“Speed Tech Performance’s Track Time Kit Changes the Way ’70– 81 F-bodies Handle for the Better … Without Changing the Whole Car.”
“Speed Tech designed a new suspension around the ATS knuckle. What emerged is the Track Time kit, a complete system that promises performance improvements usually exclusive to aftermarket subframe systems. Only this one does it with a twist: it fits the stock subframe.”
“…As noted previously, the centerpiece of this kit owes its existence to a retrofit of a first-gen knuckle. A few years prior, American Touring Specialties, now part of Speedtech, drew upon the second-gen’s taller knuckle design to create knuckles that improve the camber curve on ’64- 72 A cars , ’67- 69 Fs, and ’68 –74 X cars (hence the knuckle’s AFX designation).
The knuckle’s trump card in this application is weight, specifically its lack of it. …But weight is only part of the knuckle’s advantage. Shape accounts for the rest. Like most aftermarket knuckles, it lowers the suspension; however, it does it in an intelligent way. Instead of simply relocating the wheel vertically (upwards) as is done with most knuckles, it relocates it vertically and slightly horizontally. In this case, the wheel migrated along the suspension’s steering-axis inclination (SAI).
The shorter arm also speeds up the steering ratio in the same way a numerically lower steering box ratio does. Speed Tech takes it one step further by including in their kit a super-fast 12.7:1 power steering box.”
“…Though knuckles distinguish Speed Tech’s system, it should be obvious by now that they’re really only a part in an assembly: the kit includes special control arms and two coilover/damper options sprung and tuned specifically for the application. But by engineering everything around those parts, the company has created an entire system where everything works together to achieve a specific goal: superlative handling.”
Read the full article at Camaro Performers Magazine, September 2012.