Detroit Speed's How to Build a Pro Touring Car. Tommy Lee Byrd

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       Subframe connectors are pretty simple pieces of metal but they’re very important chassis components. If you’re serious about building a Pro Touring car with a unibody chassis, a pair of weld-in subframe connectors is a must-do modification to take advantage of the new suspension.

      The Mopar crowd doesn’t get much love in the Pro Touring world but many of the Mopars from the 1960s and early 1970s are very capable performers. It’s just a matter of strengthening the unibody structure with subframe connectors and adding a mild roll cage to have a great platform to build upon. Aftermarket support for Mopars isn’t quite up to par with the GM brands but if you’re willing to shell out some dough for custom components, you can make a Mopar handle with the best of them.

Subframe Connectors

      Despite the difference between the Big Three’s attempts at unibody construction, they all share the same problem: strength and rigidity in harsh driving conditions. Drag racers and road racers deal with the same struggles when dealing with unibody cars, so the idea is to remove the tendency for the chassis to flex under hard loads. The answer, in most cases, involves fabricating or installing a set of subframe connectors. The connectors are self-explanatory, connecting the front portion of the frame rails to the rear portion of the frame rails. In other words, they provide support in the middle floorpan area, where manufacturers relied solely on the floorpan and rocker panel structure to take the abuse.

      Luckily, subframe connectors are usually an easy install. Some are bolt-in style, suitable for a guy building a car in his driveway, but they tend to hang below the rocker panel pinch weld to avoid the dips and pockets in the stock floorpan. This obviously isn’t the most attractive look, so most hardcore Pro Touring enthusiasts go with a weld-in design that is recessed into the floorpan.