Herb Adam's Chassis Engineering book does a decent job at the Torque Arm basics, though I would personally not go with anything shorter than at LEAST 48", longer being preferred. I toyed with the idea of doing a ~42" setup on an early Mustang years back, but even with that car (lighter, shorter), I'd still go longer if I were to do it again. I think the effective length of a late model F body is of the order of ~60" or so, that would be just about right, no shorter in my humble opinion. Brake hop is the main issue and I'd go to great lengths to minimize/eliminate, I know of a guy that runs a late Camaro on the track and he "still" gets this under certain circumstances. High speed braking zones are not the place where you want to compromise performance.
The three link ideas floating around for the A bodies are also something you should consider, the main issue being gaining clearance for a long upper link past the crossmember on the frame. Here again though, if you want to do it yourself, the devil is in the details, and they are important details. Be safe.
M
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