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I'm planning on a much wider and perhaps longer car than probably any of you have built. No exact dimensions yet. I'm intrigued by the thought of a Ford Thunderbird or Explorer IRS. Rather than dismantling one and just using a few parts, has anyone successfully grafted the entire IRS onto their car or came to the conclusion it's completely absurd? I will happily design the car to utilize the complete IRS if practical and worthwhile.

What is your goal?
If weight is a concern the OEM subframe is likely overbuilt. (for anything 7ish)
If you alter the ride height from the OEM designed position you may negatively affect geometry.
Some of the OEM designs may intrude into the passenger compartment.

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Honey anyone?

Jag is the answer for many projects.
Several in classic Mustang's, first gen El Camino's, and even one going under my '68 El Camino.
I have also seen them under numerous street-rods.
Common and inexpensive version is a 60" track, factory 54" track are not TOO hard to find.
E-Type are narrower yet, but fairly high dollars.
They are also not terribly hard to cut-down.
They are so popular due to being pretty much self contained with a center section that is equivalent to a Dana-44.

This site is a bit slow now, as many are, but is still up.
https://irsforum.boardhost.com/viewforum.php?id=1

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If I must be a one-man PC free zone, so be it!

My goal is a car powered by a 302 Windsor or LS engine for driving 98% of the time on the street. Weight to horsepower ratio of about 7 or 8 to 1. The frame would be approximately 55-60 inches wide and length uncertain. My plan would not be constrained by any similarity to a book frame. Thanks for the link to the IRS site, much more research to do there.

Don, consider using a Corvette C4 rear end. It's been done before and IIRC there is a current build on this site using one.

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Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

Good luck with your build. I've built a few cars over the years. I've used C5 complete suspension cradles in a couple. I've even eliminated the transaxle and converted the diff to take a driveshaft. (I have a couple of those conversions in storage). I've also used C4 suspension in a number of cars. I like the C4 for our type of cars. Its simple to install and the design allows for the rear seating location that I like.

I recently finished a build using C4 suspension. I built a space frame that is 46 inches wide (I think I remember that correctly. I can check) and has 93 inch wheelbase. I then created a body inspired by the 1964 Cheetah race car.