Nate says..... When you raise or lower the car from FSM numbers you “de-optimize” these.
Not a big deal of course but it actually takes stiffer springs and sway bar to get back to the factory handling.
I’ve seen and ridden in a few that had stiff suspensions to “make them handle well” that were lowered and didn’t actually manage corners as well as stock performance stuff. Oh sure, there was less body roll but they often oversteered and frequently broke free before the original designs did (if good tires are put on).
You can use offset spindles and/or re-form steering linkage parts and get both but most people don’t do that.[/QUOTE]
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Thanks for responding but you certainly haven't driven or been in a car that is well sorted out. I have driven stock and I have driven modified. Nobody would pick a stock setup if they wanted their car to handle well. These cars were designed to handle safely, not quickly. Understeer is built into every front engine, rear drive car because it is the safest handling setting for the average person. To believe that the factory settings were optimal is far from the truth. There were many factors to be considered when these cars were designed. Many manual steering cars had alignment settings calling for positive camber and negative caster to make it easier to steer. Yeah, the car understeered at anything over 20 mph but hey...the tires were not going to hold at speeds much higher than that even with better alignment.
No stock Charger is going to outhandle one with upgraded parts and a good alignment. Stock .90 torsion bars, a 7/8" sway bar and oil filled shocks were barely adequate with 6 inch bias ply tires. My tires are almost double that.
I've heard guys at car shows for years arguing that the factory exhaust manifolds were better than headers so your perspective doesn't surprise me.
Maybe you don't know what "camber gain" is. Did you know that the further the front suspension compresses, the more caster you get? Most Mopars are lucky to get 2 degrees of Positive Caster. I was able to get 4 with stock upper control arms, partly because of the ride height. Big torsion bars allow me to run at a lower height and get more Caster while also some Negative Camber. Body roll is reduced along with brake dive.
If the car doesn't drag or scrape....and the ride is acceptable, who is to say that a man's car is too low? The law in CA is that no part of the undercarriage can be below the lowest part of the wheel rim. This is not a problem.