Lets look at what a shock does. At the hit, the shock controls the acceleration of the front end up. If it is a low powered car that needs a lot of pitch rotation, you may NEED the front to come up fast...........BUT, it STILL needs to be under control and not just floppy loose, as that will bang the limiters or harshly top out the shock and unsettle the chassis. On the other side of the shock, if the car wheelstands and the shock is too stiff when the car lands, it is simply going to flatten the tire and spring the front of the car right back up in the air. I am sure we have all seen cars that carry the fronts really high, but when the car touches down, it is nice and smooth with no bounce. That is ALL in the shock..........So to answer above question Tony, first I don't understand why your fronts are full tight on compression, as that would seem to make the car harsh on landings, unless the shocks are just toast. I understand the tight on extension with the radials, but even at full tight, those shocks are probably too loose.
On the rear, most say a DA shock is a waste on a ladder bar car......I disagree. I think ANY car needs a D/A shock, because lets face it, at SOME point during the run, the shock is going to move both ways, so lets have control over it. You say you have Stranges...........a decent shock, but I guarantee yours are valved too lightly for what you are trying to do.
I know the goals for this car and that is to have a 4 sec radial tired car..........NOT going to consistently get there without GOOD shocks on both ends. The "hitters" that run that old tire in these classes consistently go low teen 60fts on that old tire on good tracks.
So, my answer to your question and you probably won't like it.......LOL!!!.........is to call Mark(Menscer) or Ronnie at Santhuff and get you some GOOD shocks. And yep, this is probably going to cost you about 3k
On your wheelstand issue, you probably KNOW this, but going to repeat it anyway. A radial HAS to dead hook. You are NOT going to spin it and get down the track. That said, with the tire dead hooked and trying to pour on the power, if the front is trying to power up, no amount of chassis or shock adjustments fix that. It is strictly weight percentage. So build your car to tune it this way. As the day goes on, you will have to move weight from back to front, the better the track gets. Many times we start with nothing on the nose in the morning and end up with 80 on the nose at night, during the course of a day. If you are wondering what that does to our percentage.........it pushes it from 54% to over 58% on the nose, but there is where we have to run it to keep the nose down on "killer" tracks.......But we always have the "expert" who comes in to tell us "well, if you got after it harder early, it wouldn't do that"......really, it just went 1.05 with a 2.76 to 330.......exactly how much HARDER you want me to get after it.........LOL!!!
Monte
Monte
