We also mentioned how adding a larger sway bar can limit body lean and improve handling. If the car exhibits severe body roll, a larger sway bar can really help. Lots of body roll will create positive camber gain, which is bad. The large sway bar reduces the body roll, limiting the camber gain and improving handling. This is a popular first change to improve handling. Stiffer front spring rates can also improve handling. Most stock domestic cars from the ’60s and early ’70s were equipped mainly just to ride decently but not to handle well. Stock spring rates from those days tend to be in the mid-to-high-300-pounds-per-inch category. All springs are rated on the amount of load (in pounds) necessary to deflect the spring 1 inch. So a spring rated at 350 pounds per inch will require 350 pounds placed on the spring to compress it 1 inch. This is true whether it is a coil spring, leaf spring, or torsion bar. A common trick to improve handling is to take a stock coil spring and cut it, for example, by one coil. This not only shortens the spring and reduces ride height but also increases the spring rate since now there are fewer coils to absorb the energy. If you are going to cut a spring, use a cutoff wheel, not an acetylene torch. The heat induced into the spring from the torch can permanently weaken the spring. Also, because of the leverage applied to the spring from the suspension, there generally is a ratio effect that occurs when a spring is cut. For example, on the Chevelles and Camaros that I’m familiar with, it’s around a 1.5:1 ratio, which means if you cut 1 inch from the coil spring height, it will produce a 1.5- to perhaps 2-inch drop in actual ride height. So sneak up on those changes. Also, as soon as you change the ride height of the car, now you have to go back and recheck the alignment because it will change. On a stock Chevelle or Camaro, for example, lowering the car will create more positive camber—not what you want.