your firewall looks to be some riveted sheeting for fire protection, but if you redesign the firewall to act as a shear plate, then you will gain alot of torsional strength in the frame. Think of it as a open topped box. with no top, you can flex the upper portion of the box into a diamond shape, but the bottom of the box cant be flexed because the bottom surface is a shear plate, which does the same as a triangulated bar across a square. Nice thing about shear plates is that they're structural but can do double duty, like Firewall, component mounting, etc
uh you need a lot more chassis, front brakes, and an anti roll bar. While your cage will protect you in a crash its doing little or nothing to stop chassis twist. regardless of what any other "expert" has said in the post wheelie during a burnout will break things. Convertor takes the most of it. When doing a burnout without front brakes, roll thru the water box then stop a few feet in front of it, then start your burnout. Your burnout should be done in second gear. When you feel it starting to hook feather the throttle and drive out of it. What are your tire pressures?? as for launching all twisted an antiroll bar would help but I think that you dont have a solid enough platform to make it work correctly. Wheelie bars should be adjusted lower on Pass side by 3/8 to 1/2 inch. Adjusting any other rear suspension component to stop it from rolling over will cause the car to leave crooked, and wont help the twist anyway.
did i read that right , that the driveshaft is 3" long..? how much movement does the shaft have up and down vs the suspension movement up and down...? seems like something would bind up at some point. cool car , still regretting not having the cash back about 10 years ago...
honestly a short driveshaft isnt a big deal, most drag cars dont have enough rear travel for it to be an issue. I have built many 4 link REDs that have a 3-4" driveshafts.
i could see it in a 4 link car , a couple buddys have 4 link red's and there definently isn't a lot of movement so to speak...seems like on a leaf car the suspension movement arc would be greater and the arc of the shaft would be smaller and neither would be close to each others movement...( does that make sense...?:) just seems like something end up binding somewhere... also seems like the lenght of the leaf spring would play into it somewhere as well.....or maybe not.
tire pressure is 17-18 psi!!!i had it lower but didnt like the feel at the top end{alittle wishywashie?}so i have had it at 17 psi.as i said before i dont want to change the look of the car with diff.rims and front brakes{and i cant afford it}so for i have about $5000.00 in it and thats alot of money for me.i am thinking about putting another bar on top of the rearend to make a true ladderbar.and i did set the wheelie bar 1/2'' lower on pass.side.
Have you tried any nose wieght? Sometimes adding 20-30 pounds of wieght on the nose can make a big difference in how the car works.
no i havent but i also dont want to because i dont have antwhere to put some extra weight and also keep it clean up front!
does anyone have amy pics. of a rear stabalizer in a car{not stock!!!}i think this might be my best rout for know.
Anti roll bar will make both front tires lift the same,you will wheelie less but it will be equal.......................................john
thanks for the pics.but is that rear end set up is pretty radical!!!looks like with all the bars it wouldnt move if it wanted to.just looking for a "stock style"rear with one of the aftermarket rear stabalisers.
Ignore the rest of the rear end, that is a typical installation of an aftermarket anti-roll bar.. http://www.competitionengineering.com/catalog/CategoryDisplay.asp?CatCode=13048 cc
As you may or may not know, I was friends with the late Leo Barnaby, he was among the most knowledgeable chassis builders in the northeast (if not the nation)... Leo also was a very successful car owner/driver on the grueling NMCA circuit and E'Town's notorious, all glorious heads-up Ultra Quick 8...I learned an awful lot from Leo about the importance of cars leaving the line straight and staying straight for the duration of the 1/4 mile trip-- Leo was "man" enough to not be intimidated when explaining the science of chassis design and fabrication to this gal... If you've ever watched my in-depth interviews with Leo, on our HOT D*RN DOORSLAMMER dvds, you know exactly what I'm talking about... That said, although I will admit that watching a car "twist" its way off the line like Chubby Checker can be a bit entertaining for the crowd, it's more important that your car leaves the line hard and STRAIGHT... Yeah, we all enjoy seeing a pinch of volatility in a race car, but as responsible racers and adults, it is our duty to do our best to keep the racing situation safe... Very best of luck with your slightly rambunctious ride!... "The Doc" (Celebrity Drag Racing Authority & Visionary)...
im going to try to adjust my wheelie bars some more and go to thompson this weekend.i was going to go sat. and sun.but it looks like rain so im shooting for sun.i think this will be my last race for the year so im going to raise the bars WAY UP and see what happens.
neat car! I personally wouldn't worry about how the wheelie looks. Its a wheelie. People don't care it the left is higher than the right... just how high it goes. Since the car isn't that fast,(no offense) I think the wheelie bar adjustment is the way to go. I don't expect a small change would make the car leave crooked. If it does, just change it back. I don't think you can actually fix this problem without getting rid of chassis flex. Some sort of antiroll bar on the back will help as well. Personally, if you want showmanship, I'd raise the wheelie bars about 4" and see how high you can hang the front end!
You need a anti-roll bar in the back thats the cheapest way to fix how your car is leaving. It does look like your nose bars are real low and just about paralel with the fram. If you bring them in higher and triangulate them and the frame that will stiffen the car up too. These are cheap fixs you can do if you can weld. My Austin leaves the same way but Im not gonna fix it. I would care what any one says about the front brake. Its a drag car not a street car alot of the gassers back in the day just had back brake. If you was going faster then maybe you should change it up alittle.
dont know about 4"!!!with the way i put them on and with a 92"wheel base 4" is ALOT.but i will try to lift them up atleast 1-1 1/2 at a time.the only tthing im worried about it breaking something in the front when it comes down.
aw, come on! Once the front end it about 4 foot in the air no one will care that the left front is a little higher... Just remember not to get out of it and slam the front end into the pavement! Shift it into second and let it come down easy.
dont forget i have anglia spindels on it{about the size if my thumb}and deff. dont want to break my mag.wheeels i dont have another $1000 to replace them.but im also not afraid to beat the living shit out of my car!!!!thats what i built it for!!
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