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Front and rear suspension upgrades GTS

james133

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Front and rear suspension upgrades. Gerst to tubular suspension vs hotchkis Suspension pros or cons anybody use either one of these set ups the shop working on my car Is pushing the GTS set up.
 
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I am running the Full Hotchkis TVS kit on my Charger.. The Ride and Handling are UNBELIEVEABLE! So much better then stock and still is stockish. If you want a Custom Package, Call Peter @BergmanAutoCraft (you should see an AD to your right). If you want a good off the shelf system QA1 is hard to beat. The rest seems like a lot of money just for extra cool factor without a real Handling or Ride advantage.
 
I am running the Full Hotchkis TVS kit on my Charger.. The Ride and Handling are UNBELIEVEABLE! So much better then stock and still is stockish. If you want a Custom Package, Call Peter @BergmanAutoCraft (you should see an AD to your right). If you want a good off the shelf system QA1 is hard to beat. The rest seems like a lot of money just for extra cool factor without a real Handling or Ride advantage.
 
Thanks for the response I’ve been on both websites and the set ups look totally different one looks like it’s the entire front suspension and the other one just looks like a bunch of pieces sorry if I sound like ignorant. That’s why the car is at the shop LOL
 
Thanks for the response I’ve been on both websites and the set ups look totally different one looks like it’s the entire front suspension and the other one just looks like a bunch of pieces sorry if I sound like ignorant. That’s why the car is at the shop LOL
I would call Peter @ Bergman and tell him what you want and he can put together a Package for you or Get the Off the Shelf kits from Hotchkis (Best) or QA1 (Good)
 
I had a complete Hotchkis suspension on a 69 Dart GTS. It was a friggin GO CART!!! Only reason I sold that car is because I only have room for one hot rod. That said, I am now running an AlterKtion front and 4 link rear on a 70 GTX and it is awesome as well. Don't overlook the AlterKtion. I believe it was originally designed for A bodies.
 
I had a complete Hotchkis suspension on a 69 Dart GTS. It was a friggin GO CART!!! Only reason I sold that car is because I only have room for one hot rod. That said, I am now running an AlterKtion front and 4 link rear on a 70 GTX and it is awesome as well. Don't overlook the AlterKtion. I believe it was originally designed for A bodies.

No, the front suspension was originally designed for a Pinto.... It was adapted to a Dart...
 
No, the front suspension was originally designed for a Pinto.... It was adapted to a Dart...
I had never heard of this so I did some searching. Apparently the Alterkation kit does indeed use a modified mustang II spindle. But I couldn't find anything about using an RMS style front end on a pinto.
 
Front and rear suspension upgrades. Gerst to tubular suspension vs hotchkis Suspension pros or cons anybody use either one of these set ups the shop working on my car Is pushing the GTS set up.

The Hotchkis setup works really well, I have their components (along with others) on my car and enjoy it a lot, doesn't cost nearly as much as the Gerst setup. Though I'm sure Gerst would be great to have and might be a possibility for me in the future. How much money do you want to spend. How do you intend to drive your car.
 
I had never heard of this so I did some searching. Apparently the Alterkation kit does indeed use a modified mustang II spindle. But I couldn't find anything about using an RMS style front end on a pinto.

There's no reason to use an RMS style front end on a Pinto... It already came from Ford with one...

Street rodders through the years adapted allot of parts to make their cars better, original front straight axles with transverse leaf springs got replaced with split wishbones & four links, coil overs.. Eventually guys adapted Corvair stuff, the steering boxes stuck around for years but when the Pinto stuff showed up it was compact & lightweight, had better geometry than most stuff from the 40's 50's & 60's... Winner...

Back in the 70's & early 80's street rodders were using Pinto/Mustang II suspensions right from the wrecked Pinto/Mustang II but by the mid 80's manufacturers were making tubular upper & lower control arms & mounting brackets for the street rod crowd...

Initially the cool aftermarket parts were only getting used by the $$$ crowd & OE parts were still being hidden under allot of fat fender cars & trucks... But more & more suppliers started offering parts, good undamaged OE parts were getting harder to find & prices of aftermarket stuff came down..

As manufacturers like RMS started making kits for a wider selection of cars the connection back to Pinto's & Mustang II's wasn't talked about.. Nobody wanted to know the origins..

The reasons to use an Altercation system are gaining the space the torsion bars occupy and weight...

It's definitely not a better design than the OE Mopar system... And altering the track width to work on a A/B/E body definitely compromises the designed geometry even further...
 
I see what you're saying. They're similar because they incorporate an upper spring+control arm mount and use a rack+pinion steering gear. I myself won't be using one (believe in factory engineering) but helped a guy put one in about 6-7 years ago and didn't know about the tracking issue. Seemed to drive well enough.
 
I see what you're saying. They're similar because they incorporate an upper spring+control arm mount and use a rack+pinion steering gear. I myself won't be using one (believe in factory engineering) but helped a guy put one in about 6-7 years ago and didn't know about the tracking issue. Seemed to drive well enough.

What they use is more than "they incorporate an upper spring+control arm mount and use a rack+pinion steering gear." All the major attachment points & therefore the geometry is used... But since they widen the track width the Ackerman angle goes to hell....
 
I appreciate the lesson. Didn't know much about them.
So whats the ford strut front end thats used on tube cars?
 
Right, thanks. I never did get into that "custom " stuff
 
I agree the factory configuration has its benefits when the proper parts are selected. I manufacture some parts and have experience with many of the aftermarket parts. My site is comprised of what I feel is the best of the best. Since I’m a small company, I can offer customized solutions with a high degree of customer service.
 
I agree the factory configuration has its benefits when the proper parts are selected. I manufacture some parts and have experience with many of the aftermarket parts. My site is comprised of what I feel is the best of the best. Since I’m a small company, I can offer customized solutions with a high degree of customer service.
Plus Peter puts his stuff to the test. No show ponies.
 
I normally use Firm Feel for all my suspension stuff. I am getting ready to build my 71 Charger and am planning on using a combination of FF, QA1 and Bergeson parts. I just looked at the Bergman Autocraft site and it looks like most of what you would want is there but you might want to do some price comparisons.
 
My main goal in my front suspension replacement/upgrades was greater adjustability to be able to have it dialed in "just right", overall appearance and designation as a "Resto-Mod/Pro Street" vibe, and better overall performance.
My focus is quarter mile drag racing performance and cruising on the street, not "corner carving".
I believe it's accurate to say that using the QA1 front suspension components is keeping the factory engineering design, but replacing all of the parts with modern upgrades.
NOTE:
I used ALL QA1 parts in my front suspension replacement including the K-member, EXCEPT FOR a key component:
The upper control arms (UCAs) are SPC and the reason why is lack of adjustment range with the factory "cam style" UCAs don't allow enough range for my car, and I had 2 different front end alignment techs say so.
@BergmanAutoCraft had a nice in-house tweak to the SPC UCAs that is specific to MOPAR, but SPC also just recently changed the design of their UCAs, which I read about but honestly I don't understand.
I got the SPC UCAs in my 70 Roadrunner from SPC for MOPAR, and they have worked fine so far.
@BergmanAutoCraft
Would you be kind enough to describe the advantages and differences between your SPC UCAs and the "stock SPC UCAs" (if you have any left to sell) and the differences with the new design SPC UCAs for MOPAR please?
 
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