GMH did it for you with the geometry and settings (amongst other bits)on RTS equipped HZ and later LX. If you want one to steer well copying the front suspension geometry on those is a good start, harder on HQ than Torana though as welding is required unless you can change the rails out.

The problem with the HQ is that is was deliberately setup to understeer by George Roberts. GMH showed that it could make a car (despite being limited by the technology available) actually handle and steer with the HK GTS327 and HT-HG GTS350 manual cars. George Roberts hated the GTS327 and the other cars that got similar setups. It was him who made the HQ and the LH such poor steerers. So to set them up using factory equipment you were paddling upstream. Sure today you can improve them, and GMH did it in the later 70's, but when a car is deliberately setup with poor geometry to start with the best thing you can do is copy what the GMH Engineers did with them one Roberts was out of the picture. When you stand back and look at what was changed on a later LX from early LX to make it handle it is amazing how little is needed. UC which is better again is a little more complicated and isn't something you could do at home without having UC upper arms. HX to HZ isn't much change either, sure there is shocks and bushes and a swaybar, but the biggie is moving the UCA mount rearwards about 25mm. I'm sure there is more that can be done today, using complete new front crossmember setups like Rodtech, Rares, CRS etc if you really wanted to make one steer properly.

It comes down to this, what do you want out of your car.
Say I have a 6 cyl Kingswood and I am a crap boring driver with no ambition to drive at all, OK Holden got it right for such a person, but I had a 6 cyl HQ once and it sure out handled stock set up, all it had was radial tyres and GT130 shocks all round and that makes a big difference for a start, but I did not know how to set the car up to reduce the understeer, I talked to wheel alignment people about such in 1980 but they only came back with dribble that such would scrub out the tyres, so I took there word for it, because I did not know any better, but if I knew better I would of pointed out what to do, because all in all I don't care if it does scrub out the tyres a bit.
I could of got a setup that I was truly happy with, a bit more neg camber would be fantastic and give it as much castor as they could and then just work out the toe and bingo a much improved car that you can enjoy to drive hard.

It's like if one would want to modify a engine, mostly you got back that the stock repco is the best way because XYZ but if you know what you are doing, you can set it up to perform like you want out of it, now most who go down that track do not know truly what they are doing and build a shit box engine, cam is too big, carby too big, intake manifold way to big everything becomes all show and no go. not to mention that many mechanic's could truly tune past the stock settings and if you challenged them on that point, they came back with the Holden knows what's best dribble. f me dead talk about ignorance. they were the same when it came to brakes as well, just total dip sticks without a real clue.


So one could improve on the stock settings of the family hack say 186 HK Kingswood for extra $ radials and shocks maybe a bit more neg camber and caster as well, making such a way better car to drive overall.

With the HK-T-G GTS look what Holden did, now it may not be everyone's cup of tea but stiff shit ! it's what was needed for such a car and to set it up with the Kingswood setup would be a death trap.
I would like to know the wheel alignment settings of the racing GTS HK-T-G back in the days, you can be sure they were not the stock settings.

So what I am on about is that one can improve on, if you know what you are doing, so to make a car much better than it came off the show room floor.

People will say that X car is no good because, lets say they are regarded that they do not handle, well most do not know the potential that could of been done with such a car that could make such not that bad at all in fact.
HD-R suffer from the weigh of the engine being to far in front of the axel just as the Cortina 6 cyl did making it a sad factor to have to deal with.

People love to bag leaf springs as being crap but that is not always true, some are not that bad at all, I know of many IRS that are total rubbish when driven hard and some leaf spring rear being much better to drive hard.


HK1837 you talk about make it steer ? I am talking about making it turn in better, more to do about making the driver feel better about pushing the car into a corner with confidence and being a rewarding thing to do, not a pain or a chore.

Once one plays about with the camber etc one may find that this may have an effect on steering weight or turning or straight line etc difference.

But if people who are into Holden's would explain their impressions of the wheel alignment settings, so others may gain from such understanding. this is what a forum is all about is it not. so one dude can jump out and say hey this is something every true driving man should know it's simple cost f all and the results can be huge, forget about wasting $ on crap, if you don't understand the foundations of wheel alignment settings your lost and your springs sway bars may not cut it much at all but with the right settings you will be blown away with, now she will turn like a bird dog.

One thing I have seen is the LC-J Torana front wheels is that when turning to full lock both wheels were not linear, so the driver side wheel looking as tho it turned out way more on full lock.

I am not a real big fan of new crossmember setups as I like to keep it original. but sure if need be makes it better.

Edited by user Sunday, 27 May 2018 12:08:56 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

By STEER I meant how the car behaves when turning it, ie does it understeer, oversteer or neutral.

LC-LJ didn't have Ackerman steering geometry if I remember correctly, it was more like a go-kart where one tyre scrubbed.

I'm fitting a Rodtech front end to my HK V8 GTS. Prime reason is I want it to brake better and have power steering, but I also want to be able to easily fit a BBC to it at some stage. Plus better sumps and extractors are available (HQ type) when using one of these. These are straight bolt in though with no modifications, so it can be converted back later if need be (this car is currently the oldest known HK V8 GTS still existing so don't want to alter it body wise!).