Today I put my stock rims and tires on the car. You should see the passenger side! It's not broken just bent all to heck. I'll take pictures when I have a chance to swap in the stock arms.

Les

 

I had a conversation with my expert about options. Such as making space in the tower by elongating them, raising them etc. After looking for a while he just said …. "coil overs" that's what you need. So…. he's going to get in touch with a race team that fielded a SLK around 2003 that he paddocked with. They had them as well as other go fast goodies. He asked for a week to do research a put together an estimate. If it's at all realistic I'm doing it …… on the front. The rear is working good enough with the G/C parts, for now.

Les

 

Les, thanks for your work, and I will say, you have had some close ones while doing the testing. I have lost interest for now in doing anything, but waiting on a few parts that may or may not develop. If I go another winter with no new parts, I'm headed back to bowties. At least I can find the right go-fast parts. But, the cars have been very competitive in everything I have done with them locally, so I can't complain. Kept them as close to stock as possible, but growing bored with them I guess. If Jim, Rudy come up with what I need, that may spark new interest. Or, if NHRA, re-classifies them, that too, lol. Thanks again for your work. Suspension has always been on the back burner for me until this gearing thing is figured out, but it's nice to know what works and what doesn't. Stay safe out there.

 

Eventually I'll need more power. For now I need a suspension that is tunable. The K&W's were good, the G/C is good but both leave a lot to be desired IMO. With both I've had to invent on my own to solve problems I shouldn't have had in the first place, again IMO. I understand your frustration with the SRT-6. I believe it can handle a lot more than were asking of it. It's just not a popular platform/engine in the US and requires a lot of One Man Show engineering. My local expert keeps mentioning some Russians that know and tune our engines. Hard for me to send money to Putins people though. I've gotten good at driving a car with suspension issues. I wonder if I can drive one decently without issues. I intend to find out!

Les

 

Les, what are the issues that bug you/slow you down?

 

I'll start with the K&W's. On the rear I couldn't raise the car high enough to keep from hitting the camber arms, I'm talking the stock curved arm. On the front the problem was shock travel. I was bottoming out the front shocks and breaking them. Because the rear couldn't be lifted higher I didn't want to lift the front and look like a doufous with the nose in the air. So I resorted to lots of bump stops which I split and lost constantly. I assumed part of the problem was too soft spring rates in the front. Perhaps I was wrong.

G/C suspension. The rear is fine, perhaps too stiff for the slippery tracks here in P.R.
The front is another story. I couldn't lift the front enough to keep from trapping the tires with the top of the fenders. That's how I wrecked, tires stopped turning. Donovan sent me a couple of modified bases to try and resolve the problem but I ended up making my own spring spacers out of 15mm wheel spacers. Now the front is high enough. Then Hoosier came out with the R-7 and it's 1" wider in my size than before. Now the tires don't fit under the fenders and I've had to put spacers on the front to clear the bar that connects the bottom arm (hub actually) to the top. So now I have a wider track in the front than rear. The Kmacs won't turn because their outer collar interferes with the A-arms. So thence the upper adjustable A-arms. Well, they don't fit in the tower when the suspension is compressed. No suspension part I've purchased has worked out of the box without problems.

To be continued …..

Les

 

Thanks Les, for your r&d on the front , I was ready to order the adj fronts until you posted,, so far only my front sway bar removed,... Less & oledoc with in 30 days i may have a 346 with a wavetrac, we are about 80% of putting it in my car. let me change that because of the holidays it may be Jan or Feb when we get t o test it. keep up the good work, if you need anything just give me a call jim

 

I asked for and received a full refund from Hedgehog Motorsports. Chapter closed on the A-arms.

Les

 

Got a soft estimate on coil overs with all the reinforcement necessary to handle the stress. $8,000.00 on the low side IF nothing pops up unexpectedly and over $10,000.00 on the high side. Not happening. Even if money was no object the changes required aren't reversible.

Les