Technical The Thread of OLD SCHOOL DRAG TRICKS AND TIPS

I'd like to make a collection of knowledge and know how here so it doesn't get lost to time and get get passed on. Also this will serve as a launching point of "common mods" for a period correct dragster.
List any and all old school tricks, tips and know how here. Little things, big things, ideas, schools of thought you name it. This can range from professional drag racing, to stop light action on a Friday night. hot rod, gasser, dedicated drag car. These may or may not be things that people still do. If you happen to know say when these were common. Or if you did it yourself, you can say "In about 64, we were always doing XXXX to the cars" This first hand experience will help put a chronological order to the mods too.

Thanks,
Brian

I'll start off with two examples

- Screwing the tires to the rim to avoid slipping on launch.
- Running a coil of fuel line through an insulated Ice box to cool the fuel down.


Let's see what you you've got.

 

Roll up all windows before launch.



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Don't turn left.

 

Removing the nuts on your front shocks, leaving out the rubber grommet and replacing it with a lock nut. Gives you an extra couple inches of travel for weight transfer.

 

Hi,..so ,..good idea venturesome!!


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Load the driveline before launce to take up slack. foot on brake, let out clutch a bit. Step back down on clutch. Launch when ready.

 

At the end of the run, Clutch in then chute.

 

Most drag races are won or lost, right on the starting line; mostly though what is called "reaction time" (the combined amount of time it takes for a driver to cut a clean light, and for the car to react accordingly). ANYTHING you can do to reduce reaction time gives you an advantage. Cross staging (angled), offset front axle, reworking the spindles so one knuckle is in front of the stock position, and the other side behind (stagger), gives you more roll out. Larger diameter front tires, or lower front tire pressure also gives you more roll out. Then there are a thousand other things, besides reaction time, that make for a winning combination. One of the biggest, is practice, practice, practice! Then practice some more. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

"Take care of the money first."

Kenny Bernstein

 

used to be (in the 70s) guys would run a taller/stiffer right rear spring. Something about how the car pulls that side of the rear end up when launching. When I built my Chevy II, one of the rear springs had more arch, not sure why, and I put it on the right side. Then the car sat crooked. so I played with the front leafs, to level it, there's one more leaf in the opposite corner.

I never seem to hear about guys running a stiffer spring on the right rear, any more.

 

Need a helping hand to pack that Chute? I have a quick pin so I can yank the mount off fast--have a stool with hole cut in top--lay pack on stool top now you have a work bench and can do it by yourself--works like a charm.
Never saw this before--figured it out myself we pop the chute every pass for show--needed a better way

 

Qn the rear we would add the front half of a spring on the right side. a old Dodge-Plymouth Super Stock trick

 

Yeah adding a couple extra spring half to the front always seemed to help but then add a u clamp with an extra bar and springs to the rear of the spring pack. By tightening or loosening it you could control how much the rear of the springs separated during launch. In essence your making the spring almost solid.

 

#1 advantage on the street back in the day .... Power-to-weight ratio.

Fenderless Coupes and T-Buckets with nearly stock small blocks of any brand would clean house on Big Block '40 Fords and 55 Chevy's, Hemi Belevidere, 409 Impalas, etc.
And a set of 7" or 8" wide slicks was also a greater advantage.

 

Coil spring cars with Air Lift bags in them..About 30 psi in the right one, 5-10 on the left.
Even them back up for street driving.

 

Cheat.....well what Squirrel/Jim said....if you look at a stock performance mopar from the sixties....there will be an extra small leaf on the right side....just saying....

 

Tighter valve lash for a little more top end, a little looser to help you on the bottom. Remove your rear seat springs and put foam in place to remove weight and appear stock. Run worn out shocks. The old hot rod mags have tons of tricks for the JR. Stock class racers.

 

That's a great idea,,cheers

 

There was a local guy with a street roadster who swore by smaller front wheel/tire combos for less aerodynamic drag.

 

Leave on the last yellow bulb.

Install a switch in your field circuit to open the circuit (no current flow) to reduce drag from alternator or Generator.

Run fan belt loose again to reduce drag.

With 2 barrels jet RICH and install washers under carb so it's one huge vacuum leak.

Pump up front tires to 50 lbs to reduce rolling resistance.

Un-clip the rear half of leaf springs the front half will act like lift bars.
(sorry for OT car)



Remove front sway bar for less weight and faster front end rise. Or if you have to keep it ream the bushings so they are very loose.

Get to the pit lane after watching who you will end up running during eliminations (wait for the fastest guy to get inline first and somebody ELSE get paired with him.)

Use garden water sprayer to cool radiator.

 

Back off your brake adjustment on drum brakes to reduce drag.

 

Interesting thread.

Was told by an old drag racer from the late '60s - early '70s that he used to pack his wheel bearings with STP oil treatment instead of grease for less rolling resistance. Don't think I would ever try that, but, he claimed it helped!

 

IIRC the Ramchargers reportedly oiled their front wheel bearings regularly instead of packing them with grease. A bit high maintenance in my opinion but hey, they got good time slips!

Ed

 

Some basic stuff was drilling a hole in the front shocks to let the oil out so they would react faster, as mentioned clamping the front half of the leaf spring together to control wheel hop, many a GM racer put Chrysler Super Stock springs under their car because of how well they worked, a pinion snubber was a pretty standard add on for a stick car, then you would have to re enforce the floor where it would tear a hole in it. As mentioned removing front and rear sway bars, you wanted as much front end travel as possible. Brake adjustment was a big factor, later model Chrysler disc were bad for not releasing so guys would add springs between the pads to keep them pushed off the rotors. I had a Dart that ran mid tens in the 1/4 back in the 80's with drums and for me that was about the limit for stopping ability, but there was no rolling resistance. Putting the battery in the right rear of the trunk was pretty standard also. I know of one car the guy went so far as to alter the mounting points of the front wheels to increase roll out.

 

a friend told me that in 50's he had a flt/hd 32 rdstr., hopped up, but another guy in town had one full race and a lot faster than his. the guy kept wanting to race so he agreed, on the start he left on 2, instead of 3 and he won, the other guy was fuminging, weeks later they had another match and friend took off on 2 again and won. later they did again, this time friend figured guy would also leave on 2, so that time he left on 1 and won again.. was last time guy wanted to race...HaHa

 

wait...didn't you SBC guys block off the oil line to the canister.....fill the oil canister full of concrete to past tech....then screw on a empty one.....on yer Jr fuel car's ?

 

lead is safer on the engine

 

Windshield washer bottle full of methanol, "T" fitting in vacuum hose feeds the manifold when you hit the washers.
Handful of mothballs in the gas tank before the big race.
Boring every cylinder out to max except #1.

 

Toggle switch on the shifter to kill one set of points when you shifted to high for more mph.
Stock drag cars ran way too rich at idle but had the linkage rigged to lift the back of the carb slightly for more cfm.
Nitrous bottle disguised to look like fire suppression system under the hood. Sprayed the front of the carb.

 

I'm loving the sneaky ones.