I just bought a 40 Buick streetrod and it rode like a truck, an old truck at that. First off the rear tires looked old and they were--prior to the 1990 dating codes. 6 belt rayon belted at that. Any way, the car has a mid 80s Comaro rear frame graft and its all back there. The Camero has both a hotchkiss bar and a torque arm. The hotchkiss runs axle on one side to frame on the other and helps with stability of the rear in corners. The torque arm runs from the rear center along the driveshaft to the frame close to the tranny. It provides protection from the axle rotating from torque and thereby forcing the pinion up and disturbing the driveshaft to pinion angle. Has this car drag raced--you bechha. Anyhow the Camaro hotchkiss bar is a fixed length set for std ride height and this car received a drag race modification of shackeling down the rear springs to lower it and to get faster weight on the rear tires. The std hotchkiss was too long and was pushing the body sideways and it had the whole rear suspension bound up. One of the adjustable kotchkiss bars made a lot of difference in ride. Neat how the mechanic figured this out. Now I need to try unshackling some of the coils and add some new rubber bottom outs. Onward and Upward! Chuck
