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From: Pettis Performance 565 with two stages of Nitrous Supply nitrous 1.082, 4.61 at 155, 7.17 at 192
Here are two pics of my car car. One is parked and one is off the brake with over 850 hp and a 1.15xx 60' Look closely at the body line of the rear of the car and how it relates to the tire......no squat. The body has not dropped over the tire at all. This is what you want.
Oliver....while watching Johns video will surely be fun....it's not going to do a whole lot to help your car. He has a four link suspension and it is a dedicated purpose built drag car. It will behave drastically different than any of our stuff. His car will transfer weight so quickly and smoothly, it will just makes us feel bad!
But if you watch it to get an idea of the direction you want to go..that's cool. Your car will need more front end lift than he has and we don't really have much in the way of suspension leverage action that a 4 link or any other design for that matter. All we have is that spring and the shocks. Since our rear bolts to frame, we don't get any real lift off control aroms like a regular car does. The only way we get that is from the spring not compressing and it pulling down hard on the rear part of trailing arms. That pulls the tire down into the pavement. As John has been saying, a weak spring just allows the body to keep dropping and NOT pull down on rear of arms..thus giving less traction.
I still say you need to leave spring alone and get some decent shocks for sure first. Your car is pulling down on the spring to get tires to hook, but your shocks aren't stout enough to get it to stay there. The QA-1's will add some extra tension on the down side, which isn't bad...and then add some on the rebound which is what you really need.
The part about halfshafts is right. I think you're Ok as high as you have it sitting, but make sure that when the suspension is compressed in *launch mode* that the halfshafts are parallel...NEVER pointing upwards at the end even for a nano-second!
If you lower the front you will cause the car to have more lift to do. Might not get higher wheelies, but that's not the point. If you have the wheels just kissing the ground or maybe an inch off the ground..you're doing fine. All the weight is already on rear tires Any higher is just wasted motion.
Oliver....while watching Johns video will surely be fun....it's not going to do a whole lot to help your car. He has a four link suspension and it is a dedicated purpose built drag car. It will behave drastically different than any of our stuff. His car will transfer weight so quickly and smoothly, it will just makes us feel bad!
But if you watch it to get an idea of the direction you want to go..that's cool. Your car will need more front end lift than he has and we don't really have much in the way of suspension leverage action that a 4 link or any other design for that matter. All we have is that spring and the shocks. Since our rear bolts to frame, we don't get any real lift off control aroms like a regular car does. The only way we get that is from the spring not compressing and it pulling down hard on the rear part of trailing arms. That pulls the tire down into the pavement. As John has been saying, a weak spring just allows the body to keep dropping and NOT pull down on rear of arms..thus giving less traction.
I still say you need to leave spring alone and get some decent shocks for sure first. Your car is pulling down on the spring to get tires to hook, but your shocks aren't stout enough to get it to stay there. The QA-1's will add some extra tension on the down side, which isn't bad...and then add some on the rebound which is what you really need.
The part about halfshafts is right. I think you're Ok as high as you have it sitting, but make sure that when the suspension is compressed in *launch mode* that the halfshafts are parallel...NEVER pointing upwards at the end even for a nano-second!
If you lower the front you will cause the car to have more lift to do. Might not get higher wheelies, but that's not the point. If you have the wheels just kissing the ground or maybe an inch off the ground..you're doing fine. All the weight is already on rear tires Any higher is just wasted motion.
JIM
JIM
I should be able to get more front end lift with my new Moroso Trick front springs and the shocks set to 90/10... I'm running '65 small block springs and 80/20 at my front shocks!
The new front springs will go on the car after the Cruise In!
With a 60/40 front setting, I'll probably not even get the front wheels off the ground but I do want them off the ground.. The goal of my suspension change is to get the wheels off the ground higher and for a longer distance.. I don't have a traction problem!! The car hooks fine!!
If the car doesn't have a traction problem, why do you want to carry the front wheels higher and farther?
If the car doesn't have a traction problem, why do you want to carry the front wheels higher and farther?
BigBlockk
Later.....
Just because it's fun!! The main reason why I drag race is for fun!! It's more fun for me if I pull the wheels a foot off the ground rather than if I only pull them 3 inches off the ground... I also love watching other cars doing wheelies.. It adds thrills and it's f'n cool!!
I wonder if I'll get the QA1's on my way up to the cruise in if they could be installed in the parking lot with basic tools and a jack?
I don't know if I'll be able to separate the shock mount from the trailing arm... They are usually VERY tight
EDIT: Figured it out.. The shock mount doesn't need to be removed to install the shock
Last edited by GrandSportC3; May 21, 2006 at 06:37 PM.