[Overkillphil]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

In the suspension shootout between Herb Adams and Dick Gulstrand, Adams won the matchup with softer springs and the largest sway bars he could bend up. I believe they were 1 5/16 inch front, I can't recall the rear size.

For those of you that don't know who Herb Adams is, he was the suspension designer at Pontiac and designed the original suspension for the T/A. Dick Gulstrand was mostly noted for Corvette suspensions and his approach was stiff springs and small sway bars. In any published information Adams has always said large bars to control body roll and soft springs that more easily conform to road irregularities to keep the tires in contact with the road.

Here is a link to the thread talking about the shootout:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...Dick+Gulstrand

There are definitely two schools of thought about what makes a better handling 2nd Gen F body. In my own 73 T/A I followed Adams suggestions for a street driven autocross car and had great success with it winning the local SCCA championship for the year I ran the car.

There is a reference to another shootout that Ken Crocie refers to that I have never read, someone asked for a link to the article, but none was ever furnished.

X2!

Btw, I followed the Adams approach with my 2nd gen birds since the early 80's and never had a problem with front end dive/rear axle unloading during hard braking. But I also did whatever I could to remove unnecessary weight from the front of those cars which helped considerably.

Regarding the stock front springs: I trimmed mine to get the stance I wanted. Ride was always great but firm and the cars handled beautifully on the street and didn't swap lanes unexpectedly when hard cornering and encountering rough, washboard surfaces unlike friends Camaros with rock hard springs.