Chances are your street machine still sports the same suspension it was delivered with. A new suspension may add points to the comfort level, but for most street-machine enthusiasts, ride height or stance count for more than raw athletic ability. But the thrill of brutal horsepower usually comes at the expense of excessive body roll, noticeable understeer, and poor steering reaction. It's a proven formula for an uncontrollable mess.
Our project '65 Chevy Biscayne is a prime example of forgoing ride quality and performance in pursuit of the perfect ride height. The stance was bitchin', and the fuel-injected GMPP 350ci Ram Jet provided plenty of grunt for the occasional wide-open-throttle blasts, but the unfortunate truth was that the car exhibited poor road manners that we simply learned to live with. Then we learned that Hotchkis Performance was working on a new B-body suspension line that provided new front and rear swaybars, upper and lower trailing arms, and shocks. So about a year or so ago, we actually loaned Hotchkis this very car for a few weeks so the company could measure up the appropriate rear control arms and swaybars to fit the '65-'70 Chevy fullsize platform. The prototype parts were tested on some other cars and displayed as a new product at last year's SEMA show, but until now we haven't had an opportunity to see how they perform in action.
With the parts now in full production and a testing day lined up, we watched John Hotchkis, president of Hotchkis Performance, take a crack at the 600-foot slalom course with Editor King's daily driven street machine. "You have to take a breath before every corner" were Hotchkis's first words after a gnarly wide-eyed driving experience. We never before thought a 4,000-pound family sedan could aggressively navigate a corner with any precision; we considered it strictly a boulevard and open highway cruiser.
The baseline performance numbers were dismal, but after replacing the stock parts with the Hotchkis upgrades, our two-ton tugboat can now hit an apex with little fear of tipping over, and the ride quality improvement alone is amazing. Read on to get the juicy details.
Before swapping on any of the Hotchkis parts or doing any testing, we had to address the Biscayne's atrocious ride quality, a problem we created when we hacked several coils out of the factory springs to achieve an in-the-weeds stance. The car looked cool slung down low, but it was virtually undriveable. It bottomed out on every bump, scraped every curve, and was stiff as a buckboard. The perfect combination of ride height and ride quality always involves compromises, but we found that swapping to a set of front and rear lowering springs from Eaton Detroit Spring created a comfortable result. In the front, we ran a set of 1-inch drop springs with one full coil removed, along with a set of 2-inch drop rear springs.
With the frame securely raised and supported, Hotchkis's Drew Oliver led us through the installation. Start by moving the shocks out of the way (if you're replacing the shocks at the same time, go ahead and remove them entirely). Next remove both the upper and lower trailing arms.
Before installing the lower arm, be sure to place an ample amount of the supplied lubricant onto the polyurethane bushings (arrow). The arm has a built-in spring perch that makes mounting the spring much easier than with the stock lower arm. Once the spring is safely nested into place, bolt down the new holddown plate onto the arm and you're finished. Take care when working with a compressed spring--it's no fun to lose fingers. | 
Notice the solid construction of the upper control arms, which are double-adjustable to make setting pinion angle a quick and easy job. First loosen the locknuts (arrows) and adjust the arm to the length of the stock arms. Then tighten the locknuts, place the supplied lubricant on the bushing, and bolt them in. If necessary, pinion angle can be changed by loosening the adjusters. |
Attaching the rear sway bar will require you to drill a set of holes in the frame with a 27/64-inch drill bit. You'll want to first mock up the sway bar with the frame-mounting brackets attached to the sway bar. Then position the two U-bolts over the axle and mark where the frame-mounting brackets will need to be drilled. | 
The factory 7/8-inch-diameter Panhard bar is replaced with the larger double-adjustable 1-1/4-inch-diameter Hotchkis piece, which allows the rearend to be centered up if the ride-height is raised or lowered. Before securing the locknuts, place the car on the ground and rotate the Panhard bar until it's horizontal. Once completed, jam the locknuts, and make sure all of the components have been tightened. |
Our Biscayne was not originally equipped with a front sway bar, but we added one when we rebuilt the front suspension, which required swapping to a set of Impala lower control arms with sway-bar end-link mounting tabs (arrow A). We removed the old sway bar by first unbolting both end links and removing the two main support brackets (arrow B) at each end of the framerails. The new hollow-tube sway bar is not only lighter, but measures a whopping 11/4-inch-diameter whereas the factory unit (from an Impala station wagon) measured just under an inch. The toughest part of the installation is manipulating the sway bar through the frame. For easier access, simply turn the front wheels towards the driver side. | 
Hotchkis advised us to use a set of quality shocks like these Bilstein units for better control, stability, and comfort. Unlike most conventional shocks, the Bilstein units efficiently transfer excess heat to the outer surface of the shock body itself, providing consistent performance without compromising the valving characteristics of the shock as the internal oil temperature rises. |
The factory suspension may have provided a supple ride back in the day, but fast-forward 35 years and those '60s components are far from adequate on the pothole-laden streets of Los Angeles. | 
The new suspension gave us modern performance at a fraction of the cost of a new vehicle. |
The Hotchkis R&D department has an extremely savvy crew and all the cool high-tech gadgets needed to ensure precise and consistent testing. | |