Wish my Challenger weighed 2950#s, instead of 3750+...

Why not go full tilt and buy Santhuff shocks?? Actually I am in the same boat looking at shocks for a slightly heavier and faster car and I think the AFCO's seem to be the best bang for the buck right now

very interesting how are these guys going 1.0 sixty-foot . On a tiny 275 or small tire. And never lift a front tire off the track.. we have a hi 11-second. Street Dart.. has way better shocks than it needs hooks in a car wash with an 8 inch slick.. and never does a wheelie.. the fact of the matter is we race on prep surfaces.. I used to be one of the guys that struggled with the whole shock situation someone once said spend absolutely as much money as you can on shocks you will be way better off guess what they were right. There is no need to kill the tire it doesn't matter how slow or heavy your car is get some good shocks and be done with it

Mellow 1.36 60' launch off the brake: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YSNmSkJh_XE

Menscer shocks on all four corners. No drama!

Any car going 1.0 60 ft has virtually all the weight on the rear tires, would you agree with that? It doesn't matter what the visual is, weight transfer is enough to get the job done. I can make my dart run the same 60 ft with the front skimming the track; right up till track prep and my tires go away. Then a wheelstand can get the job done a little better. Most of us don't have our cars sorted out to the Nth degree nor do we have the best tires and equipment. So we bandaid the situation to get the job done the best we can.

60ft is just a portion of the ET. A car that runs high 10's won't 60ft like a car that runs high 8's. It takes power with proper application to get the quickest 60ft. You can have plenty of traction and still have slower than expected 60ft. Ask yourself. Are you 60ft chasing, ET chasing, or bracket racing? All 3 are different set-up's. Then of course there is the variable of surface prep. Again a difference, not just in the tune but the car itself. Don't think your going to go to the local airport no prep with a heads up ET chaser on the same set-up. All this boils down to what you want to accomplish. Some guys will do fine with low buck 9 ways. Stepping up the power means stepping up the support system that goes with it. That means a shock with more adjustment and more than likely stiffer valving. For most of us here a decent double pair will accomplish your goals. Get a usable set (4) shocks with the proper range of adjustment. Now the rest of the car needs to match. correct range of front travel, no bind in the rear, correct instant center location, nose weight, converter, SLR, proper carb cal if foot braking. Then, test,test,test. It's not just bolting on magic shocks.
Doug

I appreciate your knowledge.. just goes to show I have lots yet to still learn.. the car that you've mentioned a couple times who's leaf spring and bar are you using is it a caltracs or assassin or homemade and what size tire are you running . Also curious on the shock as well..

I don't get your sarcasm or attempt to scrap with me over this. All i intended to point out is every situation is different. All i have an interest in is getting what info to the OP i can that may help his setup. Over and out.

. First of all I wasn't being sarcastic I was being honest. By your response I wish I would have been sarcastic. I learn by trial-and-error mostly by making the same mistake over and over again. And Real World Experience using leaf springs.. I see many fast cars that never pull the front wheel off the ground I asked a question you answered
I assume the answer you gave was correct
.no reason to get upset. Still curious on your rear suspension.. your 60-foot times are impressive.

Everyone's feedback on this subject is appreciated. Nobody's nose should be getting bent outta shape as far as I can tell.

No argument there. I'm expecting the new combination is going to take some time to get sorted out.

My bad. On pain meds
I have 30 inch ladderbars (way too short) 33x15x15 stiffwall goodyears,130 lb springs (too stiff?), Afco big gun shocks.Torqueflite with 4.56 gears for a SLR of 11.17, which is considered hi for my ET in the Door Slammers chassis book. 46.7 percent weight on the back with a total of 3065 at the line. I would love to change this car over to a fourlink, so i wouldn't have to compensate so much with a very stiff shock setting.
I usually promote overspending on shocks, but didn't here because Brad has another thread on it. I think there is a lot yet to figure out on my car, after looking at data logger info. Also I am very impressed with the power you are making with the sb.

Guys I am new to Caltracs. But I'm the video, it looks like there's 6 or 7 inches of body lift separation. Do you want that much on that car? If you were running a stick car would u still want a lot of separation. I remember SS springs recommending no separation w a stick car and only a couple inches of lift at the rear tire w automatic.
Is it different when u add the bars?

Plenty of lift. If you want less, keep an eye on consistancy from good prep to poor track prep and pick your poison. I think the main thing is being able to control the rate of lift as much as how much lift you allow.

I watched a number of videos since this post and was really surprised by how the X275 cars, for example, were doing just what you described above. Some of them are lifting the front wheels, but just barely, and carry them down track a ways before they come back down really smoothly.

That's in complete contrast to what you'll see from a lot of fast Stock Eliminator cars that still pull the fronts waaaaay up before they drop back down to earth. I wonder if that approach to tuning for radials (275/60 or 9 x 30) would translate well, if the Stocker guys tried it. Or maybe a Stocker's weight distribution and other chassis limitations still require a good bit of pitch rotation to get off the line consistently.

your comparing apples to oranges, a stocker has no where near the power that an X275 or Ultra car has. the average Ultra car has 13-1500 hp or more. Stockers use all they can, the radial cars are all about power management and smooth application of it as soon as possible. X cars are 60' in the 1.0's Ultra cars are in the 1.teen range.
Also, a lot of Ultra and X cars move the instant center back an up. this hits the tire hard but doesn't lift the front, otherwise theyd be on the bumper all the time

Understood. But I wasn't sure how much of this was because a radial tire works better w/ the chassis tuned differently than a bias-ply, or because of all those other variables like HP, etc.

.. correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most stalkers running a radial now.. I think the original reason for the Post was just to show that cars can hook and go fast without pulling the front wheels off the ground.. we hit our car with everything that we can on the starting line. . it has been quite the adventure getting the car to work without all the rotation.. I myself have asked many questions on this forum regarding.. rotations.. I have found the most important thing is controlling the rear end of the car.. if it separates too quickly it will Top out and unload the tire.. if it's too slow it will never hook.. has kind of been a science project of mine on my car..

An enlightening moment for me was years ago watching Billy Gliddens car at Route 66 skate off the line Fronts skimming the track. The rest of the field was pulling the fronts and getting thier collective butts handed to them.

Yep. Pic below is the 2017 Stock Finals at Indy showing two 10-sec 340-powered cars pulling 'em up, a lot of chassis separation, and planting their 9" radials.

(It also happens to be the background image on my work PC )