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Rear Lateral Arm Prototypes

C

CrazyTalkSVT

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
856
Location
Minnesota
Well here are the prototypes of the lateral arms we've been working on. They are CNC machined using a high density urethane. Keep in mind these are just "mock up" bars that are machined to tolerance so all bushings can be pressed in and the bars can be installed to check for clearance, Clarence. :laugh:
The real bars will either be billet aluminum, M1 aluminum, or cast aluminum.

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Redlineracer12 said:
I'm totally in for a set of these :cool:
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these are going to be extremely expensive. i like the enthusiasm, but as me and "B" talked about when he showed me the bars (in person, before all of joo! haha! :D) we talked about that. there's always interest until a price comes up. these bars are 100% sourced out CNC machined and will cost a pretty penny. they're gonna be oh so sweet when they are done though :D
 
TRicker said:
these are going to be extremely expensive. i like the enthusiasm, but as me and "B" talked about when he showed me the bars (in person, before all of joo! haha! :D) we talked about that. there's always interest until a price comes up. these bars are 100% sourced out CNC machined and will cost a pretty penny. they're gonna be oh so sweet when they are done though :D
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exactly. while they are pretty cool, i dont see them helping all that much. certainly not enough for me to justify the cost anyways.
 
nope. they're gonna help him, since he's on air. they'll be nice for those guys that track their cars a lot and want a little more, or guys that just have nothing else to mod on their car and want to do something cool.
 
Instead of designing a complete new control arm, why not just box a stock arm? That's what I run. How much more solid do you need them?

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so how much more solid are boxed in arms ? Can you get poly bushes for them ? ....G.
 
SVTGT350 said:
For the cost that these arms are going to be they need to have the ability to adjust camber.
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+1. don't get me wrong, thats one of the coolest parts I've seen come around in a very long time and as tempting as it is, lack of adjustment is a deal killer for me. Without I just don't see any justification for this part. Sorry not to come off as harsh, I've taken my suspension setup as far as anyone else has here but lack of true camber adjustment front and rear is the biggest shortcoming we have right now.
 
SVTGT350 said:
For the cost that these arms are going to be they need to have the ability to adjust camber.
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bensenvill said:
+1. don't get me wrong, thats one of the coolest parts I've seen come around in a very long time and as tempting as it is, lack of adjustment is a deal killer for me. Without I just don't see any justification for this part. Sorry not to come off as harsh, I've taken my suspension setup as far as anyone else has here but lack of true camber adjustment front and rear is the biggest shortcoming we have right now.
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I have something in development for this already. Parts are already machined up, just have to do some more fab work. Stay tuned...

Sorry not to hi-jack. These look great!
 
As much as I like the idea of a high quality plug and play suspension link, I still don't like the geometry that your forced to have. What I mean is, the inner points of connection are still very high up. The geometry is still going to be exactly the same. I like the contours bump steer in the rear. When the rear does start to rotate, it does it very aggressively and composed. It just has what I feel is a very lame response to the initial turn in. I've studied videos of me driving my contour and other cars. On the same turn as another car, I have to set up the car much sooner. The really trickey part is that the braking zone doesn't start earlier. A smaler roll couple is really what the car needs in the rear. Mounting the toe link and lateral link lower is the key to achieving this. I haven't thought of a good way to do this on a stock subframe. Maybe someone else here can? I do like the prototypes. I like seeing people create car parts that don't exists.
 
Thanks for all the posts guys. Cool to see people interested in suspension stuff.
I seen a couple questions about just boxing in the factory arms. While this works fine, I have yet to see someone beef up the end tabs. By not doing so, you have added a stress riser right at the weakest point of the bar.
Rather than have some ugly(personal opinion) factory bar in there I wanted to step it up a bit and do something different. I look at it the same as a mirko or hightowers...isn't the factory bumper or lights good enough?

Remember the bars are still in prototype stages and so lots can be taken into consideration.
I've seen alot of posts about getting camber gain out of the bars. This is typically a huge no no in suspension geometry. Changing control arms lengths and nothing else effects roll center. Which will ultimately make things worse from a tuning stand point.
 
CrazyTalkSVT said:
Thanks for all the posts guys. Cool to see people interested in suspension stuff.
I seen a couple questions about just boxing in the factory arms. While this works fine, I have yet to see someone beef up the end tabs. By not doing so, you have added a stress riser right at the weakest point of the bar.
Rather than have some ugly(personal opinion) factory bar in there I wanted to step it up a bit and do something different. I look at it the same as a mirko or hightowers...isn't the factory bumper or lights good enough?

Remember the bars are still in prototype stages and so lots can be taken into consideration.
I've seen alot of posts about getting camber gain out of the bars. This is typically a huge no no in suspension geometry. Changing control arms lengths and nothing else effects roll center. Which will ultimately make things worse from a tuning stand point.
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yeah, adjusting camber should always be done from the upper knuckle mount (whether its a control arm or strut). unfortunately this is not feasible for us in the rear and the front kits suck.

changing the roll center can be a good thing, depending on what you do with it. of course, too far in any direction is bad, but bringing it back towards stock on a lowered car would be beneficial, assuming you can adjust the front as well. as with the camber, there is no good way to adjust roll center for our cars either.
 
striker2 said:
changing the roll center can be a good thing...there is no good way to adjust roll center for our cars either.
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It's silly that this still annoys me even though I theoretically improved my rear suspension geometry. What kind of silly head do you have to be to let something that bother you?
 
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