traction aids to get wheels up?

I just got done watching shaky puddin's run on passtime for the fiftieth time. Unfortunately I'm behind him on horsepower, but I want to maximize what I've got and want to the the nose up as high as I can with 500hp. My car should run very low 12's, it's a 56 with a stick shift, 8.8 posi rear, and stock suspension. Will shorter or longer slappers get the nose up further? Or should I change to ladders? Front suspension is 90/10's with Moroso drag springs, 2" drop spindles.

Thanks,
Rick

 

do you want to put on a show or go fast? any other motion a car makes other than moving forward is wasted power if you look at a chassis car leaving, if it set up right it will lift the wheels 3- 6 inches and that is done for weight transfer

 

Put on a show! It's a 12 second car, I'm not going to win any money races with it. You are absolutely right about the 3 inches and wasted power. I have a cheater plate on the shelf if I need a little extra, I just want to get the wheels up as far as I can, at least until I have to replace the suspension the first time it comes down wrong and I feel dumb. But until then I want the glory!

 

If you can raise the engine up some, it will help with weight transfer. Here's some other things that you can do: put some Moroso ( or other brand ) front springs on it
to help it transfer weight, put lead in the rear bumper, put racing shocks on the front and rear. I also prefer ladder bars on a hot street car or a drag car.

 

push yer rear axle forward about a foot and set the motor under the windshield, thatll help

 

Moroso trick springs are a waste of money. While they do help, they are prone to failure. One side will collapse before the other leaving the car sitting at an angle.

 

Should run, or does? There are a lot of cars out there that should run 12's, but don't.

That stock rear suspension was shit when it was built and is bigger shit now. The chevy setup is not for drag racing. Get some mopar super stock springs.

Drop spindles are 2" in the wrong direction if you are looking for air under the front tires.

With the right suspesion tuning you might be able to get the front end up. Soft front springs, sliding the rear end forward a half an inch, sneaking the motor back a half inch would be a great start.

 

Get someone to ladder bar the car with short bars and sliders and make sure the instant center is right around the drivers seat to start. Then keep moving it back until you get the height you want.

 

Replace the rear bumper with a 6' piece of railroad track.

 

Tires that hook......

Terry

 

RacerRick referred to 'instant center' the points (there a two, one for each side of the car) that the suspension works around. A classic 'stock class' vehicle, say a G/Stock malibu station wagon with a 283 will pull its front wheels to chest heigth and does it with stock suspension. These cars have a lot of 'antisquat' built in, so to get it all working i'd have shocks that could extend quickly; the traction device should be a 'slide-a-link' similiar to a ladderbar and set the front as high up/as far out as possible, if you can aim it at the rear view mirror do so; turn your pinion angle down, i don't want to give you specific degrees because all are different and you'll need to experiment. What happens is at launch the driveshaft tries to go straight ( rotating mass, goes to level; spinning mass goes to plumb) and will snap the pinon upward which drives the rearend into the ground and the body extends away from the rear housing (antisquat) all this action drives the rear tire into the groung, the front attachment point of the slider is higher than the rear attachment point so that the rear will ttry to drive under the front bolt and aids in lifting the front tire. Whew! Don't ask me that again, i'll never be able to repeat it ok? But that is what happens in stock class/suspension type cars. Of course you could bang it with a 200hp shot of nitrous and you'd be there too.

 

And then weld the rear bumper to the rail. No one will be the wiser untill someone rear ends you.

 

Please explain that one again because I didn't understand any of it.

 

You are on the internet.
you can look up 'instant center'.

 

deep gears and sticky tires....the be ready for the repercussions of said such parts....do the whole package (driveshaft , rearend, clutch, etc.) when you start to really hook up and be able to get the wheels up , stuff will start to break.. as mentioned above , we had a malibu wagon that would get the wheels up about 3 feet or so , real easy. but it was a 383 with a p/g and 5300 convertor , and 4.56 gears on 9" tires.

