Quote: So running the shock up front with a leaf spring combo would gain no advantage?
Stock leafs or superstock springs probably not. But do a search on bullet or few other sites, you will see the really fast leaf cars with mono's and caltracks or smith bars are running them in front.
Who? That's not what I see at the track. The baddest leaf car around is likely Rhodes, his are in the rear. It's all about leverage and the farther from the pivot point(front of spring) the more control you have of that leverage
Monte
Thanks for calling me out Monte, simply stating what I found in searching on this subject. I dont have names, most people on these sites post using silly screen name like I do. I was very curious on this exact subject so I spent some time searching it on the web as I am building a new car for no other reason than my own personal satisfaction. I am not a 100th as deep in this sport as you so again thanks. What I thought before I did the search was that it stands to reason that a shock mounted in front of the axel may need to be valved a bit stiffer or diferently than a shock mounted behing the axel based on leverage. The logic behind my statment was simply a stock or even for that matter a supserstock leaf spring without a Caltrack or Smith bar type settup has a lot of flex and axel wrap and it probably wouldnt make much difference if the shock was in front or behind the axel. I was just curious why so many were putting them in front instead when equiped with a traction aid like the calvert or smith. Again this is just based on what I saw on the damn internet.
The shocks job is to control the housing and that control does not include rotation.......THAT is the job of the spring or the traction device. At the hit, the power is basically trying to "throw" the housing out from under the car. The job of the shock is to control this action and the reaction. If your front mounted shock is also in a position that it is attempting to control housing twist, your housing control is seriously diminished. So to combat this, you stiffen the front of the spring by whatever means and let the shock do what the shock does.
As to whether a car CAME with the shock in front or behind the housing from the factory, has to do with ONE thing and that is where was it the easiest to place. Has nothing to do with what works better
