Racing front suspensions on the street

[jaybnve]

Anybody here have experience with this? I'm thinking about hacking off the frame of my '64 Galaxie forward of the firewall, and installing either a strut front end, or a double A-Arm Mustang II type front end. These setups are available from all the chassis companies (S&W, Chassis Engineering, Alston, etc.). The upside of doing this on my car would be a lot less weight, better steering (rack and pinion vs. the original box), and more room for headers. The downside seems to be durability.

After this is done the car would still be heavy (its 3900+ with me in it now), and the car is street driven quite a bit. I mean, Drag Week street driven, not the occasional weekend trip to the cruise. It will have to take potholes and all the other normal street obstructions.

The Mustang II front suspension setups look to be more durable than a strut setup, but they are heavier and take up more room. A friend of mine who has used one says that they also don't ride that great; he says they make the front end feel real bouncy, due to lack of suspension travel and short control arms.

The strut front ends I've seen also suffer from lack of suspension travel, although I've seen some Strange GT struts that feature 6.5" of travel, which wouldn't be bad. I like the strut setups better from a weight and room perspective, but the single lower control arm on a couple of rod ends makes me think a good pothole would break it.

Anybody with real world experience on this? Thanks in advance for any comments - Jay

[Loren]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

You can get away with a lot on a smooth race track and I'd believe that the lightweight strut frontends are designed to take advantage of that. Without the actual real-world expereince I'd still say I would not use one in the harsher street environment.

Mustang II front ends sure get used in a lot of applications, including heavy cars, and no one seems to gripe. However they seem small to me as well. The steering arm is located pretty high up the spindle and thus requires a high rack location which can interfere with the front damper. This front end was, after all, originally designed by Ford to go in a smaller car with tiny 13" wheels and needed a higher position relative to the wheel c/l for ground clearance. This doesn't work so well when you get into larger wheel/tire diameters.

I kinda like looking at those suspensions based on the C-4 Corvette which is getting cheaper, however you still have a high rack location being as in the 'Vette the motor was set back behind it and it could be mounted anywhere.

For header clearance one of my own cars uses struts...from an '80s Camaro. Tough stuff, but still needs the springs to work off the lower control arms. In my case I used torsion bars ala Mopar. Mustang steering rack. No weight savings in all this.

Perhaps if one didn't want to spend a whole lot or fabricate his own whole setup, the best compromise is still the Mustang II with the travel issue compensated for with stiffer springs and swaybar.

[BBR]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

What's the track width on a 64 Galaxy?

[JeffMcKC]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

Jay I have a very nice 2X3 mustang II one for sale with nice arms shocks springs the works all new stuff welded on, never went any where. I find they hold up fine if you lube them up

[squirrel]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

What's the track width on a 64 Galaxy?

wild guess is that it's about half a foot wider than a Pinto

[JeffMcKC]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

The track width on like what I have is set with a tube that bolts in between the arms and can be removed the racks can be pretty wide we used one in Doc's old 1952 Chevy Pro Gas Car

[jaybnve]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

What's the track width on a 64 Galaxy?

I measured that last night, roughly, and got 61" from center of tire to center of tire. This is one of the problems with the Mustang II setup, because I've only seen available widths to 58", but that's hub to hub, so it still might work...

[BBR]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

???

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

???

New mustang?

[fast Ed]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

That looks like 2003-up Crown Vic, Grand Marquis and Town Car. Nice aluminium crossmember and control arms, rack & pinion, plus coilover shocks and 12" rotors with dual-piston calipers.

As an added bonus, it's actually designed to hold up the front of a 2-ton vehicle. ;)


cheers
Ed N.

[BBR]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

Yep. That's what it is.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

now I know what I want for Christmas

[Caveman]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

That looks like 2003-up Crown Vic, Grand Marquis and Town Car. Nice aluminium crossmember and control arms, rack & pinion, plus coilover shocks and 12" rotors with dual-piston calipers.

As an added bonus, it's actually designed to hold up the front of a 2-ton vehicle. ;)


cheers
Ed N.

Is the Crown Vic bolt pattern still 5-on-4.5"?

[Huskinhano]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

That looks like 2003-up Crown Vic, Grand Marquis and Town Car. Nice aluminium crossmember and control arms, rack & pinion, plus coilover shocks and 12" rotors with dual-piston calipers.

As an added bonus, it's actually designed to hold up the front of a 2-ton vehicle. ;)


cheers
Ed N.

Ahmen! Thank you, you hit the nail on the head. I'm not all that crazy about all the aftermarket MII kits that do away with the strut. I've seen enough posts on other forums about frame failure of the cross memember where the LCA attaches. The MII is not a bad suspension in the right conditions such as a light unibody street car along with using the strut as the factory intended IMO. I think it's been done to death.

I like the 03 Crown Vic set up exactly for the reasons you mentioned, plus it has MODERN engineering and geometry, not a 40 year old design.

[BBR]

Re: Racing front suspensions on the street

Is the Crown Vic bolt pattern still 5-on-4.5"?

Yes.