Seems like the best place to ask...

What is the minimum combination of weight and horsepower
to make a third gen get the front end up?

My car will be pretty well balanced, about 52% front 49%
rear, and it will weigh about 2900 without me in it, (I weigh
170 lbs.) and it will have 500 horsepower NA.

So I would love to get some lift on launch, it doesn't have
to be all crazy like the Charger at the end of the first Fast
and Furious movie, but even if the front wheels leave the
street about a couple inches for half a second, I would
LOVE it!! And my wife would go crazy! She loves that too!

So what's the general rule there? Will the setup I am
working on get that? Front end is super light, custom
aluminum bumper support, tubular K-member and A-arms,
coil over suspension, no heat or A/C at all, aluminum
heads, fiberglass hood, lightweight battery. I'm sure there's
a bit more but you get the idea.

I attached a pic of my car in progress and it just so
happens to be at the angle I would like to hit. So come
on you guys, give me the info I need!! Thanks!!

Also, if you have any pics, videos, and/or specs of your
ride doing it, I'd love to see it!!

 

Its more torque and grip. Street tires wont do it no matter how much power u have. Its also suspension too.

 

Like I said, the suspension will all
be great. Adjustable torque arm,
panhard bar, lower control arms,
the works. Front and rear. I
haven't worked up the torque
numbers yet but I imagine it will
be right around the same as the
horsepower, give or take 50. It
will be pretty well balanced.

The tires I will be going with are
something in the neighborhood of
a 315/30/18 drag radial, maybe a
bit bigger if it can fit. So...?

 

You will need more sidewall, stick with a 15inch rim.

 

Yelp I was just about to say u need more side wall some 10.5 slicks on 15s will do. What type of suspension setup u have street, pro touring, or drag.

 

It's a street/strip setup. Great for either.

 

Don't forget to include some really good weld in sub-frame connectors otherwise you'll be popping out the glass and you won't be able to close the doors.

Make sure the torque arm doesn't attach to the tranny or you'll destroy it (the tranny case will eventually break). You need the short type that attaches to the body.

Use a 9" rearend with a soft gearset or you'll be snapping teeth off of the gears. Don't ask me how I know this...

You'll need a TH400 and a trans brake if auto (you ain't gonna foot brake a wheelie - well you can get a few inches with a lot of torque and a big stall - you've got to "shock" the drive line to get the front tires up); a healthy clutch if manual.

Light weight battery? Why? use a standard dry battery (don't want all that battery acid slopping all over). Put it in the trunk over or behind the axle. You'll need an approved battery shut off if running at a track though.

Stock drive shaft and U-joints? Don't make me laugh...

Heed the man who said 15" rims with a 10 or 10.5 wide slick. Look at the tires on the car pulling said wheelie. Notice how much the tire is deflecting? An 18" 30 aspect tire will just spin regardless of compound. It'll do corners great; launch not so great.

It gets waaaaayyyyy deeper than this. I hope you have cubic $$$ for when it comes down so hard you hit the pan, twist the body, etc. There's a reason that cars that pull wheelies aren't usually daily driven...

 

I wheelied a Dart on Tigerpaw f 60's once. So it can be done. Torque is the key. In my case I had 640hp bigblock mopar 440 under the hood, I don't think you are going to get there with a SBC Chevy just not enough torque, even in the same hp range, Need a BBC 454 or a 502 Good looking car BTW

 

Nice! Those last two are the best answers yet.
So let me clarify briefly... I'm not trying to wheelie.
I just wanted to know what it takes and if my
setup would do it or be close. I saw a post on this
website before where a guy had a link to a youtube
video of his teal firebird getting the front end just off
the ground on launch. I searched but couldn't find it
anymore. (anyone know where or what it is?) I was
trying to find out what he had.

I was looking for something like the ET calculator.
It says something like,
A car weighing XXXX with XXX HP will do a 1/4 in XX.XX
Pretty much that but what would get a car to lift.

