What torsion bars to use?

[Meep-Meep]

On my 383 RR I had 6 cyl bars and no sway bar. It was pretty spongy alright. I eventually went back to the 383 bars. A good alternative may be to run small block bars.

 

[Propwash]

i am in the same boat prop, pardon the pun, boat prop. i have the original small block bars in the 69 440 and they look spotless. ordered a new set of hemi bars, still in the box. after much reading and asking ?. i have been led to believe that the smaller bars are good for the strip and i don't plan on a lot of high mileage driving.
so i am going to try the smaller bars and if i don't like the feel i will go bigger bars. same as you, 20% track and 80% road. rick

LOL..Good to know Rick.. I don't know the the original bar size for my RR (383 car), but i'm thinking they're just a pretty small step up from the small block bars.
I'm sticking with the largest bars first and working my way down from there. I'm interested to see how they react and work with the Cal-Tracs in the back, as far as at the strip

Thanks again guys for chiming in..

 

[Propwash]

On my 383 RR I had 6 cyl bars and no sway bar. It was pretty spongy alright. I eventually went back to the 383 bars. A good alternative may be to run small block bars.

Did your 383 RR see any action at the strip Meep?

My 68' net has no front sway bar and the factory torsion bars as well. Not really that happy with the performance, suspension wise. I guess we'll see how much strip performance vs. road performance will be noticable once the bird is on the road

 

[shag766]

LOL..Good to know Rick.. I don't know the the original bar size for my RR (383 car), but i'm thinking they're just a pretty small step up from the small block bars.
I'm sticking with the largest bars first and working my way down from there. I'm interested to see how they react and work with the Cal-Tracs in the back, as far as at the strip

Thanks again guys for chiming in..

what cal-trac set up are you using? inquireing minds want to know.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Did your 383 RR see any action at the strip Meep?

My 68' net has no front sway bar and the factory torsion bars as well. Not really that happy with the performance, suspension wise. I guess we'll see how much strip performance vs. road performance will be noticable once the bird is on the road

Plenty of trips to Fremont back in the 80's. Car ran mid 13's @ 105 in street trim and no issues at all going down the track. The time I raced (and beat) the 66 HEMI Charger on the street the car felt very twitchy while taking a long gradual curve at probably well over 100. Running 3.55's with 26" tires my speedo was buried, my tach said 6 KRPM and I was in 4th!! I never did figure out how fast that was but all I thought at the time was don't make any sudden moves! Damn that front end was floating!

 

[Meep-Meep]

My green 66 Belvedere (361 car) has the original bars in it and no sway bar. It now has a 440 and has been down the track a few times. Again, no issues at the big end. And no, my steering wheel didn't fall off! Damn, that would suck!

 

[Propwash]

what cal-trac set up are you using? inquireing minds want to know.

The same set up as this, but i'm running Mopar XHD Springs and not Calvert Racing Mono's like in the pic:

Plenty of trips to Fremont back in the 80's. Car ran mid 13's @ 105 in street trim and no issues at all going down the track. The time I raced (and beat) the 66 HEMI Charger on the street the car felt very twitchy while taking a long gradual curve at probably well over 100. Running 3.55's with 26" tires my speedo was buried, my tach said 6 KRPM and I was in 4th!! I never did figure out how fast that was but all I thought at the time was don't make any sudden moves! Damn that front end was floating!

LOL...I can imagine. Probably a second or two from lift off....

 

[Evil Mopars]

On my 383 RR I had 6 cyl bars and no sway bar. It was pretty spongy alright. I eventually went back to the 383 bars. A good alternative may be to run small block bars.

I can vouch for Meep, he took me for a late night 1/4 mile blast in his car with the 6 cyl bars and worn out front shocks trying to get a little more weight distribution. All I can say is it felt like sitting in a boat when a bigger boat drives by, ya know that rolling, up and down feeling .....now picture it at 100+ MPH, on a uneven California backroad with a slight curve at the end, yes my pucker level was high! LOL