The Dodge Challenger Message Board

17 x 8 on all 4, the car is lowered 2 inches ,tires i dont have the car here now , but i will get it for u soon, also go get the "firm feel" steering box, also poly everything, especially the lower control arms , upper control arms are. tubular design, go to capautoproducts.com as they now have tube.lower control arms ,they just came out, also change those heavy stock brakes and get some wilwoods , or something of the like, all these things will greatly reduce the "unsprung weight" of the car also having aluminum heads and other aluminum stuff like pully brackets, water pump, etc. where im going with this is my car weighed 3780 when i bought it now it weighes less than 3500 lbs. it really helped to get the weight off the front of car,thanks for asking any thing else dont hesitate to ask as i will quiz you too, im still trying to fix this vibe , i have the car at a local speed/race shop and see what they think stay tuned........... drew

Thanks Drew, You have some pretty big tires on there. At the time I spec'd my front and rear suspension, they didnt have "Street" upper tubular control arms, only "race" available from Magnum Force, then Firm Feel came out with their Street/RoadRace/Strip H.D. Tubular upper control arms. I decided early on to upgrade only bolt on parts, no cutting or welding. This ruled out one of the most important chassis stiffening procedures for my car, subframe connectors. I thought about using bolt on connectors but could not find anyone with a good recommendation about them, so I omitted that idea. Instead, I choose The H.D. stiffest suspension I could get at that time. To start with i have a Firm Feel Manual 20:1 box, Fast ratio arm, 1.19 Torsion bars from Just Suspension, chrome moly lower control arm studs made for poly bushings, Moog Upper/Lower Ball Joints, 11/16 tie rod ends, original front sway bar,(I am going to upgrade to a 1"+ at some future point), Poly tranny mount, Rear Leafs are stock Hemi/440-6 H.D. stuff, H.D. Rear hangers, my rear leafs are boxed,(front) since it's an original SixPack/4 speed car, Edelbrock I.A.S. shocks, which are OK for now but I lust after a set of adjustable Koni's. The rear sway bar is all Firm Feel,(7/8") What I really need is to time my car around a 'course' make a few adjustments,(namely tire pressure), and establish a fast base time and go from there.

one problem i had with my car is the rear sway bar came from a t/a car and it was way to stiff, i do have some adjustable carrera shocks 12 points of ajdist. i was gonna tell ya my car was a 383 car and it was trashed,i mean the pass. quarter was caved in a foot! it was trashed,. But your car whew u really cant do alot of mods , i have massaged the wheel openings a little if i had your car i probably eventually would want to change to many things, so imj kinda lucky i can do what i want with this car i dont care what its worth i have 40 plus in it and it is a fun toy as you can tell from the vid. we are havin fun laughing i still giggle lol .drew

oh btw i did subframe connectors from xv motorsports, and they are sweet!

Thanks Drew, yeah if I had a little less rare machine I would have those contoured connectors in there plus Lite weight wheels and low profile meats! I would also add a 5 Speed Tremec and 8 3/4 Aluminum diff and 35 splined axels, detroit tru trac,... blah blah blah BTW, I did lessen the load on the front end quite a bit. First I used aluminum Eddies Heads, water pump, housing, intake. This in itself took off at least 75 lbs, most of it up high! I would love to figure out a way to git rid of the battery weight up front, I can feel that damned heavy box of lead through the turns I swear it!

you have a rare car and cant do too much oh btw i did some weighing my self and a 17 in tire is 5 lbs heavier than a 15 , and the wheel is heavier too! go figure i it dont make no sense but it is true . so dont sweat the corners ur fast enough i drove a sis pack car a long time ago and it had more torque than anything ive driven since!!!!!!

Thanks for the 15 vs. 17 wheel/tire weight tip Drew, thats good to know. I think my steelies are a little lighter than the 15" Rallyes that are currently on it. I am going to get them on before next season. I'll drive the R/T until about Dec or so, as long as it's not too cold and no snow! But next spring when it thaws out, I hope to have them on.