I am the first to admit alot of my cars build is like we built them in the 60's and 70's as my rear shocks are a set my late great friend Randy gave me which are the MP longer extending shocks and I have the Comp 3 click 90/10's up front. But I am not as full time racer as mine is mostly a street car and my budget is tight. I dont have killer 60 times for a mid to high 10 car (my best is 1.50) but its in the ballpark to race in a few NSS races and even win a few rounds. I agree that shocks can make a big difference and if I had the budget I would run Cal Tracs and a good set of shocks. Heck I remember when the hot ticket was to drill a hole in the front shocks and drain the fluid out !

I do have "decent' shocks on mine. Afco doubles up front, Koni doubles on the back. Car is OK in 60 foot but not great. I continue to tighten everything up with no real change. The wheels rise slowly, not off the ground until about 8 feet out (6"-12") and set down smoothly. Appears to dead hook. 54% on the nose. At this point I'm assuming I need more power, gear, or converter? Ladder bars in the lowest hole. 10.5x29.5, 4.10, 3340lbs, 130lb springs. Best 1.29/3.73/5.80/9.12. Any suggestions?
Thanks Doug

Ok Monte....what should I do ?

I'm about to buy shocks.

Right now I have Afco double up front. But they are so old, I called afco and they said they cant revalve them. They are 1/8 turn off of full tight on ext, they are full tight on compression.
In the back I have strange single adjustable.
The car is a ladder bar, and likes to wheelie.
I plan on running ultra on the old mt

What shocks should I get ?

Yes I'm changing the valve body to leave in 2nd ( t 400!with stock first and 3.70 rear )
Yes I'm going to get more weight up front (at least 53% to start )

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

-my only point is top of my head my junk will never be fast enough for shocks to a big issue

Until Monte stated earlier I did not realize there was different valving available from Strange. I have since talk to them and they have a stiffer valve available. I can be put on ext or return or both. They call it pro-mod valve, and there is no premium for it to be installed on new shocks.
Maybe now I won't have to depend on limiters as much.

My Lamb stuff has always worked well

Mark Menser will be at SCSN and we will be talking to him bot the HS car.

Monte, how much difference would i see in my car if i went from a qa1 to a Santhuff shock?

I appreciate all the good tech on shocks, never thought about them till this post. I will be getting with santhuff soon, and now I feel better about my strange coil overs on my truck too

when you leave it is likely headed straight to limiter and or topping out shock........which immediately stops weight transfer at THAT point.

Why does the weight transfer stop at that point?
Is it because the front now has the added weight of the wheels and suspension parts that it needs to lift?

If you're thinking about buying or inquiring about Santhuff shocks, give me a shout. We are one of their largest dealers, and the pricing isn't that far off of a normal double adjustable shock. Mike Roth mr2performance@sbcglobal.net

Monte thanks for the response, and exactly what I thought .

A bounce when coming down from a wheelie isn't ALWAYS the shocks fault. Sometimes guys think that if they are bottoming out on compression they think "I need a stiffer front spring" and then the bounce is a problem. Also ive seen setups that limit travel on extension, doing that compounds my above scenario. Torsion bars can be an issue because to get good suspension drop out, or droop/extension, they need to be usually in the .850" or under diameter to have good stored energy. In that case a shock with "correct" compression valving can really shine. IMO the bounce needs a shock with a pretty stiff compression stack and a nice adjustable rebound ability. Then you can tailor the rebound to not only keep the wheelie in check but also keep the nose down after landing.

Been thinking about a double adjustable shocks for sometime now and as I am going from 9.5's to hopefully 9.0's in the near future with a 572 combo I will probably need them.

Previously had limiters and old 90/10 shocks and was unloading the rears several feet out from the line. Fitted Koni SPA1's to the front (really needed better, but it worked OK at the time).

Have looked at the Santhuff's, but was a little concerned by the 3.5 inch travel compared to 5inch with Afco's. What do you guys think about that for my performance considering I am footbraking.

Anyway, slomo video of the car running 9.5's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwjIRyZ80_Q

You also have to be careful to not get sucked into all the hype about certain shocks being the cure all. A few years back everyone and their brother was telling me that my CE shocks were junk, and that brand-X front shocks would make my car 60' sooo much faster. So, I finally caved in and got the new shocks, and lo and behold, the car ran EXACTLY the same....but my wallet sure was lighter.

"Have looked at the Santhuff's, but was a little concerned by the 3.5 inch travel compared to 5inch with Afco's. What do you guys think about that for my performance considering I am footbraking."

Thats not a problem, each set that we sell is custom built to your ride height spec. Also that 3.5" of travel is measured at the shock, not the wheel which should equate to around 5" total. Mike