Hey guys-tech question

[amber@ridetech.com]

I had the following question posed to me on another forum but I'm not very well versed in the whole suspension geometry aspect, so I wanted to get your thoughts to pass on. I've seen some other mods this guy has done and he's extremely ingenuitive and does great work. Project (I think) is a '99 T/A (or other 4th gen f-body), here's his question:
"Maybe you can give me some input on this idea. Since I'm getting rid of the rear seat, what if I were to make some new lower control arms that were longer, stronger and mounted a little more inboard? It would probably soften the ride as well as give me full up and down movement. I could also play around with the bag size (6 inch to 8 inch) as well as the amount of leverage it has. What do you think?"
And a picture of what he's thinking of:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6850/dsc031461chb6.jpg
What do you think?

[darren@ridetech.com]

What's wrong with the standard CoolRide kit that we have? It gets a lot of travel, I would say 6" +.

[britt@ridetech.com]

I would venture to say the only advantage to lengthening the lower arms is to move the leverage from the rear end forward. The torque from the rear end trying to lift would be transfered to a further forward area on the car. This is ok with a traditional 4-link set up, but that vehicle uses a torque arm to accomplish the same thing.
I don't think you'd be gaining anything.