My 68SS 396/auto has stock springs and sway bars. I am slowly updating the suspension with circle track weight jacket mounts on the axle for rear height adjustment and planning on Speedway Motor’s adjustable spring spacers for front height adjustment. I will be using reinforced stock lowers. I am just getting ready to order new springs (850#/250#) for the front and rear. I have been looking at the Varishock front coil over 1way adj. conversion kit. My question is why would I want to stay with my original plan and not switch to the coil over kit? The coil over kit is only about $100 more.
Are there performance gains or losses that I am missing? I was just leaning towards the circle track parts b/c i am more familiar with them. My car will be used mostly for street abuse and some autocross.

Front spring height adjusters $60
Front springs with new rates $110
Pair of Varishock stock location
1way adj. shocks $278
TOTAL $448
Varishock coil over kit TOTAL $550

Thanks

My 68SS 396/auto has stock springs and sway bars. I am slowly updating the suspension with circle track weight jacket mounts on the axle for rear height adjustment and planning on Speedway Motor’s adjustable spring spacers for front height adjustment. I will be using reinforced stock lowers. I am just getting ready to order new springs (850#/250#) for the front and rear. I have been looking at the Varishock front coil over 1way adj. conversion kit. My question is why would I want to stay with my original plan and not switch to the coil over kit? The coil over kit is only about $100 more.
Are there performance gains or losses that I am missing? I was just leaning towards the circle track parts b/c i am more familiar with them. My car will be used mostly for street abuse and some autocross.

Front spring height adjusters $60
Front springs with new rates $110
Pair of Varishock stock location
1way adj. shocks $278
TOTAL $448
Varishock coil over kit TOTAL $550

Thanks

I am in the same boat. I have my entire front end torn apart and plan on going with circle track springs w/adjusters and Varishocks. Two of my neighbors keep telling me to run coilovers since they do not cost that much more. They are running QA1’s.

BTW, where did you find a pair of Varishocks for $278? SC&C sells them for $354.

I was thinking I found them for $139ea, but I was wrong. I was going to buy them from SC&C, which would make the cost about equal. $525 vs. $550
The QA1s have their drawbacks, but the Varishock kit seems to have fixed all of the alignment and loading issues.
Thanks

I agree, all thing being equal, I'm going with the Varie Shock Coil-overs on the front as well. I think when most guys talk about the circle track adjusters being a cheaper way to achieve ride height adjustments they are not using the higher price adj. Varie Shocks w/ that setup, hence the lower cost. I've got the single adjustable Varie Shock coil-overs on the rear now and the way its going with my resto project I figure....... whats another $ 100 bucks :D

Tony

I was thinking I found them for $139ea, but I was wrong. I was going to buy them from SC&C, which would make the cost about equal. $525 vs. $550
The QA1s have their drawbacks, but the Varishock kit seems to have fixed all of the alignment and loading issues.
Thanks

I heard the Varishocks are better than the QA1's.

I now see the price of $278 on their site.

Thanks.

I posted in suspension section also about race car springs also but got no replies. I did talk to Mark at SC &C and he suggested to not go with coil overs on the front with stock front control arms due to some travel issues with the coil overs. He suggested Vari shocks with coil springs. With lowering springs for a big block 70 chevelle the choices seem to be very limited, either the Hotchkiss or Global West springs. The Eibachs are listed for small block only. The race car springs come in various spring rates for both front and rear, but I do not know how the install would go as they are limited in diameter and height. I could not find the dimensions for stock springs to go on a 70 from any of the websites I looked at. If you can find anything out I am really interested. I would like my install to be easy.
Thanks BB

First we need to note that there are two different types of coil over setups out there. The first is what I would term the classic design with the upper spring perch attached to the shock. Then there is the QA-1 setup which uses the OEM spring perch on top. This latter is really NOT a good idea as it can put the shock under a side load. I would stay way away from this design.

Next part of the question here is what will you gain by going to coil overs?

It will require modifications to install coil overs. For one the lower shock mount is not designed for that amount of load in that direction. The OEM setup provides relatively low loads on the compression side and moderate loads on the extension side. A coil over will provide impressively large loads on the compression side.

Also the upper mount will require changes as (I believe) coil over shocks use eye mounts rather than pin mounts.

With respect to technical advantages to the coil over, the only one I can see is a wider variety of spring rates to choose from. Of course this really only comes into play if the rate you want is not otherwise available.

You may wonder why "everybody" thinks coil overs are such great stuff? Well if you redesign the front suspension to take true advantage of them, then they can offer some real benefits. On the Mustangs/Camaros with strut front suspension the motion ratio changes significantly by converting to coil overs, from around 0.25 to 1. This allows much lower spring rates and lighter springs to the exact same job (same wheel rate) as the much higher rate and heavier OEM spring locations. But all of the available setups on the A-body just use the OEM spring location and thus gain nothing.

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35868&highlight=varishock

It will require modifications to install coil overs. For one the lower shock mount is not designed for that amount of load in that direction. The OEM setup provides relatively low loads on the compression side and moderate loads on the extension side. A coil over will provide impressively large loads on the compression side.

Also the upper mount will require changes as (I believe) coil over shocks use eye mounts rather than pin mounts.


Steve - just an fyi, the vari shock coil over 'conversion' shocks (VAS - 861MN-426) for our cars do not use a eye mount. It is a 'pin' that goes through the oem shock mount hole. I've run them with stock LCA's for 5 months now with no problems.

Good points, Steve.

From a adjustment point of view, the coilovers would be much easier to set ride height, aside from buying a spanner wrench. The circle track setup requires to detach the lower BJ and take the whole assembly out. I believe the Varishock OEM bolt ins must be installed in the spring first, due to the larger body.

I myself would probably "set it and forget it" as far as the ride height is concerned. I may just go circle track coils and varishock bolt ins.

I have single adjustable front QA1 coilovers in my Cutlass. I reinforced a set of lower control arms for strength. They have been on my car for 3 years with zero issues. I really like the way it rides.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44/ramair468/DSC00921.jpg