What are you F-body guys who are primarily streetcars and some autoX using for torque arms? Right now I'm stock. I have been bent on the idea of a global west trac link after the SOTP feel in a friend's car. But now I'm thinking a simple full length adjustable like the UMI 2205 should do the job without feeling too noticeable and noisy. What's your opinion?

We have a Spohn on our 95 Z28, and the thing rattles like mad even though everything's tight under there. We have what I thought was another Spohn on our CP car, but I'm not certain. The torque arm has a rod that sticks out the front end of it that goes through a rod end bolted to the crossmember. Everything that moves up there is covered by a dust cover, and the front end of the TA is free to rotate and move forward and backward. Nice and simple, and we hear no noise from it at all. Granted, the car has a louder exhaust, and rod-ended everything, but I hear no rattles that I can attribute to the T/A. I tried some searches, but cannot find anything like it online. I got it from a friend who was moving to a 3-link on his Firebird, and he has had it for ever, so I have no clue where the thing came from, although Spohn is a suspect.

For autox, youd want to stick with a full length style arm. A short length one with it's different leverage will plant tires better during accelleration but hurt the ability to brake just as much, and probably increase chances of brake hop quite a bit.

How much though is the real benefit of going from the stock torque arm to a full length tubular torque arm? What are the benefits. This is all I can think of:
-decrease chances of brake hop
-adjustable pinion angle for adjustable TA's
-any notice in difference between accelleration or braking???

I put on a UE decoupled torque arm last year. I'm still tuning around with it, but the traction under accelleration was instantly better. It's a great arm but a little bit more work to install compared to a normal torque arm.

I've got a Hotchkis full length TA that I really like but I need to sell it due to the CMC rules not allowing them.

And it's red, that makes it work even better

I would go with a UE TQ Arm... Best of both worlds - better grip under accel, no braking issues because it decouples

UE is awesome...but just for argument sake does anyone know how the Global West decoupled arm performs in comparison. Both are decoupled arms, the UE looks to be a much higher quality (beefier piece) but the GW unit is about 1/2 the price...Anyone have experience with GW? Again, I totally support UE, just asking for input.

It's fascinating how a little controversy will sometimes shake you out of the doldrums of inactivity.

+1 for the unbalanced engineering torque arm assembly. When I was running it at Memphis and Gingerman, the car was incredibly fun to drive fast. Someone recently resurrected an old thread on thirdgen.org about it and I got soundly flamed for being such a putz for actually using one (he even called me a mechanical idiot). It got me a bit miffed so I guess I need to get off my butt and do some actual driving again.

I'd like to hear what the latest techniques are for tuning it. I also need a new set of shocks front & rear - and could use suggestions. Swindle's custom valved Bilstein shocks, maybe? Are they still available?

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From what I remember about Global West, they make decent stuff and wouldn't be afraid to try it. However when choosing your torque arm, decide what's important: Street durability, Drag race hook, or road course/autocross performance. Let that drive your decision. Each company has experience in one, perhaps two of the three when creating their product.

I just went to the GW website... I didn't see a decouple version.

I don't really see the point of any conventional aftermarket TA - Unless you are drag racing and need more strength because you are launching the car extremely hard.

Decouple TA is the only thing that makes sense to me but I could be wrong.

You just have to see it let an F body out-brake everything else and you'd be convinced. I am still exploring the deep, deep ends of the fastest straights, but only the very best factory roadracers can stay with me. Worth every nickle.

See what? A UE decoupled on a thirdgen? Pics would be great, that's where I'm leaning if it's the best of both worlds.

For simplicity's sake I run the UMI adjustable "standard replacement" style. Impeccable street manners, with improved launching and braking. But somehow I get the idea I'm not as serious about racing as you guys

I'm really leaning toward that idea, either the bmr or umi adjustable long arm. Are you running a relocation bracket? I'm lowered 1.5" and am concerned about ground clearance issues.

Unless I came across a good deal on a global west or UE arm, I can't justify spending that much.

Okay, PM your email address to me and I'll see what I have to show you. It was a complex install but works so well it was the best single change to the car since I built it in 2004. You will need a fabricator or at least a good welder to get it done.

If you're near Mission Raceway Park sometime this summer you can see it in action. Here's a little video of my buddy from Prince George driving the car for the first time last October when his Camaro tossed its cam. He started last and passed 16 cars and was working on the 2nd place 'vette in the video when the race ended. The Acura-engined Honda driver was incensed when he couldn't outbrake or out accelerate my 3400 lb. TA with its year-old tires.

PS - This was his first race since open-heart surgery! He was amazed to find the car so driveable. I took the vid from a long distance with my smartphone because the Honda looked like he was going to hit my car for about 5 laps in this corner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTTOuPYPxY

Depends on the car.
The LT1 car I had used the arm section of a Global West Track Link and mounted with a custom mount with the "pin" of the arm in a rod end.
It planted like mad and didn't have brake hop.
I took it off because one of the Pro Solo's I ran the car wheel hopped on acceleration like mad. It went away, but I also made a shock change at the same time.
FWIW the even before that one with that arm it worked great.

If/when I do it again it will be a similar setup.

Thats the fallacy here. A standard one piece aftermarket torque arm does NOTHING for you. it won't allow you to brake later or launch harder than you can with a stock arm. Unless you have so much power and traction that you're bending the stock torque arm(highly unlikely) then bolting on a tubular one is doing nothing but lightening your wallet.

I have to say apart from relieving the stress off the gearbox tailsection which kept working loose (Muncie) and eliminating brake hop the Spohn one which cost me a fortune to import didnt help with the lap times. Its also mega heavy and meant I had to run a compromised single exhaust so if anything probably slowed me down. I may eventually do away with it and try to modifiy the gearbox cross member we fabricated to run the standard TA directly from that. Oh the other problem I got was the force on the gearbox with the standard arm kept ripping apart the gearbox mounting.

I ran the stock TA in my ITE 4th gen, with a poly bushing. Watch for cracks at the narrow spots at the bolt holes in the rear. The rear of the car was fussy about the tightness of the shock mounts, if rodend shock ends are legal in your class that would make more difference than an aftermarket long TA.

A common complaint of the stock TA is tearing up the mount, and/or damaging the trans. I was using a ES poly trans mount, a fresh one every season or 2, and a poly TA mount, with no issues. I suspect some of the problems other folks are having are from letting the OEM rubber TA mount/trans mounts disintegrate, allowing that stuff to flop around and beat things up.

The upper bolt on the TA mount clamshell is easy to crossthread, I have the helicoil kit for that.

The only possible advantage I can see to a properly designed aftermarket long TA is on a street car that can't tolerate the vibes from a poly trans mount - if the TA is mounted to the trans Kmember instead, it may reduce NVH. Or, of course if you are drag racing or doing Pro Solo launches and breaking the OEM TA. All the aftemarket long arms are heavy.

The GW TA is not decoupled, it is just short. It is very heavy. Watch the classisfieds for a used one if you want to try it, I have personally removed them and installed the UE DCTA on 3 cars.

I, personally, just landed a great deal on a stock length, adjustable Random Tech torque arm. I couldn't pass up on the price the guy was selling it for. I really wanted a Global West trac link but the price on those things are ridiculous. Not to mention, I've noticed plenty of experienced autox guys advising that stock length tubular torque arms get the job done just fine.