Hey everyone. Im now the proud owner of a 69 Stingray and wanted to know if there are any suspension tricks or parts on making these cars hook hard at the track?

 

soft shocks?

i think the biggest gains will come from finese with the brake and gas, or clutch and gas... so you dont spin your tires, thats about all i can think of

ZD :seeya

 

ive heard that the rear ends on these things arent the strongest out there. Im used to my 68 camaros 12 bolt and dont really know much about strengthening an IRS..i did a search but the information if found just led me in 20 different directions. any help on this subject?

 

Welcome to the forum. I have made just about every suspension mod available short of trailing arms to my 69 suspension. You can check out my website and see pics and specs on the modification. I would also recommend you check out vette brakes. Tell them what you want to do they are a great help. :seeya

 

Unless you are running 500+ HP and slicks the stock suspension should be fine. Get some good ujoints and you should be OK. Practice is what I found the best to hook these cars up. I lost about 3/4 of a second with just learning how to launch the car. It still spins coming off the line but it is a controlled spin.

 

My intention was never to set my car up strictly for drag racing so I guess I got lucky. My suspension has all poly bushings, 330lb glass spring, smart struts, KYB gas shocks, front and rear swaybars, 460lb front coils. My best 60' is a 1.509 and it corners very flat and sticks like glue.

 

The worst problem that I had was rear "squat". if your tires get good traction
and you have a few horsepower, the rear will squat and cause a very
negative camber. This shoves out the tires at the bottom, and you no
longer have all the tire flat/square on the ground, resulting in lost traction.
If your rear spring is good, you should be Ok.
I had to go to the F41, 7 leaf spring to cure this. The original 9 leaf never
was strong enough from new.

Other than blowing up the diff. carrier once, it has stood up well.

Barry

 

my final question about dragstrip performanc is chassis flex. in noticed just having a flat tire in the rear once made the hardtop harder to fit and the doors fit a little differint. being a convertible are there any bolt on bracing that will keep the frame from twisting if i launch with slicks?


[Modified by jonvolk, 12:56 PM 12/16/2001]

 

Most convert. are already stronger than there coupe counterparts. The chevrolet book I have says to complete the frame welding to set the car up for road racing so maybe this will help for the strip.I plan on doing this to my 76 when it comes time to rebuild it.

 

Hi Jonvolk,

I'm a dedicated and avid drag racer. I have set up my 82 for the strip and it no longer sees the street. I still have the 82 IRS (alum.) which I'm sure is not as strong as yours. This rearend had over 1000 passes before a complete rebuild last winter. If your car is a stick I'm not sure your IRS will hold up. Of course, mines an auto (as were all 82's).

My setup:
-Vette Brakes and Prods. adjustable rear suspension (firmest adjustment)
-3-way adjustable Carrera shocks (firmest setting)
-Heavy-duty struts
-Custom strut bracket (this lowers the mounting points and was built to make the struts parallel to the halfshafts - eliminates camber when the car squats or rises).
-Spicer U-joints
-28 x 10.5 x 15 Mickey Thompson ET Drag Slicks
-Removed front sway bar
-90/10 front shocks
-Skinny front runners

I don't think you would need the adjustable suspension - a good set of Hal 12-way adjustables should do the trick if you couple with a stiffer spring. The best mod. on my car was the struts and strut bracket. I think you might be able to find these at either Vette Brakes or Tom's Differentials (I had mine fabricated). I'm going with Hal's over the winter. This should help me fine tune my reaction time (roll-out) and to make adjustments on marginal tracks.

This setup has worked very well for me and I've had much success with this car winning track championships in each of the last two years plus winning the Div. 5 ET Series Race of Champions in Topeka, KS this last Sept. This is not a multi-purpose car and this set-up may not be appropriate for you. If you wish to be a competitive drag racer you must NOT spin your tires....you will lose most of the time.

Good luck with your car and congrats on snagging a '69! :cheers:

 

thanks for all the help, by the way i got the car for $1700 from a woman whos husband went to jail 10 years ago, paint and interior are mint, 53,000 original miles, complete #'s matching car. yes...im waiting for all the bastard comments :D :cheers:

 

Congrats on ripping her off good.....She must live in a bubble or be retarded or something

 

she was storing boxes of stuff on top of the car...luckily it had a cover on it..so yes, im assuming she was retarded. :D