Building a show car – II

Hello and welcome to the second part in the building a show car series. Today we’re going to look at suspension, which is also a very important area on a car. When at a car show the judges don’t just look at all the cool stuff like big TV screens, how good the sound system is etc they look all around the car. Suspension on a car consists of the brakes and the suspensions which can be coil-overs, a -arms, drop forks, sway bars, steering knuckles, roll cage and undercarriage.

The first thing to do is replace the stock brakes with a big brakes kit, Brembo, Stoptech, AEM are just a few of the companies that manufacture big brake kits. You can upgrade the rotor size to 13 inches, and the rotors can vary between being cross drilled, slotted or both. In my experience you are best off going for the slotted kit as these are proven to be the most efficient when it comes to braking performance. A big brake kit usually comes with heavy duty callipers which you can paint with high heat calliper paint to match the colour of your car.

For the suspension itself most people would just get lowering springs. At a car show more is needed than just lowering springs, a hi tech suspension system is recommended like a full coil-over system. If you can’t afford a full coil-over suspension system then just change the springs and shocks so that they are not stock, as basically everything on a car at a car show should not be stock. For the rest of the suspension drop forks, sway bars, steering knuckles, a-arms and sway bars can be ripped out and chromed or powder coated with a colour to match your car. This takes a lot of work but the judges will hopefully notice how much effort you have put into it and award you extra points.

The roll cage adds to the looks of the car, but also serves its purpose for protecting the occupants from being injured in an accident. The best thing to do is instead of buying and fitting a pre made one is go to a chassis place and have them custom build you one. Make sure the roll cage is chromed or powder coated with a colour that matches the car to keep the overall theme.

The last thing to do for modifying the suspension is pimp out the under carriage. The petrol tank and the entire exhaust system can be chromed or powder coated with a colour to match the car.

Author: Jim Haskard, More car articles can be found at www.cruisegb.com