Upcoming race end of Sept.

DorianL

DorianL

solid fixture here in the forum
Staff member
Hmmmm -as I deal with my oil pressure in the background.

There is a race coming up end of September. Traction is my number one issue. Currently my best run is about 12.3x at 108 MPH. For the 60-feet, I usually do 2.2. I NEVER drop under 2.

My question is what to do, if anything, for the next race with regards to launch traction.

For the moment my 3800 lbs Malibu has
- polyurethane all around,
- monster front and rear sway bars (front being shed during races, of course),
- adjustable QA1 front shocks,
- Stiffer than stock front coils,
- gas-a-just rear shocks,
- Original rear coils,
- 325/50R15 BFG drag radials,
- Boxed lower rear control arms,
- THM 200-4R hardened + 2500 stall converter also hardened,
- Corporate rear with stock axles
- Lockright automatic locker,
- 3.42 Richmond gears,
- Stock driveshaft.

It seems to me that if I put on no-hop brackets, I stand to significantly improve my launch ETs. However, if I do that, I might explode my 8.5

What to do?

Down the road, I am thinking that I will probably not uptick power - this is a fun ride as it is, it is mainly a street car and running solid 11s seems fine to me. I will just raise my rev limiter to around 6200 up from 5700.

The rear is the rub. I thought about it very carefully. I am thinking at this point of hardening the rear that I have + maybe dropping the gearing to something deeper than 3.42. The fact that I am in Belgium motivating this decision. I cannot see myself getting away at tech inspection with something other than a stock appearing rear.

Would you guys put on those no-hop brackets? Or - harden the rear first?
 
Taller tires and much lower gears would be one way, even lower gears with current tires would help, reason why this works, since it seems backwards; Higher gearing, once the tires break loose allow the tires to spin faster at a given rpm and make it much harder to slow them down and regain traction. With very low gears, if you break the tires loose, it's much easier to feather the throttle and control wheel spin. I learned this both drag racing my '68 Plymouth GTX With a Petty Enterprises Hemi and road racing my Firebird in the seventies. It seems counter intuitive at first until you see it in action.
 
done correctly Id doubt a tech inspector would even notice the difference between your current 10 bolt and a basically stock 9" ford rear installed using very similar to stock in appearance brackets and linkage, especially if its painted flat black and you spray it down randomly with some spray oil and after a few trips thru muddy dirt roads, and some small acid induced strategic rust on a few small spots

Id be looking at that option SERIOUSLY

ford_9_inch_installed.jpg
 
Well, I think we all can agree that one day I will get this car to hook and when it does... that rear better be ready.

I will start exploring possibilities. I am quite sure I can find a Dana 60 here... less sure about the 9-inch Ford.

I'll explore that.

Would you guys do anything to the car pre-race to improve launch?
 
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