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View Full Version : Comparing AME front suspension to C4



chevynut
12-11-2016, 11:17 AM
Since we went through a pretty thorough comparison of the C4 front suspension to a stock and modified stock tri5 suspension, I thought it would be informative to do the same with the AME front suspension. AME doesn't offer a C4, C5, or C6 option for their tri5 frames, just their own design. Their own front suspension design has proved to be very good, so I wonder how it compares to the C4 geometry.

Does anyone here have an AME suspension or dimensions for them? NickP? :)

I think we need....

Length of lower a-arm (pivot to balljoint center)
Length of upper a-arm (pivot to balljoint center)
Length of spindle (balljoint center to balljoint center)
Vertical distance between inner a-arm pivots (same side)
Horizontal distance between inner a-arm pivots (same side)
Steering axis inclination (can be derived from the above)
Upper a-arm angle (anti-dive)

Not sure what else is relevant for comparing geometries.

NickP
12-11-2016, 01:15 PM
I'll measure Monday.

fiddysix
12-11-2016, 02:59 PM
I have a Morrison frame with c5 front

chevynut
12-11-2016, 04:56 PM
I have a Morrison frame with c5 front

I have never seen one in their catalogs or elsewhere. Got any pics?

This is what's in their catalog....https://www.artmorrison.com/55-57chev.php

chevynut
12-11-2016, 05:06 PM
I have a Morrison frame with c5 front

Looking in the AME catalog I see that they sell "bikini clips" with C6 front suspensions or you can order a custom "2x4 Profile" frame. But their standard tri5 frame doesn't have, and has never been offered with a C4/5/6 suspension as far as I know.

chevynut
12-11-2016, 05:28 PM
I did some cursory looking at the C5/6 front suspensions and I don't see anything that makes them any better than the C4 suspensions. It used to be that you could get better brakes on them, but now you can adapt C5/6 to a C4 spindle, or even put big aftermarket brakes on early or late C4s. The C5/6 is a lot harder to use unless you buy a clip from someone like AME, or a frame built for the narrowed C5/6 suspension.

Anyhow, I was more interested in their standard Sport GT Tri5 frames with their own IFS.

Oldxr
12-12-2017, 08:02 PM
I am building a 57 210 that uses a front clip from a company called Street Rod Garage out of Alabama.It uses c5 a-arms,spindles,brakes.The oem c5 vette was a wide beast.After assembly I cycled the front suspension with no springs or shocks.It seemed to have a lot of geometry change thru it’s travel.This is not an ideal situation but it’s what you get when you mix and match parts.I am sure the suspension pick up points are a lot closer together width wise than the vette.I don’t think Street Rod Garage makes this front clip anymore.Thier website shows a complete frame designed in house like AME.There is a software called Solidworks that is used to design and analyze the suspension before it is built so it has the proper operating geometry.Since chevynut uses the c4 front crossmember on his system the suspension is operating as Chevrolet designed it.Most lowered cars use very little travel anyway.An extreme example of engineering to maintain geometry during travel would be a baja race truck.I guess it all boils down to you get what you pay for.

BamaNomad
12-12-2017, 09:11 PM
Street Rod Garage (Grant, AL) will build you a custom chassis for just about any car, with just about any suspension, front and rear. What they *favor* is front and rear suspension similar to that used by AME .. ie. 9" ford rear and their own tubular A-arm front suspension with coil-overs all the way around. They have built custom chassis for over 50 different vehicles...

Oldxr
12-13-2017, 10:32 AM
I am not knocking Street Rod Garage’s work.The workmanship on the part received was a 10 out of 10.I am more or less knocking myself for expecting a better result when I should have known better. I have been working on anything with a motor for 50 years.I am sure the car I am working on will be fine when it is done. I wish I was good with design software but I am probably to old for that.

chevynut
12-13-2017, 03:35 PM
The C5/6 front suspension is considerably wider than even a late C4 suspension. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is but it’s something like 4-5” wider at the wheel mounting surfaces. That makes it somewhere around 7” wider than a stock tri5 front suspension. Sure they can be brought in narrower but then you can run into problems with space for exhaust between the a-arm shafts. And if narrowing it that much I would think you’d want to understand the effects on suspension geometry and how to correct it.

chevynut
12-13-2017, 03:40 PM
Found this on the corvette forum:

”Since the offset values of the wheels are well-known, one can compute the hub-to-hub dimensions from the track dimension, and doing the math, they come out the same for for both C5 and Z06....and those (hub-to-hub) dimensions are 66.6" front and 67.2" rear.”

So that makes the front suspension 4.6” wider than a c4. The rear is 4” wider.

NickP
12-14-2017, 09:04 AM
I'll measure Monday.

Well, shame on NickP for never measuring.

55 Rescue Dog
12-14-2017, 04:23 PM
I sure wished the C5 setup was an easy mod, because it is a much better platform by far over the C4, and still hard to beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB_WN7OwcGQ

chevynut
12-14-2017, 07:42 PM
I sure wished the C5 setup was an easy mod, because it is a much better platform by far over the C4, and still hard to beat.


How is it "better"? It is probably better at full width because of the increased track width, but when narrowed to C4 width I don't see any reason it's any better. Why do you think so?

Conversely you could build a widened C4 front end by 4.6" and I believe it would perform comparably.