Steering, Suspension, & Brakes

Hello everyone first of all this site rocks and I am so glad I found it when I bought my TR6. I am working on redoing it and right now I am in my suspension reasearch phase. I have a 69 Tr6 that will have a 347 in it with a narrowed ford 9" under the back end. I plan to run a Ratco frame. I know ratco makes a coil over conversion for it but I am curious if this wll still work with the ford 9" or should I look into something else? I am really impressed with the QA1 setups. Also in the front already a coil over setup? I am sorry I am unable to see my car right now (it's 1200 miles away) so I am unable to check for myself. Any pictures would be great. Also does anyone have any pictures of a four link setup on a TR6? Also could I get pics of a ford 9" under the rear end of the vehicle as well as the stock rear end?

Welcome Dustin, plenty of pictures of various TR6's with swaps both front and rear in the photo archives [www.britishv8.org] . Ted Lathrop's car has a 9" Ford rear mounted on a 5 link with coil over shocks, sounds like what you had in mind. Plenty of other options as well, including upgrades to the original IRS which would work well. Randy Schultz used a modified IRS and TR6 chassis in his TR3+4 [www.britishv8.org] which would work pretty well with a reasonable sized V8. I'm sure you will find plenty of occupy your time until you can get back to your own car.

I think the first thing to do is phone Tony (at RATCO) and Ted (at Fast Cars). They're both extremely helpful and open about sharing their knowledge of TR6's. If Tony says his suspension will do the job, than I'd believe him. Tony is building his own TR6 V8, and he's built a lot of frames for customers! Ted is building a TR6 V8 at the moment for Van Wilder (who also posts sometimes on this board), plus of course he has his own red Chevy-powered TR6 with a 4-link rear and a 9" axle. (It's STRONG, and it's also a very smooth riding car. I think Ted would be the first to tell you that there are things he'd do differently on that car today... just like all of us, right? Maybe it's a little heavier than it needed to be, and also Ted has become a big proponent of three-link rear suspension.) Incidentally, both these guys are sponsors of this website. We'll be featuring their TR6 projects in upcoming articles!

The key decision that you need to make and communicate to these guys is "What do you want out of this car?" Are you really planning on drag racing it, or do you want to carve up mountain roads in it? Or maybe you want to autocross in it? How much priority do you put on ride quality? Or are you mostly looking for a fun project? How much tuning and development of the suspension are you willing and able to do for yourself? (Ted mentioned once that he went through a LOT of springs before he got his TR6 suspension dialed-in to his liking. Of course, now he's experienced!)

Did you already find this article? Installing a Mustang II suspension on a TR6 At the bottom of it, Les Shockley included a pair of before-and-after photos of his TR6 front suspension.

Thank you for the reply's I knew I forgot to post what I was looking for out of the car. Well I want a good looking ride but more importantly I want something that can handel great. I plan for it to be a weekend driver with the occasional drag race/auto cross car. I know it's pretty much impossible to build a suspension for both. I would say #1 autocross #2 drag. I am going to run an adjustable 4 link. I am willing to take time to dial in the suspension as I know it takes time for any good project. I have seen the modified mustand suspension however I am not a fan of cutting springs cause I think it changes the whole dynamics of it and also I would like to run a progressive setup. Mostly I want a good riding car but performance is more important to me.

Here are some photos of the 4 link I did. The coil overs are in front of the axle so that I could put the panard bar behind the axle without getting into the trunk sheet medal. The car has 60,000 miles on it with a lot of drag racing, some autocross and open track. I think it does well as an open track car and auto cross but you might want to work out a 3 link if drag racing is on the bottom of your list. When I drag race I run slicks with a best time of 10.96 at 127 MPH. Look for Dale Knapke in the photo gallery above for pictures of the car. The last picture shows that the 4 link gets the job done on the drag strip. I would be glad to discuss what I have if you like. You can e-mail me at tr6turbo@hotmail.com