[David Pozzi]

TCI has been building street rod stuff for a long time and their market niche is low buck bread and butter builds. Their sub reflects this in using a Mustang II type spindle they make themselves instead of using an Aluminum Corvette assembly. There is a small weight penalty for using more steel parts but it may only be a few lbs. I drove their Camaro at the test and it was easy and pleasant to drive at an autocross. Their choice of springs was on the stiff side and I suggested they soften the spring rates to help that. The TCI car was just built prior to the Super Chevy test, and as far as tuning goes, they were quite fortunate to do so well in their first test, and should have a better ride compromise as far as springs, bars, and shocks after running the car more, - which they plan on doing.

DSE is far and away ahead on car testing and development, which shows up in getting a good ride out of the car and still handling incredibly well. Their subframe is very nice, probably very stiff, and very capable. A hydroformed sub with Corvette spindles and brakes is going to be more expensive to be sure. Does a splined sway bar work better than a non-splined? I think it's more of a cool factor, but you can swap bar diameters and re-use the same arms so there is perhaps a small savings if you do a lot of bar changes. Some of the other MFR's may not have as wide a selection of bar diameters for you.

The Morrison, & Speed Tech, subs are good and I think how the car handles and rides is more up to who is tuning the suspension than how the sub is made. They are probably small differences in camber gain and roll center height or movement, but truth be told, the tires are the biggest factor on sheer cornering power, and the driver is usually the deciding factor on winning or loosing an event.

The Alston sub is good, I think it only lacks proof and tuning at autox and track events. Steve Rupp is using their stuff on Track Rat and it will be interesting to see how it performs.

Jake's sub has performed wonders. I'm not as familiar with it, but he's certainly proved it works great.

I'm less for a stock sub these days, mainly because the new subs clear wider tires, & are more easily adjusted for ride height with coil overs that you can get at much easier than on a stock sub. I've also seen higher torsional resistance on the aftermarket subs than I thought they ever had.
David