The muscle cars built by Dodge and Plymouth have always had a very devoted following and a style all their own. Home to Hemis and Six Packs and clad in colors like Curious Yellow and Plum Crazy Purple, they just scream muscle car. Yet, despite competing next to Camaros and Mustangs in the old SCCA […]

Ford muscle cars have always been very popular. The Mustang, especially, is an American icon. When it comes to performance handling, drivers such as Parnelli Jones showed that the blue oval could be a force to be reckoned with on a road course too. While classic Fords generally don’t enjoy the type of after-market support […]

In this chapter I discuss several specific types of GM muscle cars and go over some strong and weak points of each design. I also cover some aftermarket parts and how they work in various applications. Each section builds upon the last, so read all of the sections even if you don’t have one of […]

Throughout this book I’ve often referred to the balance of the car or matching your components. It’s very possible to buy a whole bunch of good-quality parts that are designed with different methodology in mind and end up with an expensive build that drives poorly, or at least doesn’t drive as good as it could. […]

To this point, all of the suspension components have been tucked away under the car. It bugs me sometimes that we spend so much time developing these really trick suspension components, and hardly anyone ever sees them. But, the tires and wheels are right out there for everyone to see. It could be argued that […]

You may be thinking, “It’s about time he got to sway bars!” They’re normally one of the first things you think about when it comes to parts designed to improve handling performance. They certainly are important, but sway bars are tuning aids and you can’t tune what you haven’t built yet. Plan out your whole […]

I suspect that this is probably the chapter that people first flip to while perusing this book in a bookstore. Another racing invention of the early 1920s, tubular A-arms and trailing arms have taken the automotive aftermarket by storm. Every hot rodding magazine has articles and ads about them, so they must be pretty important, […]

I’ve already touched on springs a little in previous chapters, particularly leaf springs, but we haven’t really dug into the meat of how springs work or how to select the best springs for a given application. Over the years I’ve taken countless tech calls and e-mails from clients on a quest to make their vintage […]

The first step is to go over some suspension terms and definitions so you can get a handle on things. Don’t panic—I’m not going to bore you to tears with an endless list of esoteric suspension terms. If you were building road race cars from scratch, you’d need to know every fine point of suspension […]