tube80z

Lengthening the control arms is a good thing. Remember the TC rods and tie-rods too. Cary

I think Race Car Vehicle Dynamics is a great book, but it really doesn't tell you anything about struts other than give you basic definitions and tell you they suck. Before I bought that I'd look at some more basic books like Staniforth's Race and Rally sourcebook or Haney's book on tires. Those at least have some useful info for the DIYer trying to make their car go faster. Cary

The reply on RCs had a lot of good info in it. I think you can't go wrong with that advice. Some other rules of thumb to help you set things up: Scrub -- no more than 20 percent wheel width or tire width (which ever is bigger). For a ten inch wheel that's 2 inches (and ideally you want less). Caster -- one half the measured steering axis inclination trail -- around 3/4 to half an inch RC lateral migration (20 percent of track width) Vertical migration -- make sure it doesn't cross ground level in any real world condition. If this happens in a corner the car will momentarily lose traction. This often feels like a sideways hop and can be very unnerving. In general you want to run an RC that is close to the ground with the front slightly lower than the rear. Low is somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 5 inches off the ground. It depends a lot on the rest of your setup. High RCs will lead to large jacking forces, which is like a big lever trying to turn the car over as you enter a corner. They manifest themselves as a lifting that increases with corner force. Old triumphs, volkswagens, and corvairs had swing axles that were notorious for this. Just remember that everything is interconnected to the strut on these cars. You can't make on thing perfect without really screwing something else up. It's all a matter of coming up with the best compromise. Good luck, Cary

There's some good advice from John. I would also recommend that whenever you do this you spray weldthru (3M product) on the area to be welded. This is a very important step in making sure you keep rust away. One good point about seem welding that hasn't been mentioned is that if you ever wreck you car it is much easier to pull the parts back out. If you have simple spot welds they will often pop when you try and do this. I would recommend seam welding on any car the will see a V8 or hard use. Many times the spot welds will not all be holding on our older cars. This helps to ensure that the panels are all glued together. Cary

I have the GC AD inserts and I'nm generally happy with them. The bump adjuster as three positions but it makes little difference which position you use. There's just not much adjustment. The rebound is very adjustable and this what I spend the most time messing with. Given your location I would recommend a set of Konis or similar with the digressive valving. I think being able to get parts in a timely manner would be very good. A local shock expert told me that Koni's would have been cheaper than what I paid for the AD inserts but provided no real details. So you have a lukewarm recommendation from me. They do work, there's little bump adjustment, and parts are hard to get if you need them. otherwise they do work well and will allow you to run proper spring rates for a racing Z. Cary

Actually you want the control arms to be very near level to work best. This will help to reduce the jacking forces and scrub the tires less. If you want to adjust camber it's best to add it statically as you can't really get much back from the suspension without compromising other items worse. Cary