car wont hook.

[Mike]

im at a loss here on whats going on with my car..... ill list the setup then describe the problems......

rear suspension:

umi chromoly chassis mount tq arm with rod ends.
umi chromoly lower control arms with rod ends.
wolfe racecraft chromoly panhard bar with rod ends.
qa1 8 way adjustable shocks
stock rear springs with the isolaters removed.

this is all hooked to a moser 12 bolt with 4.10s (stock driveshaft)

and i have a set of 255/60x15 mickey thompson et streets.........................


the tracks like to put the cone out on the line to keep the t&t cars out of the groove. when im set up like that the car will go through 1st gear sideways and cut a 1.9xx at BEST

when i get into the groove it will try to lift and then just bog down hard....

i know it will hook if i launch it hard out of the good groove, i just wasnt expecting it to hook so i didnt leave as hard as i normally would have.

but this suspension setup SHOULD be able to hook up wether im in the groove or not, at least to the tune of 1.7s or 1.8s......

between the heat and not being able to 60' my times are SUFFERING this year

[JSPERFORMANCE]

Bolting on the parts is only the first step, you now have to tune the suspension using all those adjustments you have just added. Also, get bigger tires, a 28x10 or 275 60 15 will fit nicely and will make a better contact patch.

[JSPERFORMANCE]

and the front suspension is just as important as the rear in drag racing..

[Mike]

front suspension is

stock kemember and a-arms
qa1 coilovers with drag springs
no front swaybar.

the tires equate to a 27.1 x 10.............ive heard that the 28 inch tire guys have to a lot of beating and banging and cutting on 4th gens to make them fit. my prostars are also 15x8

[JSPERFORMANCE]

275 60's fit fine, if you have to do a little modifying then so be it. You need a decent sized tire to hook first and foremost. Your shock settings and pinion angle should be next.

[Mike]

hmm that may be the size timmay says he has layin around.

[Tru2Chevy]

While tire is important, I've seen cars at Atco cut 1.4 60' times and run 9's and 10's on the same tire Mike is running.....I think playing with the suspension before buying more tires would be a better (and cheaper) way to start.

- Justin

[radialtireking]

How much air do you have in the tires? Do you have LCA relocation brackets? Pinion angle? You should be able to get it to hook on that size tire without a problem. It just will take some work. When I started with my car I struggled to get it to 60' in the 1.50's on drag radials and now it goes consistant 1.2x's.

[Mike]

i dont have relocation brackets, and i have my pinion angle set to the stock setting....everywhere i read says you have to do it with the suspension loaded and i dont really have a good way to do that in my driveway


like justin said......these tires have 6 passes and about 40 street miles on them, so changing them isnt in the cards just yet.

[Mike]

any ideas on a rear spring or will the oem springs cut it?

[JSPERFORMANCE]

sure you can make the car hook on the smaller tire but if you can start with the biggest tire possible than that is one less variable to deal with. lower control arm angle is very important as well as shock settings.

[JSPERFORMANCE]

and a 1.4 60' for a low 10 high 9 second car isnt hooking.

[Tru2Chevy]

and a 1.4 60' for a low 10 high 9 second car isnt hooking.

Turbo 'vette....leaving the line at minimal boost. Dead hooked. I believe it was one of the Cartek-built cars.

.....anyway - back to Mike's suspension.

- Justin

[JSPERFORMANCE]

the car hooked because they took power out of it to get it to move out. what was the mph? 145?

Trying to make your car 60' is usually harder than just taking power out until it dosent spin

[Pampered-Z]

Tire pressure, and how hot were getting the tires, and I would also play with the pinion angle. On the Nitto DRs my car hooked best at -4. Just as places to start.

Also where did you set the QAs on? Setting up the shocks can be a real probelm as well. If you set the front up too soft it can unload the rear tires once off the initial launch. Make sure your verify your spinning right off the hit and not when the whole car moves.

[Mike]

tire pressure was at 14psi............did around a 8-10 second burnout in second gear

qa1s are set at 4 all the way around becasue im not sure how they should be changed to

[radialtireking]

any ideas on a rear spring or will the oem springs cut it?

My car still has the stock springs in the back. I would get relocation brackets for sure. Are your LCA's pointing down from front to back when viewing them from the side? If not your instant center is not good. I find -2* to work best as far as pinion angle goes on my car. I would also try a little more pressure in the tires. As for shock settings I would have to see the car at the track to be much help.

[AliWantsNss]

Hmm, do you still have your sway bar in? What are you running on the front? Also, what RPM are you leaving at?

[Mike]

rear sway is stock, no front sway bar.

front wheels are 5x3.5 prostars with 165r15s

i was leaving at 4500, last season at englishtown i was able to launch at 5k

[mc73nova]

try 12psi , once you pull 2nd and start to see smoke pull out of it and that should be plenty, you dont really have to sit there and kill your tires, do you have a line lock? make sure your tires are equally wet and that they are both spinning, some guy I race with didnt know why he wasnt hooking then I watched him do a one wheel burnout, it had a posi but one brake was holding more than the other. just my opinion ,good luck

[Mike]

yeah i have a linelock.

[NJSPEEDER]

just stick to the slick/no time lanes from now on. look at the difference getting in line behind guys wearing real shoes and not having to go around the cone and hope to find the groove.
i will hunt around and see if i can find some rims to slap my tires on. i am sure it will take one pass to get them back in shape, then you shoudl be able to rip on them.

[Batman]

Just start making adjusments. Try tire pressure first. I found with my car I hooked better at 18PSI on ET drags then I did at 12PSI. You don't really need to bake your tires, just getthem hot and I always got my best results by popping off the linelock and spinning them as close to the line as I can. Once they are hooked they will stay hooked. I kept my pinion angle at -3 and cut alot of 1.5X's with just 387RWH. My other advice is to start writing down everything you can (air pressure, launch RPM, pinion angle etc etc) on the back of your timeslips so you can compare later. Biggest thing is practice and trial and error. With my old set-up I started out at 12.7's with 1.8 60's and just with practice and little adjustments got it to 11.7's and 1.5 60's with absolutely no mods added. One whole second just from practicing. Be patient!

[NJSPEEDER]

last week mike's big problem was having to launch from out of the groove because of the cone they ut out to keep the street tire guys from tearing up the good part of the lane. spun twice from good rpm launches, then moved over tothe slick tire test and tune lanes and bogged out bad.
all that car needs is a good lane to launch on and you will be set mike.

[Mike]

we will see.....

[Slow 88]

After you do your burnout, do you gently back off of the peddle and roll out or do you just abrubtly stop then proceed to the line?

[Mike]

i roll it out to the line, its not an issue with burnouts

[Slow 88]

i roll it out to the line, its not an issue with burnouts


OH MY BAD! I figured I would go over the little things that don't cost anything and go from there..Well I'm glad that you have it figured out..

[Mike]

relax. i answered your question and im sorry my 1am posts sound a little snippy lol

[Slow 88]

no prob, but I would suspect the pinion angle as others have said...