The true measure of any project, no matter how well planned, is to put it to the test. That’s especially true with hot rods and custom cars; there’s never been one built that didn’t require some alterations after the shakedown run. You just gotta drive ’em to find the flaws—and you can quote us on that.
In the last issue we brought the tale of Project X’s first real road trip since it’s rebirth via PHR teaming up with GM Performance Parts and their Skunkworks division. Most of X’s prior outings had been short jaunts and often at modest speeds through town and traffic. Joining up with the AMSOIL/STREET RODDER magazine Road Tour allowed us to spend long periods of time behind the wheel at freeway speeds and on many less-than-ideal back roads. That’s where you can start finding all the little stuff that will go mostly unnoticed otherwise.
Suspension travel is essential for ride quality, so while Bret Voelkel and his team built a new rear coilover using one of their 13-inch bodies, we adjusted the upper mount upward to allow for more compression distance.
All seemed fine at first when we got up to speed on the freeway, though the ride was a bit overly firm. We really weren’t concerned about the harshness until several dozen miles into the trip when we ran across the first large break in the asphalt and received an unsettling surprise. We’d describe it this way: The front felt like it transmitted the shock of the bump directly from the tire to the steering wheel with very little dampening, kind of like a go-kart. The rear was a bit more troubling. A significant bump resulted in a jarring impact with the rearend jerking to the left. Needless to say, we slowed down and watched the road cautiously. Luckily, our first leg of the 700-mile road trip was short and mostly on slow Indiana back roads.
Fortuitously, our last stop of the day was at RideTech in Jasper, Indiana. After a great tour around the shop and a generous barbecue dinner, the rest of the Road Tourians departed. We hung around bench racing with RideTech’s Bret Voelkel about various projects and mentioned X’s ill ride quality. Since he’d shut down the shop for the day and had no plans, Voelkel insisted that we pull X in and get it up on their lift for a look. It’s a good thing we listened. Here’s how it went down …
Up front, X is basically a C6 Corvette since the full cradle and suspension have been grafted into the frame. With the suspension at full droop, it’s hard to tell that there were issues, but the odd wear on the inside edge of the front tire is a clue.
See it in Action!
Check out the video of us testing Project X the next day on what had to be the roughest road in Indiana on PHR’s new YouTube channel: YouTube.com/PopularHotRodding!
