Tubular Front end w/ coil-overs, streetable?

William741

Founding Member
Aug 18, 2000
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Bellefontaine, Ohio
I've noticed some of you have a tubular front end, control arms, and coil overs and I was wondering how it is on the street. Has anyone had any problems w/ the welds or tubing cracking/breaking? How is the ride w/ coilovers compared to spring/strut? I've been looking at the aje racing pieces, as I've heard this is a good kit, as well as pa racing. I've also heard good things about the mm piece, but i can't see it being that much better for the price difference. Thanks, Will
 
If you swap out your coils/struts for coilovers with decent shocks, you shouldn't lose any streeability IF you set up the shocks and get the right springs for the street. The issue is the "very competent in a limited range" nature of the coilover front suspension in conjunction with the tube K-member and tube A-arms. Reducing the front end weight will make the road inputs that much more noticiable, and tuning the front suspension for drag or road race will make it worse, either for handling (drag) or for a confortable ride (road). Tuning the front suspension for street will help but at a cost in drag or road race performance. If you want the best of all, I suppose that the thing to do would be to go to a front coilovers set up for street springs and buy a shock that will adkjust from squishy drag through firm street to stiff road.
 
I see you make mention of the pa piece and the MM peice being very different in cost. Not so much. If you add on a few things to the pa piece to make it compare more to the MM piece you will see very little price difference. I am a bit biast as I have all MM components thus far, the K-member is next up. I am in the middle of deciding on the MM or the PA.
 
I guess I didn't realize there was that much of a difference in the components of the pa vs. the mm. From the prices i've found the pa piece is about 320, and the mm was like 600 and something, but maybe the mm piece comes w/ extra things? It's been awhile since i've looked, so maybe the prices have changed. Also, I believe killercanary is running pa tubular front end on his car, and i think he drives it on the street? Thanks, Will

Oh yeah, I figured I'll get more feedback from road imperfections, and thats ok by me. But perhaps I should just stick w/ the original setup? I'm not sure if i'll see enough of a benefit swapping to coil-overs.
 
cool thing about coilovers is the adjustability ive got strange coil overs with hypercoil springs and the struts are 10 way adjustable, so no problems changing it to be streetable. i drive my car back and forth to the track so this is very important to me. plus they save weight, only downside is you really need to upgrade to a 4bolt caster camber plate as everything (strut,spring, etc) is held in place by those 3 fragile bolts.
 
It would be nice to have that range of adjustability, plus have the front end nice and clean/simple. How would I decide what spring to go with? Also, the coil-overs don't use the same type of coil spring as original do they, so I'm gonna have trouble getting just two lowering springs for the rear, right? Thanks, Will
 
ive got hypercoil springs with my coilovers, 14" 175lb for my vert. you would need 14" 150lb , they are $120 a pair from strange eng. i'm just cutting the rear springs for now and see how it does. oh yeah btw, full griggs suspension means empty bank account lol, there stuff is good but expensive.
 
Yeah, I can imagine a full griggs setup would set me back quite a bit. I think im gonna pick up the aje piece as I can get that local, and its a pretty decent price. Silverstangman, what type of k-member are you running w/ your coilovers? Thanks for all the help, Will
 
14/175 is the typical street/strip

The shorter spring is more road race, and it is normally stiffer like say a 12/250..more drag would be 14/130

Hope that helps
 
I know people who have street cars with UPR complete front set up, and a few running Just the QA1 k-member with the rest of the front stock other than springs. They all have had no problems driving on the street.