Lateral-g Forums - 67-69 Camaro/Firebird "Chassis Max Sway Bar Brace"

Quote:

Originally Posted by sik68 (Post 171669)

To Hotchkis (or others with knowledge of the chassis),

Do you consider the rear of the 1st generation F-bodies to be flimsy (for lack of a better term)? Relative to your subframe connectors (which I plan to purchase soon), how important do you consider this brace for chassis rigidity?

The word flimsy definitely pertains to the Camaro chassis when you add high horsepower, super sticky tires and monster brakes. The Camaro is old, and that’s why we love them. The chassis was not designed to take the stress of state of the art performance parts. Back in the day, a full race set up was 400hp and relatively narrow bias ply racing tires. That was it! Now your typical well built street small block makes over 400hp before the power adders. Attach a few turbos, some clever ECU programming and over 1000 hp is a no brainer. Add some 265+ extreme performance tires, some massive aftermarket brakes, or even some really good brake pads/rotors, and your stock Camaro chassis doesn’t have a chance. Talk about twist and flex! Now you may never outfit your Camaro with these extreme go fast goodies, but increasing the grip level and adding a modest amount of power will over stress your stock chassis. Good subframe connectors add substantial strength by tying in the subframe to the leaf spring chassis pick up point. They also reinforce the pick up point which is a weak spot, especially due to the shock of hard launches. Finally, because many enthuiasts don’t want to cut their floor, you should look into subframe connectors that install without modifications to the floor structure. Bottom-line, well built subframe connectors are essential Camaro chassis reinforcements for drivers that enjoy spirited driving and honest chassis feedback. And of course, nobody likes chassis flex and body cracks.

Thanks for asking!