Has anyone went to the drags with the PT style rear suspension set ups?

[jst8a5.0]

I like the idea of the torque arm or the 3 link but i was wondering if anyone took off the autox wheels and tires and bolted some slicks on and really tried to hook with any pt setup or know someone who has. I would rather have a car that handles and drives great vs a drag car. I do however want to trap in the mid to high 140s.

[Ron in SoCal]

Remember the project - not sure what the status is - called Unfair. The premise was build a capapble PT car, AutoX and roadrace and with a wheel/tire, shock adjustment and link bar removal you could go drag race. They used an Art Morrison frame with a combo 3 and 4 bar arrangment, IIRC.

They got razzed pretty good for the name tho.

[XLexusTech]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

They got razzed pretty good for the name tho.

Not to mention the Wheelbarrow firewall mod

[hp2]

Originally Posted by jst8a5.0

I like the idea of the torque arm or the 3 link but i was wondering if anyone took off the autox wheels and tires and bolted some slicks on and really tried to hook with any pt setup or know someone who has. I would rather have a car that handles and drives great vs a drag car. I do however want to trap in the mid to high 140s.

That's what I was getting at a post back. I had a car built for handling with high rate springs, big sway bars, appropriate shocks, and at the time, 40 series tires. Car ran 13.2 pretty consistently. Swapping to the equivilent of a 60 series drag slick dropped it to the high 12s to 13 flat.

Sometime later, I took the engine/trans out of that car, swapped it into a purpose built drag car and ran low 12s. This car had very high rate rear suspension, a very loose front suspension, no sway bars, 90/10 shock up front, etc. Typical drag type set up.

Now, since this was back in the early 90s, it was a leaf spring car using an oem style front suspension, in both cases. No 3 or 4 link set ups or torque arms or anything else with a decent amount of adjustability. I did have a smal range of adjustment in the leaf mounting system, angled shims, and the typical amount of front end adjustment. Could you go farther with a more modern, link style set up, maybe. One difference I did notice in the e.t.s is teh drag car would vary 3-4 tenths whereas the handling set up would only vary a few hundreths.

It depends on how much tweaking you want to do to the car. IMO, if you spend too much time changing the set up and altering or removing/adding items, it takes away from the fun. A rim and tire swap is no big deal. Altering all your instant centers and re-calibrating shocks is a pain to do on both ends of a drag strip visit comapred to just driving up, unloading and running. I'll gladly give up elapsed time to the ultimate e.t. chase to have more fun.

[Blake Foster]

Originally Posted by andrewb70

I have a basically stock 4 link in my GTO, with Global West lower arms and Edelbrock uppers. Driving down the drag strip is all about the launch. Lowering the 60' time by 0.10 seconds will generally give you 0.20 to 0.30 seconds on the big end. I can consistently knock down 1.8x 60' times with Falken 615 tires. I drive around the water, do a short burnout to clean the tires, and stage. From there it is a matter if feathering the throttle and slipping the clutch to get the car out of the hole.

Andrew

yep that is what I do the Nova had 60' times of 1.92-93.
1.8 60' is good !!likely on a better start line than I was using. I want to go to Vegas and try it there.

[fleetus macmullitz]

John Coletti and his crew worked with Roush to build this seemingly no expense spared 1994 'Boss' 10L Mustang which used a Griggs torque arm so it would launch better. Still looking for a pic of the rear setup.

IIRC it started out with a 429 cid Boss motor and then things got outta hand from there...lol

Saw this data on a website (but not gonna vouch for it ).

604cid
855 hp
794 lb/ft

0-60 1.9 sec
0-100 5.5 sec.

Jack Roush now owns it and talks about it in the 1st vid.



In the 2nd vid it makes some very nasty noises.

[Ron in SoCal]

Very cool Skipper!

[Chassisworks]

This car consistently runs mid 8's on our gLink rear suspension when he puts on slicks It has double adjustable VariShocks and a FAB9 housing too. Read about it here.

And here's a link to the car on StangTV.

[XLexusTech]

Nice mustang.. for rear suspension Eval 60 foot is often a lot more important the ET.