When Chevy first introduced the sporty new Camaro in 1967, turning fast and tight in the corners was not a prime concern. Suspension technology was just emerging from its cocoon in those days and the public's desire for a great handling performance car just wasn't what it is today. But with three years of unchallenged success on the Trans Am circuit under its belt, GM's engineers decided to redo the popular Camaro's body and suspension, subsequently a much better handling car was made available to the public.
The second-generation Camaro released midway through 1970 was a vast improvement over the first version and incorporated strategic bits of technology that the race teams had been using to keep their on-track Camaros one step ahead of the competition. Fast forward a dozen years or so and further technological improvements found on the race course again allowed the Bow-Tie camp to offer a much better handling F-car to an ever-eager, more aggressive consumer. Jump forward another decade and Chevrolet designed what can truly be called the best handling and best stopping F-body ever built-the Fourth-Generation Camaro.
Here's the entire Vette Brakes and Products TVL front suspension system. The tubular lower
In The Shadow Of The Vette
During the first three generations of Camaro production the Corvette was stealing its thunder on the road courses and canyons of America. Some buyers wanted a stealth Camaro that could not only keep up with the Vette, but also beat it in both price and performance. Something had to be done to make the old Camaros ride and drive like more than just the nice old musclecar it was thought to be. Enter Vette Brakes and Products of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Taking its name solely into consideration, you may wonder what Vette Brakes has to do with making an old Camaro handle? Not only does the company manufacture its own line of quality brake components for Corvettes and Camaros, they also manufacture their own complete line of performance suspension products for F-bodies and Vettes. And we're not just talking about sway bars and shocks. Vette Brakes was one of the first manufacturers to pioneer the use of fiberglass leaf springs on high-performance cars and also fabricate its own tubular steel control arms. What the engineers at Vette Brakes did for the Second-Generation Camaro was to combine the improved wear, reaction, and lightweight characteristics of fiberglass springs with the Corvette's mono-leaf suspension design to create the ltimate in a bolt-on, F-body suspension.
Installation of the TVL suspension is straightforward. After removing the wheels and tires
Tubular Control
Vette brakes engineered the Camaro front suspension system using a single, lightweight fiberglass leaf spring running transversely inside the factory K-member and new tubular steel lower control arms. Some added benefits of using a fiberglass mono-leaf spring include: long-lasting fade/sag resistance, adjustable spring rate and ride height, lighter weight, and a spring that will never rust. Installation of the Vette Brakes Transverse Leaf (TVL) suspension kit is relatively straightforward and well within the capabilities of the average car enthusiast.
The only difficult part of the whole job involves cutting the factory K-member (We used a Hobart Air Force 250A Plasma Cutter, but a Sawzall will also work.) to allow mounting the fiberglass spring inside of it. Then it was a simple matter of replacing the lower control arms and installing the spindles and shocks. We even went an extra step and installed Vette Brakes tubular upper A-arms that are an immense improvement over the factory stamped steel units. The Vette Brakes arms improve handling by repositioning the upper ball joint, which stabilizes tracking at speed and works better with today's aggressive radial tire designs. Vette Brakes also supplied custom valved Bilstein shocks for all four corners and a 1 1/4-inch front anti-sway bar. In the back of our trick '70 big-block Camaro we added a matching set of 200-pound Vette Brakes rear mono-leaf fiberglass springs and a 7/8-inch rear anti-sway bar.
-
With new tubular upper control arms to install, the stock arms had to come off. That meant
-
Next we yanked out the lower control arms and scribed the area to be cut on the K-member u
-
We cut the K-member using a Hobart Air Force 250A Plasma cutter. This 110V machine include
-
After some cleanup work with a 4-inch grinder, the K-member is ready to receive the spring
-
Vette Brakes supplies a new 9/16-inch control arm mounting bolt. The hole in our Camaro wa
-
Using the leaf spring mounting bracket as a template, we drilled the two lower mounting ho