Replace your mushy rubber bushings with our polyurethane control arm bushing sets. These polyurethane bushings are unaffected by oil, smog, road salt, and most chemicals, so they wont soften, compress, or distort like rubber does. So, next time you turn the steering wheel, take a high-speed corner, or accidentally hit some potholes, our housing bushings will give your ride the buffer and control to handle the roads ahead. 
Replace your mushy rubber bushings with our polyurethane control arm bushing sets. These polyurethane bushings are unaffected by oil, smog, road salt, and most chemicals, so they wont soften, compress, or distort like rubber does. So, next time you turn the steering wheel, take a high-speed corner, or accidentally hit some potholes, our housing bushings will give your ride the buffer and control to handle the roads ahead. 





 Southside Machine Performance is well known in the racing world. From solid bushed lift bar set ups for the drag racers to full blown G Machines and everything in between. An unsurpassed tech line and engineers that never sleep. All built in the USA! 



 

​If you want to improve the handling of your ride, you must first understand what is wrong with the original geometry. From the factory, these cars were designed to understeer. To make them do this, they used a very short spindle with the upper A-arm at a steep downward angle, which results in a backward camber curve making the tires lean out of a turn, using only the edges of the tire. Not only is this bad for mechanical grip, its also why every stock Chevelle, S-10 or G Body wears the outside edges of the front tires. Below is a diagram of the stock geometry at rest, and then in a hard turn. Notice the severe angle of the tires. All of the cornering forces are placed on a very small area of the tire.


 To deal with this problem, there are several things that will help. Simply lowering the car will help to some extent, but not nearly enough to correct the whole problem. Bigger sway-bars will reduce the amount of bad camber gain, but again, its not enough... its like a band-aid on a gunshot wound.
To fix the bad geometry, you need a taller effective spindle height. The "effective height" of a spindle is from the pivot center of the upper balljoint to the pivot center of the lower balljoint. Tall spindles with stock balljoints, or stock spindles with extended balljoint studs will both achieve this goal. 
Below is a diagram of the same car equipped with a taller effective spindle height. Notice that the tires remain near vertical using the entire tread evenly across its contact patch. This is key to getting the most grip, and life out of your tires.

The basic information regarding instant center is the same for all cars, but for this discussion, well focus on the factory-designed four-link system. The instant center (IC) is an imaginary point defined by extending the line of the upper and lower control arms forward until the two lines intersect. By changing the locating points of either the upper or lower control arms, the IC can be moved longitudinally (fore-aft) as well as vertically. Moving the instant center closer to the rear of the car reduces the leverage on the rear axle, reducing and eventually eliminating the cars tendency to squat. There are two basic ways to change a Chevelles IC position. The OLD SCHOOL "No Hop" bars relocate the rear-axle mounting point of the upper control arms higher, which shortens the IC. The popular approach is to drop the lower rear mounting point of the bottom trailing arm. This is the approach taken by SOUTHSIDE MACHINE PERFORMANCE WITH OUR 4 HOLE RELOCATION BRACKETS.
As the instant center is moved toward the rear by altering the upper or lower control-arm mounting points, this has an effect on tire load, or the "hit" on the rear tire. If you are using a sticky rear tire like a wrinkle-wall M/T E.T. Street or a pair of slicks, moving the instant center rearward will apply more leverage to the rear suspension, reduce the squat, and take maximum advantage of the wrinkle-wall tires. If a set of stiffer-sidewall drag radials are used, positioning the instant center back from its stock location--but not as far back as for a wrinkle-wall tire--would be beneficial.

The height of the instant center will also move as you reposition the control arms, and this affects average tire loading on the rear tire. If you draw an imaginary line between the tire contact patch to the cars center of gravity (CG), this is the 100 percent antisquat line. If the instant center is located above this line, antisquat will be more than 100 percent, while an instant center below the line is less than 100 percent antisquat. Theories abound on the proper location of the instant center, and this will change based on power, tire condition, track conditions, and perhaps a dozen other variables. This is just a hint of what you can learn about instant centers and traction. If youre into maximum traction, theres a ton of material to learn about putting the power to the ground.

 Replace your mushy rubber bushings with our polyurethane control arm bushing sets. These polyurethane bushings are unaffected by oil, smog, road salt, and most chemicals, so they wont soften, compress, or distort like rubber does. So, next time you turn the steering wheel, take a high-speed corner, or accidentally hit some potholes, our housing bushings will give your ride the buffer and control to handle the roads ahead. 
Replace your mushy rubber bushings with our polyurethane control arm bushing sets. These polyurethane bushings are unaffected by oil, smog, road salt, and most chemicals, so they wont soften, compress, or distort like rubber does. So, next time you turn the steering wheel, take a high-speed corner, or accidentally hit some potholes, our housing bushings will give your ride the buffer and control to handle the roads ahead.