Good rear shock for a street strip a body

Hey there guy's as i continue to figure out what my wife's Demon needs i am about to change the rear shocks. i have a new set of SS springs in stock with everything i need to install them but the shocks. the car is a 72 340 demon with a slightly warmed over 360 727 with a 3500 rpm converter in it right now, the car is honestly 95% street driven but my wife likes to make a few passes each summer. the rear springs are bagged and it has an ancient set of air shocks that need to go, the front end is fully rebuilt and we are running 28'' drag radials. the car does not hook great right now but it tracks nice and straight and pulls hard down the track the 60ft sucks at 2.2-2.3 due to the wheel spin so i am looking to do some set up work to make it a bit better. the car runs 14.3-14.4 at 96-97 mph right now if i can get it to hook better i think it will be in the mid 13's which should be fine for my wife. i was looking at the Calvert shocks over at Mancini's those are the old Rancho's right? i want to be able to adjust them but i don't want to blow huge bucks for a mostly street driven car. any insights or personal experience would be great.

Watching the trends on here over the years everybody used to run the ranchos but the cool kids have switched to a fancier shock these days. It’s all too rich for my blood. I had a ‘72 demon with a 408/4spd/4.11 and 275/60r15 tires. I bought it out of a long sleep and it had shackle extensions and gabriel skyjackers or whatever- shocks with bike pump schraeder valves.

I had KYBs for a while- they’re on the stiff side of sporty but fine for daily driving. I swapped from with 6 leaf xhd springs from mancini and 1.09 bars to slant six torsion bars, 002/003 leafs and when I went from the ‘road race’ (stiff! setup) to the ‘weight transfer’ setup I cheaped out again with comp 90/10 shocks all 4 corners.

I never got a 60’ under 2.0 and when I tried harder with a set of 28x10.5 slicks I shattered my driveshaft and gave up the idea of 4 speed racing the car before my driveline parts bill got too high.

The 90/10s were fun though and along with the thin front bars to help throw the front end up in the air on a launch gave the car a totally different personality but didn’t feel unsafe to daily drive.

Just my low buck 72 demon experiences- plenty of folks here that actually had success with strip traction.

I have the 3 way Competition Engineering adjustables up front and Rancho/Calvert 9 position adjustables out back. I've been 1.56 sixty foot so far but the prep has to be pretty good. They ride really rough on the street on full firm 9 compression setting but set them on 4 and the ride is fine. I make a massive amount of torque with my setup so it gets hard to hook in lesser conditions.

For a street/strip ride they acrually work pretty well but I would love to try some double adjustable Vikings.

Thanks for the reply, those front shocks are they the kind you have to take out to adjust? seems i read about that somewhere? i think i like the idea of the Rancho/Calvert shocks in the back with the new springs. i am still not too sure about the fronts yet i may try the car with just the rear end stuff and see how that goes and if it still needs more i will get some front shocks. i left the sway bar on too as i had a charging issue that cut my night short but i will disconect it next time to help with transfer.

Front shocks are a KEY component to making the car hook. I tried it with regular shocks and the front comes down too quickly and unloads the rear tires.

Yes, you have to remove them to adjust, but I put them on 90/10 and never change the setting. They drive fine on the street with zero issues.

Honestly, with those times, I think some half way decent replacement shocks will work. I have a low 12 second car on street tires with 25+ year old Monroe shocks and have 1.7 sixty foot times. The car hooks hard at the track braking it up to around 1500rpm at launch.

The Koni SPA-1 worked the best on my old Duster street and strip car.
I'm not sure if you can still buy them new or not now but they made a heck of a difference on my car when I finally tried them, went from 1.54 to 1.52 60 ft. times down 1.42 with the same tires at the same track two week later
The Koni SPA-1 are speed sensing as well as adjustable if needing additional control for excellent to bad tracks, I put mine on out of the box and never needed to touch them after that
That car went 9.993 at 134.+ MPH in the 1/4 mile through the 3.0 inch full exhaust system with the air cleaner on Lots of fun, the bad thing was I couldn't get any local to street racer to race me in that car
BTW, I had to buy the B body front shocks as Koni didn't omake them for the 1967 to 1976 A bodies cars in the mid 2000s, I probably bought them in 2007.

if the OP has SS springs, and running 13's, it may be possible to use the long monroes for a 3/4 ton truck. that way, the shock won't unload the rear due to topping out.
these are not adjustable, just a suggestion that won't break the bank and may be what is needed on a mild application.

Yeah not planning on having it run those times in the future hence the upgrade... i have normal shocks on the front now and the bagged out springs and air shocks in the rear the plan is to install the super stock springs i already have here and get some ok shocks that are going to be long enough and work ok for what i have now. we have a couple of cars so i don't mind moving some parts around i just don't have shocks yet.

Thanks for the reply moparx i thought about c body or truck shocks too if i can't swing some caltrac / ranchos that will probably be the road i take. if i can get it to hook with a consistent 1.8 or 1.7 i would be really happy it would get the car into the 13's no problem. i have a couple of upgrades in the works for the engine once we get the chassis closer.

Years ago before gas shocks came out Mopar recommended using 1971 Imperial shocks with most of the rear SS drag race leaf springs available back then including the 002,003 springs
Get rid of the air shocks and clamp the front half of the SS springs every where you can when a new leaf meets the main leaf
You can loosen up and reposition the rear clamps to help the car on the starting line also, slide them forward for more or less lift and don't make them line up on the same place on both springs (unless your car likes them like that ) experiment to find the best location on both sides to make your car as good as you can
Have fun, work hard and write down the results, good or bad

Had super stock springs on a 3350 pound Duster. Not minitubbed.
Ran CE 3 ways all around. Car ran 9.80’s and was ultra consistent anywhere.

Nice!

Doesn't look like there is any consensus here. I have some 9 way Ranchos on the Cuda that work pretty good, but they have been on there for years. Are they still available as the Calverts?

I used the Calvert/Rancho 9 way rear shocks from mid 11s to mid 9s w/ very good results. Had Lakewood 90/10s up front. All 90/10s aren't created equal! The Calvert 90/10s were too loose and my car would NOT hook at all w/ them.
Once I started using nitrous and went into the 8s, I upgraded to Viking DA shocks.

I just use the longer extending MP shocks. I just use SS springs and them MP shocks. I have never tried an adjustable shock on the back to see if it helps much. Car has run 10.70's at 125 with a 1.50 best 60. Ron

I'm using Bilstein front shocks and Rancho (Calvert) 9 way adjustable with SS Springs on my rear. On my 1970 Charger R/T.

I run kyb rear shocks with 1 inch overarched rear springs. If it has the power to spin the tire at the track, you don’t need anything fancy to get a sub 2 second 60 foot. I have run a 1.71 60’ with that rear suspension on f-70 14 redline tire. That being said I have installed qa1 R’s in the front and will be going to a double adjustable rear in the near future. Car is strip only kinda. Looking at qa1 double adjustable.

Also be careful any after market front shock doesn’t hit the bump stop bracket on the frame at full droop. Mine did so I had to clearance the bracket and I have seen a B body with the same issue.