Winston Cup racing and Car Craft may not exactly go together, but affordable and Car Craft does. So when we found out that Hot Rods To Hell offers an affordable Winston Cup-style suspension for Chevelles, Novas, Camaros, and El Caminos, we jumped at the chance to install one under our Cheap Street Chevelle's new frame.
What's appealing about a Winston Cup car's suspension is that it incorporates a live rear axle like many of our street machines, yet handles incredibly smoothly and is capable of carving some serious g's. Believe it or not, the truck arms used in these systems are identical to those used in the coil-spring rear suspension installed under '60-'72 Chevy pickup trucks-a suspension that has been in continuous and exclusive use under Winston Cup cars for nearly 40 years, ever since it made its first appearance in cars driven by Ray Fox and Junior Johnson as far back as 1963. The story goes that since NASCAR allowed only production-style suspensions to be used, GM actually designed this system for use in full-size trucks so it would be legal to use in racing. It makes a good story at least, even if it is apocryphal.
The truck-arm suspension is basically an extended version of a three-link suspension with lower trailing arms. On a car like our Chevelle, the rear upper arms are removed and an adjustable Panhard bar is used to control lateral movement. The end result is a suspension that does not bind like a four-link when hitting the corners or under a hard launch, is very stable at higher speeds, and is not susceptible to bump- or roll-induced steering.
There hasn't been anything like this available on the market before, but you'll be glad to know us average Joes can now have NASCAR-style suspension at an affordable price starting at $1,295 through Hot Rods To Hell.
Kit Contents* Crossmember* Truck arms* All brackets* All grade-8 fasteners* Adjustable Panhard bar and crossmember* All Heim joints* Adjustable KYB shocks** Adjustable screw jacks* 200 lb/in springs (or anything between 175 and 300 lb/in)*Adjustable QA1 shocks are available for an additional price.
