Hey all, I've been kicking around the idea of installing a QA1 Handling Kit Level 2 on my 65 Cutlass. The car has all stock suspension with aftermarket 4 wheel disk brakes and an LS engine with roughly 350 horsepower. Mainly I'm looking to feel safer in the car, maybe try some autocross events, and use it as a semi daily driver. I've seen these kits for anywhere from $3650 - $4185 which seemed reasonable considering all that it comes with, upper and lower tubular A arms, coil overs, front and rear sway bars, rear control arms and more. Anyway just wondering if you guys have any experience with this set up, or would recommend something else. Any and all input is appreciated. Thanks

 

I also have a 65 Cutlass with a 330 4 speed post car. Last May I installed the QA1 leveling kit. It came with front and rear dual coil overs new front sway bar , If you go this route, you might consider buying the steel bearing washer kit and the coil over adjusting wrenches.I got mine from Summit Racing as individual parts, instead of a kit. The car handles great. It takes corners way better than before.I just used the (new) factory rear sway bar and upper and lower rear control arms. I have drum brakes on all 4 corners, and I am driving faster on corners than I should be. These made the car much more enjoyable to drive. I felt the money was well spent. Bassinguy

 

I’m not knocking QA1… but I feel like UMI is a much better product.
And as far as coil overs go…Viking is tough to beat.

-peter

 

I have a 64 with the UMI coilover kit, front and rear bars, front and rear upper and lower control arms, I went with a southwest speed stock stlye disc front and drum rear... Its not driving yet, but the parts appear to be of a very nice qaulity. I also went with a faster ratio steering box. On my 70 that made a huge difference, and at that time it was the only change I made so I can really say that it was the box.

 

Thanks for the input, it's appreciated. I'll look into the UMI kits as well. If anything else comes to mind I'd love to hear it.

 

Love my Detroit speed kit 3 with coil overs on my 69 front and rear

https://www.detroitspeed.com/platfor...bile/442/1965/

 

IMO the new QA1 Pro Touring control arms are better than UMI. Friction free ball joints and bushings and they are much lighter than UMI.

QA1 on the left, UMI right,

 

Seems the price on the QA1 kit can't be beat either, $3455.25 at VividRacing.

 

Looks kinda wimpy.
Maybe light for drag , but strong enough to orange cone ?
Depends on how you drive it,or not I guess.

 

You said you have aftermarket disc brakes on all 4 corners. What kind exactly? Are they 69-72 stock style single piston front and small 10-11" rear?

 

The disk kit I put on the rear is the Right Stuff Detailing rear disc brake conversion kit from Summit 11" single piston. Not sure what's on the front since those were there when I bought the car.

69455 - As far as this QA1 kit being whimpy, like I said above the car would mostly be a semi daily driver and maybe some autocross. Anything has to be better than stock I'd think but I'm wide open to recommendations. The car is a bit of a boat
.

 

QA1 is far from wimpy. They've been designing and making parts for our cars for a long time, and the new line of their control arms IMO is above most.
I have UMI on 2 other cars and QA1 on Cutlass. I had QA1 older design with their coil-overs before, which I was happy with. I switched to Pro Touring control arms (along with new coil-overs) soon as they came out. The new ones are improved in every way, lightweight, friction free hardware, designed specifically for coil-overs. They've been on the car for 5-6 months now, about 4500k miles. Car drives great.