Torque arm or coilovers?
Torque arm or coilovers? A friend of mine is either going to do QA1 coilovers up front or an adjustable torque arm setup. He is split between the two and needs more opinions. What would he benefit more from? Also, what is the best torque arm setup? I've heard some bad stuff about the relocated tunnel mount ones. I told him torque arm but more input would be great. Torque arm or coilovers? 
if it were me, I'd go with the UMI tunnel mounted torque arm. When I get paid this weekend that is probably going to be my last purchase this year.
byunspeed is running really good deals with the UMI product that comes with a d/s loop
byunspeed is running really good deals with the UMI product that comes with a d/s loop
If the car is a manual I would personally do front coilovers. BTW, I would go Strange before QA1. AFCO who is better than both of them recently cut their prices so I would recommend them over both Strange and QA1 (If we are talking a drag setup). If it's auto that is a tough choice but I would personally do a full-length torque arm with a trans mount relocation to take it off the transmission tail but that is just me. That way the transmission and the trans/motor mounts are not stressed and you don't pick up the noise and whatnot from the short tunnel mounted TA's. I am a big UMI guy so I will have to recommend them. They take very good care of me and offer me some insane prices when I want to stop by the shop to pick something up.
The reason I said torque arm instead of coilovers for the auto is that I feel that the stock shocks/springs can get you pretty far before a set of coilovers will be needed. For instance take my car, it's a your typical heads/cam car and I am not at a power level yet where I have traction issues. I cut consistent 1.56 60's with stock shocks and lowering springs which I feel is pretty damn impressive. Would I benefit from a coilover setup? Yes but not a whole lot at this point. Would the stock torque arm still work for me right now? More than likely but they are pretty damn flimsy stock. It's a hard choice between the two. I say it really depends on whether he is an M6 or A4 and then how much power he is pushing. However, if he is an M6 I would say the front coilovers hands down since those along with a nice slick make them alot easier to launch.
The reason I said torque arm instead of coilovers for the auto is that I feel that the stock shocks/springs can get you pretty far before a set of coilovers will be needed. For instance take my car, it's a your typical heads/cam car and I am not at a power level yet where I have traction issues. I cut consistent 1.56 60's with stock shocks and lowering springs which I feel is pretty damn impressive. Would I benefit from a coilover setup? Yes but not a whole lot at this point. Would the stock torque arm still work for me right now? More than likely but they are pretty damn flimsy stock. It's a hard choice between the two. I say it really depends on whether he is an M6 or A4 and then how much power he is pushing. However, if he is an M6 I would say the front coilovers hands down since those along with a nice slick make them alot easier to launch.
He is an M6 car. At the moment it's just bolt ons, but he has full suspension minus torque arm and coilovers. He is building a motor as we speak so it will soon be rolling around with a healthy 383 (making hopefully around 450-470whp). It's not a dedicated track car though by any means, he just wants to build a stout street car (full weight, a/c, p/c, etc). ::shrug:: He is leaning towards the coilovers at the moment anyway. I appreciate the input!
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Just recently i added coilovers up front and i had it to do all over again, that would have been the first mod. The factory suspension can hold quite a bit however, the stock shocks are not designed for DRAGRACING they are for HANDLING especially!
The coilover set up allows plenty adjustment not only ride height but shock valving, making it easy to get the car to work the way we need it or close.
Fortunately, i have found some nice deals on my componets so i do not have a butt load of money out! I have not been to the track with the coilovers since its closed... I did test them out on full negative and with MT DRs
lets just say the suspension reacts quite well now!
Lastly, i returned the car back to st. trim, turned the shocks to full positive and hit some hard corners, the car had a great deal of control even without the front sway bar.....
Next and final suspension mod will be a K-member and Arms (roadrace version)to handle the abuse of daily excercise
The coilover set up allows plenty adjustment not only ride height but shock valving, making it easy to get the car to work the way we need it or close.
Fortunately, i have found some nice deals on my componets so i do not have a butt load of money out! I have not been to the track with the coilovers since its closed... I did test them out on full negative and with MT DRs
lets just say the suspension reacts quite well now!Lastly, i returned the car back to st. trim, turned the shocks to full positive and hit some hard corners, the car had a great deal of control even without the front sway bar.....
Next and final suspension mod will be a K-member and Arms (roadrace version)to handle the abuse of daily excercise
X2!!! I hated my tunnel mount TA. I scraped that **** about 2 months after I bought it and went back to a full length TA and relocated it. Im sure it would be fine on a track only car but sucked on a street car.
Manual trans, I'd do the springs and shocks first. But he's going to need that TA too, as soon as he can afford it. We all know how flimsy the factory piece is and I can't imagine it holding up for to long with decent traction and a M6.
That is about the only Torque Arm that I would run with a T56 car..main reason is if you make any good power, say bye bye to the Tailshaft on the T56. Trust me if you lose that it's going to be a hassle..
I have both a Spohn tunnel mount and I just got the UMI adjustable with the relocation trans xmember. The Spohn is ok if your car isn't lowered which my car is, so I brought the UMI setup for the extra ground clearance to install in the car along with my new engine as soon as my EFI Connections 24x setup arrives. Plus as you can see from Merv's pics the UMI ta will allow me to run true duals over the axle the way I want to whereas the Spohn would be way harder to run tds the way I want to.