Bought this firebird a while ago and trying to figure out what direction to go with it. First on my list of concerns is the front hub/brake assembly. I've never seen a wheel mount like this before and was wondering if anyone else has. I'm assuming the best way to go is with a newer style set-up. I'm hoping the lower mounts will be the same ?? I can get a single adjustable strut with the same upper mount. I'd like a regular 5 lug hub set-up. Car was supposedly built in the late 90's and has limited track time.

Any ideas / options would be greatly appreciated !!!

Datsun?

They were very common back in the 1980's

Might be Strange Struts and spindle mount wheels....

Had them on the '81 Camaro that my friend owned and I drove a year or two. That car was supposedly built with Don Hardy parts from the early 80's and the newer generation Strange struts were silver like in your picture. That was around 1990 era. I bracket raced the car and ran some S/G with it....

Those little hockey puck brakes is what I had on my Vega with the same mount but regular wheels. MY Vega had a Strange A-Arm front end.....Used Vega top arms and a custom lower that Strange built. Short coil over shocks

I never cared for any of that stuff.....

I'd get rid of it all......

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SCDIV1,

quote:

I'd get rid of it all......

Thanks for the info Rich !!

Getting rid of it has always been the plan, but I figured I'd ask lol. Got the makings of a pretty decent car.

Do these strut 4 link cars require a double adjustable strut or is a single sufficient enough ??? Certainly not much movement up front ..........

Bob the struts if I recall correct were 2" or 3" of travel at most

Strut front end cars were not a good choice for a foot braked car to me. No stored energy up front to help weight transfer

Both cars had ladder bars and were not real good hooking cars unless the track was good.

I gave in to trans brakes in the later 80's into the 90's and was using a T-brake in both cars off the bottom bulb with no delay box. They were illegal in that era. I Used rpm to change RT's and maybe front end limiters. Hitting the tires harder with a brake was usually better than footbraking....Those Cars were much to rigid with no weight transfer....
I tried the '69 with a Turbo 400 for a few races and that was ridiculous! No hook, spin my a-s-s off in low gear and couldn't even get to the shifter to make the 1-2 gear change in time...no auto shifter.


9.20's at 145+ was what both cars had for power.....BB's GM aluminum heads P/G 4.56 or 4.88 14x32'and 15x33's when GoodYear came out with their S/G tires...

I won races with both cars.....Beat Jim Harrington in the final at one using a T-Stop on the '81 car and going 10.0's.....That was one I never forgot....Had the ticket stuck on the wall at the car owners garage for years....

To me the strut front end was about like driving a straight axle car....I used to crank the springs up on the '81 car to top out the struts to eliminate travel for S/G.
That technique was not good.....front end to rigid and way to stiff.....I did the same thing with my Vega.....With faster trans brakes for S/G racing that was not needed....

Jumping back and forth from Brackets to S/G Pro Tree racing was always a little bit of a challenge...

It's why Pro Tree racers generally did not bracket race much....

Those appear to be normal direct mount wheels. I am only aware of two sizes of direct/spindle mount wheels, Anglia and Strange. The struts look very old. If they are Strange struts, they are older than 1987. I've had date code 1987 Strange struts in my hand and they had the same strut body that current struts use. Those look very "racey" for possibly 40 year old technology, maybe they are Lamb's, don't know. You should have safety washers on your out tie rod bolts also

they are Strange struts from the 80's. Strange called them "Bar stock struts" they are not rebuildable, at least by Strange. I had two older cars with them back in the day...