My son's 1970 Chevelle has an engine that puts out about 460 hp and 485 ft/lbs of torque. We're running 11" wide tires on a 12 bolt posi rear-end with 373 gears. We can't "launch" the car off the line, because all it does is set there and smoke the tires. We've tried romping it from idle, and releasing it from 3500 rpm off the line - nothing works. Can anyone give us an idea of what we can do to get some traction and stop spinning tires?

Yeah Bruce, that's easy go to

www.discounttiredirect.com (http://www.discounttiredirect.com)

and buy a pair of BFG Drag Radials for your son's car. the 295/50/15 should fit, but be careful, once you mount them you own them. Run the tires at 25-26 psi and you'll hook up all right.

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Chaas
Gold #62/ACES
67 SS396/L88
www.chevelles.com/showroom/chaas1.jpg (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/chaas1.jpg)

and disconnect the sway bar so you get some weight transfer.

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Leo Paugh
Maryland Chevelle Club #017
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten.
www.clark.net/pub/chevelle/mcc.htm (http://www.clark.net/pub/chevelle/mcc.htm)

I find gradually pressing down on the gas pedal helps a bit too, are you trying to launch at wide open throttle? That might cause your tires to smoke a little. The 454 I run makes about 500ft/lb of torque, and I can get a consistant-fairly hard launch with radials if I feather the gas. Just enough that the tires chirp a little and are barely holding on. It hurts your 60ft time, but if you don't have the money or desire to put on different tires, it works. Its also a lot easier to do with a automatic.

But actual drag radials or slicks are your best bet to traction.

Here's something I learned from a friend who runs high 9's in a 67 Chevelle.

If your running an automatic, bring up the rpm up just enough take the slack out of the drive train. When you launch, let the converter push you out and lay into the throttle a gradually.
Probably the most difficult thing for a driver is to hold back on that much power and you'll always want to just stomp on it, but hold back. 60' times may go down but your mph & et's will go up, primarialy because your getting traction.

Also, you may want to look at your suspension. Check your springs, light in the back, heavy in front, 90/10 shocks, weight transfer, tire pressure etc, etc.


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Lowered '67 Elcamino
ZZ430HP / 4L60
"Canyon Carver"
www.chevelles.com/showroom/elkydriveway1.jpeg (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/elkydriveway1.jpeg)

Trying to get a car to bust off the starting line and maintain some sort of street manners is a hard thing to do.

Good shocks are must, good bushings in the rear control arms, one air bag and I would use real slicks if you are serious. I think a 12 inch tire will fit on that car without hacking the wheel house.

I like the traction bars that attach to the top links on the rear. They don't hang down under the car and look nasty and work quite well.

More gear would help with wheel spin as well.

As you can see, it gets hard to do both, drive on the street or build a race car.



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Wally
Gold #67
67 Malibu "Small Block" second owner
90 SS454
71 Malibu "Small Block"
93 torch red vette(crashed)Bad day at Blackrock! 6 grand in damage!