ok folks lets say I got $1000 to spend. I'm looking to get power to the ground on my trans am. id like to go with stuff from UMI since their customer service is wonderful and I have faith in them and theyre also cheaper than the others.

I dont wanna get springs or shocks but im thinking more along the lines of a torque arm, control arms and brackets and maybe something else...

Will those help me get power to the ground or should I get something else?

 

Lower control arms, PHB and relocation brackets and set of street slicks

 

got brand new tires not looknig to get any other tires just yet.

 

LCA's are appearantly really good for it. It keeps the wheels planted solid to the ground. I'm gonna get some for myself as soon as i can!

 

what about a torque arm?

 

Yes, adj. TQ arm..Spohn/BMR/UMI, chassis mounted would be your best bet. Might get a little vibration out of it, but who cares..

 

if I have it chassis mounted will that take away from the handeling of the car any? I really really love gonig through zig zag roads as fast as I can

 

I know you said you dont want new tires. but... no amount of suspension will get power to the ground if the tires just break loose.

 

im happy right now with the fuzions i got them for free and they dont ven have 200 miles on them yet so ims ticking with them. I'm just trying to set this car up to get power to the ground and handel halfway decent. I know the control arms and brackets will give a better angle but im worried about the torque arm. I've seen where a few people said I'll get break hop with that and im not sure thats something you want when youre doing auto cross or something

 

true^^^^

 

ahh so the chassis mounted TA thing is true about brake hop?

I dont nkow if the normal transmission mounted one will fit with longtubes

 

Normal tranny mounted one will have no issues with longtubes is what i have been told. I have the umi tranny mount adj. torque arm and umi relocation bracket for it and it was like 550 for both of those pieces but I think they will be sweet. Ive also heard that the tranny mount is what you want if your gonna any kind of cornering at all.

 

Go with UMI's chassis-mounted setup with the driveshaf tloop. I love mine, looks great, and works great. Haven't had a single issue with it. Running Pacesetter LTs, TSP ORY, Magnaflow cat-back with a cut-out in the I-pipe.

 

I'll give my opinion on a torque arm first hand next week

however, i rode in one of the guys 98' TA with no engine mods, subframes, torque arm and a shift kit. and it just PLANTS.. wheel hop seemed non-existant and he was driving hard, really felt like he was putting the power down.

I was sold and ordered one.. so should be cool.

 

also a torque arm pretty much guarantees you get a lot of things from one mod.

better 60 foot, better launches, better traction overall, lower ets.

seems worth it.


also, the stock GM piece does look kinda POS.. i had a chance to see one off a car.

 

I wish UMI would come in here and give me their assistance in selecting a torque arm. so far ive gathered the relcoation brackets and control arms are great mods now I just need to decide on the torque arm. Its gotta clear my longtubes and id like to have a DS loop and crossmember thing on it as well.

 

Well, the full length torque arm and torque arm relocation kit are in the factory location so they shouldn't get in the way of the long tubes. The full length TA does not have drive shaft loop option though. If I were you I would get the folowing parts:
torque arm
torque arm relocation kit
drive shaft loop

Just happens to my plans as well.

Also, if you are really concerned about handling you might want to rethink the control arm relocation brackets. They will help your ET at the drag strip but will hurt handling. For cornering you want the control arms to be parallel to the ground or slightly pointing up to the rear.

 

hmmm I really need to think all this stuff through... I'm getting an ls6 intake for sure here shrotly and I thought it might help if I had some suspension pieces to get all the pwoer to the ground but i dont wanna sacrafice handeling any.

 

I'm not sure exactly why you don't want to do shocks and springs the aside from tires are probbly the biggest change to cars handling and they would help your get the power down better as well.

 

I'll get to those eventually but dont wanna get into that at the moment