What shocks for drag'in?

[RTCarlin]

Seems like everyone else is trying to figure out how to get their GN to handle like a rice-burner... I'm going the other direction.

I drive my GN on the street every other weekend or so... just out to "play" from stoplight to stoplight. I usually trailer it to the track. The car pulls pretty consistant 1.6 60's and 7.3's on the 1/8th. It's been trying it's darnedest to pull the front tires lately, so i'm trying to help it along. I removed the front stabilizer bar and am now looking into shocks. I was thinking of using a set of 90/10's, but I'm a little concerned about how those would handle street use. Anyone have any suggestions for this? The only other suspension mods are airbags in teh rear and a set of the Eibach lowering springs.

Thanks!

Ron Carlin
rtcarlin@yahoo.com

 

[MaxVO2]

90/10 shocks on the street are not safe. Rebound/compression is set up to maximize lift and weight transfer to the rear under launch, thereby planting the tires a bit better. However, they can upset your braking under panic situations due to compression characteristics of the shock, especially when going over bumps, etc.. Be especially careful if you also have large rear brake cylinders and no adjustable proportioning valve. Even on dry pavement, a panic stop will send the back end sliding around and you will probably wreck your car.

Also, the Eibach lowering springs are not going to help your traction issue as it tends to limit squat and upsets other important suspension travel issues related to weight transfer unless you really know a lot about setting instant center through pre-loading control arms, or changing other front/rear suspension characteristics.

Shock absorbers are simply spring dampeners, and changing the bump/rebound characteristics can help you out some on the track where it is a controlled environment, but there are soooo many idiots out on the open road these days you just don't know when some moron will pull out at the wrong time, or cut in front of you, etc..

On our cars, the stock 4 link setup in the rear with good bushings, boxed lowers, airbags or big rear sway bar, and the front bar disconnected can, and has gone 1.4 sixty foot with proper tire/track prep. Some chassis books suggest just putting worn rear shocks on the car to start with, before investing in bigger dollar items..

You can do a search on shocks on this forum and see what others have written on the subject. If you want to play with dampening and rebound on a street car, you might want to consider adjustable shocks like QA1, Koni, or even Competition Engineering. You can set them to 50/50 like most stock shocks for the street , or play with them a bit to find what works best on your combination. On our cars, for most people, shocks are just not going to help that much on the street. A good, wide, sticky tire on the proper width rim is worth much more to you performance wise than messing with shocks IMO.

Good luck

Billy
Montgomery Village, MD

 

[RTCarlin]

Thanks for the great reply, Billy. I've decided to pick up a set of Comp Eng adjustables... Can't beat the price and not a big issue to adjust from 90/10 to 50/50. I removed the stablizer bar this morning. I've got air bags in the rear which I usually have set to 0 psi drivers side and 12 psi passenger. I'm running a set of 26x10.5x15 MT Drags, which seem to hook pretty good at the track. I'm hoping with this combo I'll be able to drop my 60' into the 1.5's or so. As for the street.. I checked out a set of those new MT ET Radials and was impressed. I'm going to pick up a set of 275-50-15's and see how they do.

Thanks again for the help.. It's replies like yours that remind me why I love the Buick community!

Ron