i got adjustable Tokico shocks and wonder what they should be set at so i can get the best launch out at the track.

my first and only 2 runs i had the front set to the lightest softest setting, and the rears kinda stiff.

i was told by this one guy out there i should run both front and rear on a soft setting. but i didnt get the chance to get another run in

on the back roads, i really cant feel much of a difference between a soft rear and the stiff rear. so any advice on what i can do? i figure i am gonna try both settings and see what happens.

my springs are Eibach prokit springs. i am getting spohn LCA's on soon with reloc brackets. i also have a adjust. panhard bar. stock way bars with poly bushings.

hopefully i can get maybe high high 1.7's on street tires with my 2800stall and 3.27's. but 1.8's arent bad. i ran 1.94 already on 277 gears and worn street tires and stock LCA's but more is in it

 

Adjustable shocks are a tuning aid. What works good on one car may not be what your car likes. I have my front and rears set to the softest setting but never played around with them to see how much of a change shock settings will do.

 

You want to run your rear shocks as stiff as possible and still hook. Softer will help hook.

 

thanks, i hope to try that

i wanna get some good runs in as it sits now, then compare the change to the control arms and the 3.27 gears. hopefully i can dial it in and get the best launch i can

 

you're fronts should be adjusted with as little rebound resistance as possible to aid in weight transfer.

i have my koni's dialed back to the softest setting in front, and pretty stiff in the rear

you want the rears stiffer so that the suspension can't eat up the energy from weight transfer pushing down on the tire

 

thats what i thought, stiff rear......

but i talked to this guy in his 11.32 '86 vette and he said i should keep it soft everywhere to haunch that rear end. thats what he was doing and i thought maybe it could be right.......i mean, shifting the cars weight to the rear to allow for maximum down force on the rear

 

Stiff shocks in means that you need to have a tire that can handle all that power going directly to them, rather than the chassis squating down.

I had my 3 way summit's on the firmest setting and it blew the tires off, switched to softest and all was good again. This was with 275/50/15 drag radials.

 

How about running a stiffer shock setting on the right side than left to provide additional resistance to the torque of the body downward and the axle upward when you nail it? Or would you recommend pumping up the passenger side airbag in the right rear coil and running both shocks on soft to hook with drag radials and a stiff suspension? I'm going to experiment next time I'm out at the track but wanted to find out if I'm likely to see any benefit.

 

Not sure what that word means to everybody, but to me that means it squats down - which is not what you want.

 

yeah it was meant to mean squat down, which to me seems like wieght is transfered over the rear and thus more down force on the tires to keep traction. its that thrown back into the seat kinda feeling. why isnt that what you want?

 

I think i know what he'll say to this. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When your car pushes down on the rear axle, the axle pushes back up... and thus off the pavement, loosing traction.

I guess i dont know my physics well enough, but wouldn't the rear end have to push off the ground (thus contacting the pavement more) in order to push against the car?

Either way, i'll probably keep my shocks on the soft setting in the rear... dont care why it works, it just does

 

In order for the rear axle to be pushed down, it has to push up on something - that something is the body. The common perception is that the front end going up means the weight is being "transferred" to the rear - but if the rear end of the car is going down, it's not pushing down on the axle. In order for the body to be pushing down on the axle, the body has to be moving - or staying - up.

Does that help explain it?

 

Yeah, I can see what your are saying.

 

just the body wieght is going backward, but not the whole car weight. the suspension is absorbing the body movement which in return means that no wieght is being pushed on the rear. i guess i get it.

 

just to update

with all the runs i have done and all the testing, i keep my front shocks at 1 and rears at 4. stall it up and go and the front end lifts nicely and plants the rear tires to the ground. cut a few 1.8x's 60 foots and alot of low 1.9's

 

First, you don’t want your rear squatting, second, what works for vettes and vipers will not work for an f-body, their IRS is not capable of any antisquat, so they have to take a totally different approach to getting the back tires to stick.

you’re looking at it wrong, the back end of the car is not going down because of weight transfer, but the tire is actually being pushed up in the wheel well as a torque reaction. The overall effect, when you see a car squat, is that you end up with less weight pushing the tired down into the track surface.