So I am definitely going with weld in sub frame connectors.
Everything will be aftermarket and built for performance.
It's going to be street/strip, corners, city, and the 1/4,
hopefully a beast in all.

So sidewall is not on my side but the width of the tires will be.
Maybe not for a wheelie (which like I said isn't my goal) but
my baby will rock!

 

Oh, and THANKS!! I love my beauty!!

 

Every single combination is different, but I think your chassis and suspension setup is the most critical aspect. It all boils down to traction. I have a friend with a fox-body mustang that he bought as a roller, but was previously a 9 second car. He had a 390+ cubic inch windsor motor built for it, but never got it tuned. His trap speeds are in the range of 105mph, yet with drag radials he runs mid 12s and can pull one tire off the ground without a trans brake. He's got the best 60' times of any slow car that I've ever seen.

Weight transfer is a big factor in lifting a tire. Drag shocks, light springs, no sway bar up front, etc. Combine that with a properly set up rear suspension, sticky tires, locker differential, and good torque at the launch rpm, and you can start thinking about lifting tires. Take any of this away, and you can more or less forget it. Anything with a "street" suspension isn't going to transfer enough weight to pull the tires.

 

I think this is the biggest factor, other than traction. Foot braking you can only spin the motor up so far before the motor overpowers the brakes. Transbrake is almost a necessity. Don't let others fool you into thinking you need a big block. A friend I race with pulls the wheels 6" every pass, with a 11.90s 350 small block. It's on slicks, on a transbrake, the suspension is set up correctly, and it's got good weight balance. Probably the biggest factors.

 

exactly, my 3800lb chevelle would get about 18 inches of lift on one side a lot less on the other with a 406sbc. leaving at 5000 off the brake on a ladder bar suspension.

 

ive seen lots of cars do it without a trans brake, i know a guy that has a thirdgen with a 500 hp 383 that has everything else mentioned, 10.5 slicks, drag suspension etc. he has a th350 with a good custom converter. i think that has alot to do with it. his will lift the fronts a couple inches

 

i was using a cheap ebay ******* 5500 stall and this was on mt et STREETS 28x11.5.

 

I should rephrase my previous statement. The capability of spinning the motor high at the line, be it high converter/transbrake is pretty much a requirement. I know I'll never see light under my tires with a 3000 stall lol.

 

Awesome, awesome! All good stuff here guys. So does anybody have pics or videos of their ride doing it? And if so, I'd like to know what the setup is.

 

not the best pic but it comes off a little bit and any more than that is wasted energy that is supposed to be getting you down the track. also dangerous landing

 

Ive got a framed picture hanging on the wall off the chevelle. If you want a picture of a picture lol

 

i would say its almost easy to do it with a sbc... lol
mine was setup for nitrous but still picked the fronts up a little leaving off the footbrake with no bottle. and my engine was about as cheap as they get. (stock LT1 with cam/ported heads/single plane) i left the line at just a hair above idle, and had a jw 3200 converter, th400, 28x10.5s, and th400 with 3.89 gear.
its all about raceweight, weight transfer and a decent enough amount of torque getting to the rear tires on initial takeoff. think in terms of converter and gear, not just the engine.

 

Here is a picture taken of my car about a month ago. It runs 11.85 at 114 in the 1/4 mile with a 355 with vortec heads. I also have some suspension stuff done, with 90/10's, adjustable rear shocks, subframe connecters, and lca's with lcarb's. Also I have a 3500 stall with 4.11 gears with a spool in a moser 9 inch(Helps me to pull the wheels consistently without failure). Also have 28x10.5 slicks on the rear. I average a 1.58 60 foot.

 

As said its all in suspension and weight transfer.

Good motor is only part of the equation in going fast. Put enough work in the susp and watch your times drop even more.

Have enough power to pull them up but its not set up for it. Personally dont care the idea of getting a pic of it up once....yeah cool stuff.