So you’re cruising down the highway, and the speedometer is ticking off numbers a little higher than the posted speed limit. But you’re not worried—your Mopar is factory stock and can handle anything you throw at it. Are you sure that your stock suspension can handle that corner? What if your stock suspension is 30 years old—not just in design, but in actuality, because you have yet to rebuild it? Even if it is rebuilt, are you sure that it can handle anything? What about that fast-approaching corner that you just noticed? Even when they were new, our muscle Mopars were not known for their cornering capabilities. We could go straight at a very fast rate, but cornering and stopping was not considered one of our car’s strong suits. So as you try to decelerate while going into the corner, one of the thoughts that might be going through your mind could either be, I hope I make it, or I hope I don’t roll over! Body roll was never much of a thought when our cars were new, but now, in the 21st Century, we’re used to cornering characteristics that are better than that of a box of marbles on a sheet of ice.
Like I said, the suspension might not be what it used to be, and that corner is still coming up quick. You managed to apply the brakes hard and get it around the corner, but you also scared the bajeezes out of yourself. If only there was a way to upgrade your Mopar’s suspension without breaking the bank. There are many upgrade suspensions available, but many utilize a completely new k-frame, and sometimes serious modifications. What if you still want to upgrade but don’t want to completely change your Mopar? That’s where Hotchkis Sport Suspensions comes in.
Although the car needs to be resting on the suspension at ride height to complete the install, we needed to jack the car up to place the sway bar through the k-frame. On earlier model A-Bodies, the bar is mounted below and slightly forward of the k-frame, and you shouldn’t have to jack the car up for this step.
According to the guys at Hotchkis, their sport suspension advantage is improved handling for your car, SUV, or truck. Not only are Hotchkis Sport Suspension components engineered to fit properly, they are finished in durable finishes including gloss powdercoating, bright polish, colorful anodizing, silver zinc, and gold cadmium plating.
A couple of months ago (February ’11 issue), we showed you how easy the Hotchkis subframe connectors are to put in, so we thought we would Hotchkis-ize the rest of the car by adding their upper control arms, leaf springs, and sway bars. The arms and leaf springs are a direct bolt in, but the sway bars will need to have the brackets welded in. Overall, the job was easy, and we even did it without the use of a lift—just a couple of jackstands, and some wrenches.
