When testing day finally arrived, we were greeted with perfect California weather and an empty racetrack. McQueen's hot rod looked and sounded great, and when Schear took it for a few laps around the skidpad, it seemed to handle fairly well, pulling down numbers comparable to a new family sedan. The car also performed admirably in the slalom, although it did have a fair amount of body roll. We then drove it over to Editor Rizzo's shop (he lives around the corner from the track), where he was waiting with tools in hand to help swap shocks. The ride over was pleasant, and the Mustang II front suspension combined with standard auto parts store gas shocks provided a slightly squishy but tolerable ride. Choppy California roads tossed things up a bit, but the car generally rode and handled as well as or better than most Mustang II-equipped hot rods we've driven. Admittedly, the four-door sedan's extra heft may also contribute to its nicer-than-normal ride.
Changing all four shocks was a simple matter, and with Rizzo and yours truly working, it only took about 15 minutes to complete the job. While we could have switched over to a coilover-type shock, we decided it would be best to keep the shocks as similar in style as possible. We ended up using a QA1 Street Star, which utilizes deflective disc valving, an advanced technology that makes this shock much more sensitive and adaptive to changes in road surface and driving conditions. The shock body is constructed out of anodized aluminum, which looks great, and a 12-position rebound adjustment valve makes the suspension completely adjustable with just a few turns of a knob. For initial setup purposes we set the front shocks at five clicks (clockwise from softest to firmest) and the rears at three clicks.
After the installation we headed back to the track, and the change in ride and handling was immediately noticeable. All of the "squishiness" was gone; the sedan definitely took a firmer set, yet the overall ride was actually softer. Expansion joints in the freeway and other flaws in the road went unnoticed, and the car seemed more settled on its haunches, with less body roll in the turns and a much firmer feel in the steering. The Ford handled and felt more like a hot rod and less like a marshmallow, without the choppy ride one would expect from that type of change. Once at the track Schear put the car through its paces once more, and the numbers backed up what the seat of our pants already told us: the car was faster on the skidpad and through the slalom. After spending some time messing around with shock valve adjustments, we managed to eek out a few more miles per hour at the expense of ride quality, but we decided not to include those numbers in this test. Schear also noted that during slalom testing, the car felt more solid and controllable with the QA1 shocks installed, something to take note of if you ever need to quickly avoid an errant road hazard such as a kid chasing a ball into the street.
After a day of thrashing, wrenching, and testing we did manage to reach a few conclusions. While not everyone who drives a hot rod or custom is looking to build a road racer worthy of Laguna Seca or Pikes Peak, we all want our cars to ride and handle well. If they can be safer and look better, that's icing on the cake. The QA1 Street Star delivers on all counts. The shocks were ridiculously easy to install, proved solid performance gains on the skidpad and slalom course, provided a sporty yet comfortable ride that actually made driving the car more enjoyable, and on top of all that, look great. You can't ask for much more than that.