MG Sports Cars

Hi everyone, Im doing my ford 302 v8 conversion on my 1974 mgb and I am debating on pulling the trigger on a fast cars front suspension. I want to hear from some people who have used it what their take is. What has it improved on the car and is it worth it or just rebuild the stock suspension?

Personally, I believe it transforms the handling of the car....and it is adjustable, something you will not have with the stock setup.

I saved about 75 pounds over the stock unit as well....

Decide before you buy if you will need the wider version....especially nice if you're adding flares to the wings.

The Sennekers are good people to work with.

I have one and I would agree with Rick, less weight and better handling. The bigger brakes are an added plus as well.
Since my car has flared fenders, I opted for the 2" wider version. It allowed me to use wheels with better back spacing, which improved the scrub radius and handling.

Bill

I rebuilt the stock suspension. Most of the weight loss is in the hubs, brakes and shocks. Probably 10 and certainly no more than 20 lbs in the crossmember. CCE is presently selling off their last remaining stock in aluminum hubs for something around $400 a set. That's a good deal, I spent nearly $100 on the billet stock to turn mine from. I used WW's reman shocks with external valving, most of that is sprung weight and they are superior to coil-over units but heavier. I also used air bags in place of the springs. Jury is still out on that one but I will have decided by this summer what the advantages/disadvantages are. So far the ride is very good but I'm not yet convinced of any handling advantages.

The FC unit is good kit, the one weakness in in the upper and lower shock attachments which should be replaced periodically. (annually maybe)

Jim

Quote:

The FC unit is good kit, the one weakness in in the upper and lower shock attachments which should be replaced periodically. (annually maybe)

You're talking about the bearings Jim? I've had mine for 6-8 years & about 26k miles. Only one of the four (upper/lower each side) bearings has shown signs of wear.

Yeah, the rod ends on the shocks, I think the life can vary a great deal depending on a lot of different things.

Jim

Just thought I would weigh in here with my 2 cents on the Fast Cars front suspension unit. I used it on my car with a Ford 302 V8 conversion and I absolutely love it. I saved weight and improved the handling and stopping of the car, without question. I used the wider version as I added flares and that gave me some more options on wheel choice. Overall, very happy with my decision to go with this unit.

One advantage of the stock suspension is that needle bearings are available to replace the bronze thrust washers at the top of the king pins. The needle bearings do reduce steering effort, something like the ball bearings at the top of struts in many cars now.

I assume the Fast Cars suspension has a reduced caster angle compared to stock; caster reduction also helps reduce steering effort and caster reduction wedges are very useful with the stock suspension. The high caster angles were more necessary with bias ply tires.

I like the extra clearance under the sump. I have to pull the engine/transmission to remove the sump with the stock suspension.

Finally, there are rubber seals available to keep dirt out of metal heim joints (which I assume are used for the shock mounting).

Have you tried those seals Larry? Really only work when the ball is perfectly centered, which is usually never.

Jim

I use the seals on sway bar bushings, but I do agree they are not perfect.

Greaseable bearings are made but I do not know if they are available for the Fast Cars suspension. Even if some can be found that fit, the shock eyes will have to be drilled for grease fittings and they may not be thick enough for that so maybe some metal will have to be added by welding at the fitting site. Modifications needed…

I installed the seals on the shocks in my Fast Cars front end. So far they seem to be working, though admittedly I don't have a lot of miles on them yet.
The drawback to using Heim joints on the street is that they are exposed to water and road grime for much greater distances then in a race car. This in turn, causes the joint to wear/squeak over time. The seals are inexpensive and I figured that even if the seals only reduce the amount of road debris exposed to the joint, it's still better then nothing at all.

When installing them on the shock joints, you do have to machine or grind some thinkness off of the shock joint spacers to compensate for the thickness of the stainless steel washer in the seal itself.

Bill