After two years trials and tribulations Ive been back at the dragstrip with my Chevelle.. Im having some traction issues off the line. My car has a real lazy launch. Best 60 FT was 1.795.. Average 60 ft times were 1.88. MPH is always 110.5 to 110.7. with average ET's around 12.41 ( best of 12.34)
I had someone watch and he said that the car isnt spinning the tires till Im about 10 feet out. Im running a 9" slick. Any ideas what might be causing this? Track prep at this particular track isnt the greatest... but others with a 9" slick were hooking up.

When does your timing coming in? You want it to start coming in right above launch. Is it too fat?

The timing is locked out. I am running a modified Holley 750 vacuum secondary carb. Maybe the secondaries opening?

Here is some more info.

I have a 4000 stall converter and 4.11 gears.

The car, with driver, is over 3800lbs.

I do not have tubes in my slicks and they are not screwed to the rims.I have varied pressure from a low of 11PSI to a high of 20. with 16PSI seeming to give the best contact patch.

The front sway bar is still hooked up.

I have adjustable upper control arms installed in the lower holes of the no-hop bars.

The pinion angle is set to 2.5% down.

With 4.11's and 4000 stall that thing ought to be down in the 1.6's easy. Have you tried a DP to see if there was any improvement? maybe its not gettin enough gas?? I recently reinstalled my swaybar with the old worn out bushings and pulled off 7 passes in a row at 1.71-1.72 on drag radials. You have enuff mph to run 12.0's or teens easily,just gotta get it outta the hole :confused:

Tony, what shocks?

Maybe the front is dropping too fast and unloading the rear tires.

I have some tuning to do for shure... Its heading the right direction.. SLOWLY!
Shocks...I have QA! adjustables in the back... Parts store cheapies in the front.
Im running a BG 220HR pump.. Lots of fuel flow.
Ive been searching for a Holley HP to try but havent loacated one to use when I want yet.

Im taking things in slow stages so I can see what is working and what isnt.. The next planned steps are to..

Remove the 2" spacer on my Victor JR. It gained me 7HP on the dyno but I think it might be robbing the carb of signal under the heavy load on launch.

Remove front sway bar

After a couple of baseline runs I might try to fatten up the primaries from 72's to 74's in an effort to throw a little more fuel at it off the launch.

dump the part store cheapies in the front, and use KONI street adjustable shocks.

You could put Koni's up front, and that's not a bad idea, but you could see if that is the problem spot by throwing some CE or Summit 3 ways on to see if the situation improves. They have a quick rise rate but settle slowly.

Which Koni's are you guys talking about? The SPA1's or the street specials?

Street adjustables

I think Ill try "TOMS SHOCK NUT TRICK" first before I throw any more money at it. Realistically Ill probably only get out once more before the track closes for the season.

spend the money.

in stages :D
One thing Ive noticed in looking at some of the shocks out there is that the Koni street adjustables (8040-1087)$99EA have to be removed every time you make an adjustment. The Qa1 stocker stars (TC-1914P)(140ea) have the adjustment knob right on the shock. Both of these shocks have 50/50 valving with the adjustment only being the dampening. In other words you cant adjust the bump and rebound seperatly.Are you guys using these just dialing them to the lightest setting for a quick rise and settle?
The SPA1 Konis (80-1958-SPA1)$79EA have almost no dampening built in the the bump portion so they can settle down quickly and again they have to be removed to adjust the rebound. The QA1 stocker star "R" versions have a fixed 90 valving on the bump and an 12 way knob adjustable rebound... for $160 each ..

The bottom line of all of this is... I have a street/ strip car. I really dont want to fuss with removing shocks to adjust the valving all of the time... Im not sure if just adjusting the dampening on a 50/50 shock will get me the weight transfer I want.... A fixed 90 or no bump rating really isnt the best setup for street use..

QA1 is coming out with a double adjustable front shock soon. This would seemingly be the best as they dont have to be removed and there would be infinite adjustablity with seperate 12 way adjustment knobs for bump and rebound.Im also sure that these will cost the same as my Minnesota winter heating bill :D
Lots of things to consider here..

you can reach through the spring to adjust them?

Yeah, the koni's need to be taken off, but how many times are you going to adjust them? couple times until you get what you like then thats about it unless you have any changes you like to make for a particular track

Chris Alston (http://www.cachassisworks.com/) has double adjustable shocks. Real pricey, though.

Are you guys using the Koni street adjustables just dialing them to the lightest setting for a quick rise and settle?

Tony, i put the Koni street shocks on my 67 and allthough my 60' are still all over the place (see my 60' post) it has cured the pop-and-drop front end issues i was having. i agree, it is a bit of a hassle to set them but once dialed in it i think its a trouble free deal. as for carb spacers, my car picked up .04 in the 1/8 with and additional 1" spacer. last night i added yet another for a total of 3" and the car still picked up MPH. Dave

tony, the settings ed starts with, and the setting i have my shocks on are Full soft in the front, and full stiff in the rear.

Works for him, and the front end settings are working for me.

Thanks Guys.. Good info here...

Dave .. 3" on top of a super victor :eek: I think you could use a bigger carb.
What does your car weigh?

Tony, the last weight was 3520 with me in it. ive added a roll bar and went to lighter front tires so im not sure where im at now. theres a 950hp on the car right now and i think i may take 1 spacer off as i cant use the air pan with it like it is. Dave

Dave.. Thats amazing that the super vic didnt have enough plenum... I thought that you still had the 750 on it. graemlins/clonk.gif Youve got plenty of carb.

Brian, I didn't realize that you had to remove the Koni's to adjust them. :(

How often do you drive the Camaro on the street? Is your race setting the same as the street setting? I'll be doing mostly daily driving for a while, but I'd like to hit the track next spring.

I guess removing the front shocks is pretty easy, but I always seem to have a fuss with the rear ones. Give me the lowdown for what settings you use for:

front/street
front/race
rear/street
rear/race

Thanks! graemlins/waving.gif

I daily drive the car at times, my settings are the same for street and strip.
Full soft in the front, and i have junky CE shocks in the rear. When i replace those with Koni's the initial setting will be full stiff.

I bought the Konis and have them set at the lightest setting. These are not drag shocks. they are a 50/50 shock with adjustable valving. I have yet to test them.
I believe Brians settings are lightest of the five clicks for the front and stiffest for the rear.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I run the CE 3-ways on the back of mine as well, Brian. They are actually the '64-67 part # off of my '66. I'm using them on my '70 :embarrassed:. I figured what the hey.

Tony, what is your initial feeling on the Koni's? Any noticeable difference in ride or on the occasional redline blast? What shock were you using prior to this?

I wanted to go with QA1's, but they're so darn expensive. :eek:

Originally posted by 70_FathomBlueMalibu:


Tony, what is your initial feeling on the Koni's? Any noticeable difference in ride or on the occasional redline blast? What shock were you using prior to this?
I just put them on Friday and I havent had a chance to drive the car yet. I am planning on testing this weekend but the current forecast is for a high of 46 F and cloudy. I have not been to this track when it was this cold so I dont know what the starting line will be like... but this is the last test day of the year. The shocks are on the lightest setting and are quite a bit softer on compression and rebound than the no-name parts store cheepies that were on there.

I run the QA1's on the rear on setting 6 left and 8 right and my adjustment on the front shocks is the shock nut switch which is super easy and I have been able to do in 4 minutes or less

Justin, Can you give me a call tonight ???