 

Travel limiters on the front may help as well. I like to have about two inches of slack in mine on the front of my drag vehicles. They pull taught and stop the front end suspension rise. Probably make you a little quicker, as it limits the wasted motion. I like to use vinyl covered cables and stays. Old school/cheap ass would be chains, but I hate rattles.

 

Why not make it faster? Make it work correctly and maybe get it deep in the 12's for real, maybe even the 11's, rather than just trying to lift the wheels...

 

a wheel standing thirteen second car is like jacking off drunk, kinda fun with no pay off, just get the car to run fast and see were that goes. your suspension may be working good thats why you can't get the front end up, i would leave it unless your just spinning the tires down the track

 

Right. Gonna be real hard to wheelie a 12 second '56 Chevy unless you move the rear axle up about 30 inches.

 

I gotta admit....the first time I was ever in a wheelstander was at my neighbor, Bob's. He had a ton of cool cars and some cheesy 80's full size chevy short bed that was tubbed and had silly graphics, tweed interior, wheelie bars, and digital gauges. He said it was the favorite of all of his cars (like 35 of them). I told him I thought that was odd. We went for a ride and he pulled the front wheels of that truck off the ground on the launch and we were staring at the sky while the speedo climbed and climbed. I couldnt see a thing other than blue. It was terrifying and cool.
I'm sure he had faster cars but dammit, that was the neatest thing he owned.

 

The motor went 11.86 in my brother's 55 on blower only. It's a 355 with a baby blower, roller cam, Dart heads. He had it down to a 10.60 with a 175 shot. His car weighed 3740 without him in it (oink oink). He was running a TH400 with a 4200 stall and 3.73's with ladder bar/coilover's with 295/65 drag radials. He decided to go big nitrous so I got his engine for the brother price (free for a favor to be returned later). Right now it's getting freshened up. My 56 is lighter than his 55 (as if you could get any heavier) but has a stick shift and shorter slicks. I'm pretty sure that I can get the thing down to low 12's. I don't really want to put a cage in the car as it has to do double duty as a kid-hauler-to-car-shows vehicle too.

Moving the wheels or motor more than a little, while extremely tempting, aren't in the cards for this build.

I'm still putting the car together and haven't addressed traction yet. Looks like I'm going to move the front spring eye up and fabricate traction bars that build major anti-squat, then start moving the instant center back until the front is in the air.

 

I don't understand your obsession with this. Make the fucker fast and quit playing with the stupid shit. Make it work right. Make it fast. Who fucking cares if the wheels come off the ground.

 

move the battery to the trunk, that is the same as moving the eng back aprox 5''. add wt to the rear, and take wt off the ft, alum rad, smaller alt, mini starter, no heater, glass ft bumper, think ,move the wt around. all this cost money.

 

Hey man....we'll sit off in the bleechers, drinking a cold one and laughing our ass off as the parts fly!!!!! Ha!



BIG GEARS, BIG STICKY TIRES, and about 300 Horses in a bottle???????? Get you tires down to about 14 PSI, lather on some Moose Juice, leave the line, on, lets say about 6500rpm............now how high did you say you wanted to get those tires??????? Hee-Hee.........getting them up is the easy part.......getting them down without breaking all kinda shit is the one ya gotta work on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

YOU DA MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What he said!

 

Need to make power or it needs to be light. How much air you want a foot? Are you comfortable side stepping the clutch at 5 grand?

 

caltracs!

 

Ok, I should have said I don't understand this part:

 

I sure thought I read the title as this " traction aids to get wheels up? " not bash the guy because he wants this over all out quickness. Do you some of you guys just wake up to piss on someone's parade ?

 

I've seen lots of passes down a drag strip, and made a few too. Which would you rather watch or ride in, a wheelstanding 11 or 12 second car or super gas car that that runs
9s? To me the wheelstander is far more entertaining. As long as you can do it without resorting to gimicks like altering the wheelbase, etc, more power to you. Lots of stock eliminator cars do it on 9" slicks.

When we built the coupe one of the goals was to wheelstand it. It worked and it's been a lot of fun.