Hey I was in line today hunting for parts for my malibu when I came across a kit that allows you to drop one end of the contol arm on the rear end they say it will improve 60 ft times by a 1/10 its ...Its made up of two lowering brackets that weld onto the shock bracket I think UMI makes them ..My thought was always to make sure that the lower control arm was even with the rocker panel if I use this kit it will drop one end 2 to 4 " what is the opinion on these kits are they worth it Thanks
G Body Lower Control Arms
- Thread starter colin
- Start date
colin said:
Where did that "thought" come from?? What you want to look at is the "instant center" thats the point where the imaginary lines from the upper control arm passes the imaginary line from the lower control arm. Those brackets move the instant center towards the rear of the car, thus planting the rear wheels harder. Keep in mind you also have to have the correct pinion angle.
Heres a diagram of the principles behind it. Those relocating brackets were also part of the South Side Machine "lift bars"
The blue line is the new angle of the lower control arm with the relocating brackets:
... yeah and on lower powered cars, hitting the tire harder is a good thing usually. But... on higher powered cars that have the power to hit the tire hard on their own, hitting it extra hard w/ lift bars and relocation brackets sometimes causes wheelstands, inconstent 60 ft's, launches where it'll hook initially and then unload, tire shake, etc...
1.37 to 1.40 60' times anywhere, anytime, with deadly consistency with my SSM setup.
I'm low HP, I guess. (550-570?)
If you weld the brackets the setup is not NHRA Stock class legal.....just in case you are interested. Must be bolted only.
I'm low HP, I guess. (550-570?)
If you weld the brackets the setup is not NHRA Stock class legal.....just in case you are interested. Must be bolted only.
Goob said:
Mine are only bolted too. I'm also in the 5-550hp range and my SSM Lift bars hook rather well.
One thing everybody has to remember is that the ride height of the car plays a huge role in where the instant center is with the GM A and G bodies. If the car is no lowered, I think these brackets work well on cars down into the low 10s.
I'm no expert on this subject, but it seems as though if the car is lowered and the lower control arm is more parallel with the ground, that a set of relocation brackets or SSM bars would even better improve the instant center. Please, If I am wrong explain it to me because I want to understand this principle. This is the next thing that I have to deal with on my car and it sits about 2" lower than stock.
My car sits pretty low and I have the arm relocation brackets installed, can anyone tell from my pics if the brackets might help or do I just need to run them and see what the different positions do? I have a lot of converter and plan on spraying progressively off the line up to ~200hp a couple seconds later.
When you lower the car, dont forget that the upper control arm angle changes also. If you lower the car a bunch, and add the relocation brackets on the lower control arm mounts you are going to end up with a very short instant center length and it will hit the tires really hard. If you have a bunch of power you can actually hit the tire too hard.
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