-Jon

Uhh, not really disappointed with the old ride (my 70 Sport Satellite, sb, factory ac, cruise control, 727, buckets, console) . . . just realistic that it won't be like my 06 Magnum RT AWD. I like to travel long distances in my cars, and for years had C bodies, along with my 74 Duster360 - had that car 32 years. The goal with the B body, was a somewhat larger car than the Duster, but something with factory air, etc, that would be driven. I put larger tbar's in it, FF 3 box, KYB gas shocks, rubber bushings, tubular upper control arms, front disc brakes (manual), front factory sway bar, 3/4" addco rear sway bar, 15" rubber, 3.23 sure grip . . . new foam in bucket seats, along with covers (houndstooth cloth inserts for comfort) . . .

The Satellite is great, but I have said often, if it ever came down to ONLY one car that I could own, it would be my Magnum . . . I have owned since new and put 120k miles on it. As a daily driver this is a great car for me ! Up here in winter the AWD is very welcome (I like fact it is AWD all the time, and not one that senses slip & engages), gas mileage is fine for me, love all the creature comforts . . .

And that is the concern, as one gets older - the creature comforts begin to be more important . . . I love my old cars, but am loving the newer ones too ! Just depends on what you want . . . good luck !

Cheers

Mark

That is a great looking car.

I edited a bit to try to help as best I can.

Yep, I feel this way in my E-bodies too.

I have suspension from bone stock low mileage survivor to Trans Am. And I think the biggest difference you are feeling is IRS. Every solid-axle leaf-spring machine from cars to trucks has an awful feel in every situation. The first vehicle I owned with IRS I know it could hang a beating on my Mopars on a track..........and it was an SUV.

Shock calibration on these new vehicles is thousands of hours on a suspension dyno and that can never be duplicated by the aftermarket. The OEM's have surpassed Hot Rodders and the aftermarket many years ago in suspension, engine (within emissions regs), handling, and sound deadning. Also, these things can cruise all day at 70mph+ and they hold the road the faster you go. The oldies, well, 3000 rpm at 60mph getting 12 mpg and getting passed by Kia's gets old.

Now, having said that, there are setbacks to that new SRT whatever:

1. Complicated: dealer-only repairs on even the most basic items
2. dealer support/parts end 10 years after production
3. No aftermarket support. And there never will be. PERIOD. I see others have given up arguing with me on this and it's about time they realize I'm right. "Diablo Tuner" cannot diagnose the ABS or security system on your SRT whatever. "Hemifever" cannot diagnose a transmission issue, fix your drive-by-wire or re-initialize a dead PCM
4. Expensive and a depreciating asset.

As for the '80 Buick, yes, they were a pretty luxurious car, but wouldn't that thing weigh about 4000 pounds? Maybe you need a '72 Chrysler for comparison?

That can be fixed and it's wonderful. 108mph at 3,000rpm.

It got to where I didn't want to drive mine. Thought of selling it. Long story short - I installed a Tremec and side exhaust with cutouts and I love to drive it agin and there are no thoughts of selling it. It used to be refined but now I love the attitude.
As they say - put nothing in and you get nothing out. We get bored with them.

Get rid of the poly bushings. I drove my friends 66 vette who put all poly bushings in it and it was terrible and couldn't wait to get out of it. I have a 65 vette with all rubber bushings and can drive it all day. I'm so glad I drove his before making the mistake of using poly on mine.

My work-around for an 8 3/4 rear and 6 1/2 leafs is 22 psi rear tires and red koni shocks all around.
I only drive a couple hundred miles a year so the ride never... ever gets old.

Not for me, I like going back in time and driving the American Steel. Yes they are lacking in all kinds of ways compared to modern cars but that is not why I fell in love with them, why I still Love them, and why I will always enjoy the way they feel, drive, smell etc, you all get my drift.

Also, I find my '89 Diplomat Police with the stroked 360 a nice balance. It's a tight car with a good ride, strong brakes, good handling, pretty quiet as far as wind noise, and factory power windows, locks, trunk, intermittent wipers, (cruise and a/c but they are gone), and with the stroked 360 FAST FAST FAST. With all the torque it makes, I can have 3.2 gears with the 727 and it will cruise at 75mph and not be annoying. So a good mix.

Have had similar experience. Hop in my 06 Mustang GT and the world is great. Get in the 69 Cyclone with manual brakes and sloppy steering and whoa.... World of difference there. I'll admit, I'm still not that comfortable with the Cyclone but it certainly is a different experience. Starting to consider getting rid of the older cars and buying a newer Challenger.

I had a stock 76 Road Runner, 318 2bbl, 4spd OD . . . that car was very fun to drive as daily driver ! It handled ok, ride was nice, and got great mileage !! Sure it wasn't fast . . . but in '76 it was all about the decals and flares and louvers !! Course being Orange it stood out !

Also had a 1980 Plymouth Caravelle, 2dr. (in USA it would have been a Diplomat), 318 2bbl, auto, ac/cruise ctl . . again, it was a really nice car to drive. Not fast, but very comfy and got the job done ! . . .

F,M,J body cars are a really nice compromise all round - and as larrymopar360 said, inject some HP and you get a really fun car !!!

It's the tires I'm tired of on mine. I upgraded the suspension with 300# t-bars upfront, five leaf springs in back and factory cop car front and rear sway bars. When I had 15" Radial T/A tires on all four corners it handled good and rode great. I swapped out to 18" Nitto 555 in preparation for a giant brake swap that never materialized and while handling improved even more, the ride quality went straight into the can. Not that I was surprised by it, but after a few years with it and dealing with Michigan roads I think I'm going to step back down to 17" or 16" wheels to get some sidewall back. Whatever accommodates the four piston brake setup I'm planning with 11.75" rotors.

Looking at cats for the exhaust too. While fuel injecting it helped immensely with the smell, it's still there and can become bothersome on long trips.

If you can smell the exhaust you have either got the exhaust too short and not coming out under the car far enough or you have bad trunk seals. You shouldn't have any exhaust fumes inside the car.

If you no longer enjoy the crudeness of it, you can selectively soften up and/or modernize it to try to take the edge off.
I think the choice of vehicle is working against you, though.
E bodies, although beautiful, functionally are not very good choices in a vehicle for someone who appreciates an '80 Regal.

You might want to consider a '73 or later B body instead.....the rubber isolated K frame and suspension
made them much more compliant and cushy. NVH reduction was pretty huge.

As for me, the more I drive modern stuff everyday the more I appreciate the crude, brutal simplicity of older stuff....
however I did choose B bodies because the larger platform just seemed to feel better and make more sense.