Suspension for twisties.

[Azrial89]

As the title suggests, looking for updated information for 2023 as it pertains to suspension upgrades available for our cars. A little back story, I have had the car since 2011. I put some Spohn LCAs, Global West UCAs, and QA1 adjustable coilovers up front in 2012 and lowerd the front substantially but never got rear suspension sorted. Daily drive it for 2 years in Tucson, AZ with a wicked rake. Eventually left AZ and stored the car until 2020 and moved to Southwestern Virginia. Now I’m in a place with plenty of twisty roads that I would love to have a spirited drive on and just curious what the new gold standard is for suspension for twisty roads and maybe an AutoX from time to time(research suggests DSE, RideTech, and QA1). Looking to even out the rake by dropping the rear, and willing to replace all front suspension as well if needed, Thanks!

 

[Major Nutz]

Scott @ GNS is who I would call. He will get you setup with the best option for your budget. Nothing is cheap when you want the best.

 

[1986 Buick GX1]

Andrew Scott (Turbo6inKY) is an expert on the subject, and a nice guy to boot.

You can check out his work here.

Things I work on

Cars, Racing,# Computers, Society in General

www.andrewdscott.com

Speedtech has some good stuff as well.

Pro Touring Parts Manufacturer | Muscle Car Suspension | GM | Ford | Mopar

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speedtechperformance.com

You should be able to use what you have if the lower ball joint location is moved forward to give you more caster and to center the tire better in the wheel well (firewall clearance).
A 1” taller upper ball joint gives you a better camber curve for more grip in the corners.
Tire size and spring rates factor into sway bar selection as well.

 

[Undercover87T]

Went through Scott @ GNS for a full Ridetech setup and dramatically improved the ride quality and handling. Ridetech 1,000,000 mile shock warranty is a plus as well.

 

[turbobuick]

Andrew is definitely the guy to talk to and has a lot of info on his website/blog post. I did a build thread on my Ttype with Ride Tech UMI and Viking that is in the members rides section you may want to check out. I have road raced and auto X the car, drag raced it and did a drag-n-drive event with it last fall and really enjoy driving the car.

Doing it again I would have gone all UMI for the front UCA and LCA with the Vikings.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Find a vendor, talk to them, buy their integrated setup. It's cheaper.

That said, the reality is our engine makes the rule of thumb most use to build their offerings invalid. Our powerplant subjects the upper control arm bushings to heat that is not normal, so the offerings on the market that use a delrin bushing have a severely reduce lifespan. The bushing ends up melted out onto the frame rail. So you need a rubber-bushed stock style arm, or something made of all metal.

UMI Performance sells an upper arm that uses steel raced rod ends for the UCA pivots. It's the only part that will survive in our application. The balljoint offset is compatible with the lower arms from UMI, QA1, and RideTech.

Globalwest and Hotchkiss' stuff the last time I looked at it was all stock dimensions. No geometry improvements. SPC has some interesting stuff and some of it was available with steel bushings at one point, but I haven't looked into their stuff in awhile.

If you just want a fun street car and aren't planning on taking it to VIR:

UMI Race Upper arms
SpeedTech Lower arms (compatible with stock style springs)
Tall upper ball joints
Normal Lower ball joints (no bumpsteer correction needed)
Stock F41 swaybars
Moog 5660 Front Springs
Moog CC651 Rear Springs
Fresh rubber bushings in the rear control arms
Bilstein HD6 shocks
Alignment: ~1.5 deg static camber, all the caster they can get (I run 9 degrees), and 0 toe

That's a comfortable ride with excellent handling and long tire life that's plenty for a curvy road and it's affordable. If you want to get on a track, it escalates quickly.

 

[Azrial89]

Thank you all for your input and advice. Looking forward to diving in a bit deeper and coming up with a plan. Just did new HRParts engine mounts and its incredible how much better the car feels already and that's just the engine mount.