Advanced Engineering Tech - torsion bars vs struts




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mark21742
02-09-2012, 09:41 AM
Looking at cutting the front of my 04 GTO off at the firewall and going with a full tube steel front chassis and tie it into the 10 point cage and lower framerails I've welded in under the floor and to the bulkhead under the windsheild to keep the car good and stiff.

The GTOs are known for their poor front suspension and I have a 4x4 s10 chassis sitting behind the garage that I could take the control arms, hubs, spindles, AND torsion bars off of and use inplace of the stock front struts.

This would allow me to drop a lot of weight, stiffen the chassis, and have a clean low profile chassis/ suspension up front.

What see your thoughts on swapping in the torsion bar setup?


mark21742
02-22-2012, 08:56 AM
I ended up taking the control arms and torsion bars out of a 4x4 s10 to use.
I cut 2.5" out of the lower control arms and shortened them, then made new shorter upper control arms. This will give me less leverage and a stiffer spring rate at the wheel, less travel (going from a 4x4 to a street car) and allows me to spread the new frame rails farther apart to drop the engine lower and father back in the chassis.

team39763
07-02-2012, 10:59 AM
Got any pics of that? This this sound pretty cool and definately different.
EDIT: Oh crap, just realized it was an old thread.


jrob56
07-02-2012, 11:05 AM
ya its old but id like to see pics too if this is done or still going on? sounds interesting

mark21742
07-03-2012, 08:26 AM
If I would have made my main frame rails about 3"s farther apart ot might have worked, but because of the spread I needed on the main rails I would have had to run the torsion bars under the frame adding to the overall height of the chassis.

So in the end I decided to run coil overs.