what's so good about narrowed beams?

..............If you have dropped spindles and/or wider wheels & tires, a narrowed beam keeps your tires inside the wheel arch of the fender. An alternate fix is to install wider aftermarket fenders. The downside to a narrowed beam is the expense and less clearance at the framehead when the wheels are turned sharply.

Thanks, that was my 1st guess, but I've also seen this done on bugs with small front wheels.......

Tim Rogers wrote in this friggin' newsgroup:

in that case with the small wheels is to bring the wheels inside the fender, i have started noticing that little trend on some of the drag bugs...maybe for less wind resitance?

things that make you go hmmm....

Jeremie

.................Maybe. Dropped spindles with some of the aftermarket disc brake conversions will move the wheels outward. Even with the narrower tires, a narrowed beam might be needed.

Even just narrowing the beam two inches? will this be a significant change in the stability of the car?

I have a stock front beam with dropped spindles and wide five front disc brakes. I have been considered buying a 2 inch narrowed (adjustable) beam from CB performance, to lower my front end on my 60 even lower. I havent called them yet, but the ad states you dont need to mod the body in any way.

Thanks

Andy

With a Narrowed beam only.... You'll loose the front track & loose stability as a result. With the additional offset of the dropped spindles (.50" total I think) Plus the additional offset of the Wide-5 brake conversion( ???), you should be close to stock track or just a hair shorter than stock. Then you also have wheel choices. Just don't plan on any sudden lane changes @ 90+ MPH on a narrowed beam only :-) Make sure that your front end has at least 3 degrees of Caster (I Prefer 5 degrees minimum to 14 Degrees maximum). Stock Camber to -1 degree per side (Max) & toe settings and you'll be fine. Dave.

which brings to mind another question - why do people drop their spindles and lower their front ends? There must be some reason so many people do something which looks so bad, but I have no idea of what that reason may be...

Some people do it to get better roadholding by lowering the center of gravity. Some like the way it looks. Whatever floats your boat...

I suppose I should have thought of the advantages of lowering the center of gravity. I've always just thought of how bad it looks and how much more likely one is to scrape on something.

reduces the airflow under the car, no need to worry about wind gusts throwing the car around... keeps the nose down to the ground at high speeds too

Jan

"mez" wrote

Did someone say `scrape'?

Oh man I cringe just looking at that thing. How could he do that to a classic like that?