Drag Racing Discussions > Altereds

4 link starting point

<< < (3/3)

RTK:
Hey all, I finally got some t&t in this weekend at local 1/8 mile track. first passes ever in one of these things, what a ride! started with just launching & going left hard, made adjustments all day saturday to preload, wheelie bars & tire pressure. its not perfect yet but did get one full pass. 1.11 60' 5.17@ 134. still paddling the tires a bit. i'm going to put it back on scales & see where weights are now. need to make a weight bar for the nose & upgrade the brakes! maybe then we can work on tuning the fuel. all in all a very successful first outing. Thanks again to Curly for the insight, & all who responded.     Todd

Curly1:
Awesome, now that you have made some passes you should now know what direction you need to go to tune the chassis. If it is going hard left then you have too much right rear preload or possibly the anti-roll bar is not neutral. Once you get it very close you can fine tune it with wheelie bars.

I set up my car somewhat different than many others, I have it set up with IC fairly short and up kind of high. Also the top bar is down fairly low. What those things do is limit the tendancy to wheelie at the hit. It will power wheelie up peaking around 60 to 80 foot out but it is smooth and easy. When the front wheels are in the air it is 1. your four link. 2. the anti-roll -bar. 3. Wheelie bars. 4. tire pressure that steers the car.  My thinking on an altered is they are like a 175 MPH unicycle under power almost all the  way down the track they have almost 100% of the weight on the rear tires when they are set up right.

Your 60 foot and MPH is good for that ET so it is working pretty good there. For your first time in one of those animals running a 5.17 had to be a blast!

Rodchucker:
Curly,
Which Afco's are you using?
Thx
Chris

Curly1:

--- Quote from: Rodchucker on April 24, 2016, 04:26:52 AM ---Curly1,
Was your altered lifting the front wheels out of the beams and red lighting?
Thx
Chris

--- End quote ---
Up until last week I would have said no it does not pull front wheels out of beams but last race it certainly did and went RED. One thing the air and traction was the best I have ran this car on. Generally my car leaves the line and starts a slow power wheelie up peaking at about 12" high around the 60 foot or less, hits the wheelie bars light and it comes back down smoothly.
My four link is set up very aggressive and short so it works the rear suspension a lot but does not wheelie much and hooks good.
The AFCO shocks I use are the double adjustable (I think 14") and springs are 85 Lbs.
Let me know a little more about what your car is doing and I will try to point you in right direction. I do not  know or claim to know everything but can tell you what works on my car and why I think it works so you can try it.
If you are pulling the front tires out of the beams with out knowing much about your car I think the IC may be too long and low. That will pick up front of car. Also on the top bar if you lower it even while keeping same IC it will reduce the tendency to pull front wheels up. The top bars pull back pulling front up, lowering it reduces that leverage and tendency to wheelie. Many will add weight to front of car to prevent wheelies but I prefer to do it with chassis settings, fine tune it with wheelie bars and use a weight bar only as a last resort.
There are people who can tell you almost exactly where the four link needs to be set at on a door car but nobody really has it down perfect on an Altered.
My thinking is the Altered has more weight on the rear and center of gravity is further to the rear but the chassis is longer so it is different than a door car.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page