As we have been telling you, this year’s SEMA show was completely wall to wall with people, vendors, cars, and passers by who probably should not have been there in the first place. Because of the massive crowds, it was easy to gauge who was interested in what. Basically if you had a booth and no one was talking to you, something was up. On the other side of things, if you had a booth and you had a line 300 feet long encircling it you likely had Chip Foose signing autographs. Right there in the sweet spot were the people who debuted new products and their booth was jammed because of the interest that those products drew.
Such was the case with RideTech’s new Street Grip system which is designed to upgrade the handling of your classic car while keeping a nice comfy ride and maintaining nearly perfect stock ride height. Developing these pieces as a matched system is what RideTech has made a living on with the more hardcore pro touring world and now with this system they have something that the vast majority of street machine and classic muscle owners were looking for. More fun without turning the thing into a hardcore racer.
We have been telling you about Street Grip for weeks but the reality is that until we saw the parts and pieces in person that we truly “got” it. It also gave us a chance to quiz the RideTech team on what they were thinking with each individual piece of the program. While you retain your stock control arms with this system, the use of a taller upper ball joint helps correct horrid factory camber curves, the addition of Delrin bushings allows those arms to move far more freely than they ever did before. That movement allows the suspension to actually do its job!
On the spring front, dual rate springs have been assigned to the front end of the available packages now. Balancing and developing the spring rates on these was a challenge because they help to define the ride. Getting that initial rate right for a comfy ride and then the secondary rate right for more performance related driving was tough but they did it. Upgraded sway bars are part of the package, and single adjustable shocks are also part of the package. The shocks are the intelligence of the suspension system and with the adjustable style units, owners will be able to tune in the shock feel that they want. That’s cool. Finally there are the composite leaf springs for the cars so equipped with leave out back.
Why is the composite leaf a big deal? You’ll be taking about 50lbs (or more in some cases) or weight out of your car by ditching the steel leaf springs and going with the composites. That is a huge reduction in one shot and there was a demo at SEMA illustrating this fact. Any time you can take weight off the car, especially in an area like that you are coming out ahead. In this case it is a double win with the weight reduction and the better spring. Awesome.
All of the parts and pieces in the system are made to the highest quality standard and you can seem all below. Street Grip systems will be sold in a single box and the retail will be in the $2,200 – $2,500 range. That’s a smoking’ deal to revamp the quality and fun factor of your car.
Take a look at all the components that make up the Street Grip System below –
