A dozen ways to reduce wheelstands...

[John_Heard]

Ok - this is a challange to you guys, let's find a dozen ways to reduce wheelstands...without spinning the tires hopefully!

Last night I was at the shootout races in Tulsa watching a number of people fighting wheelstand issues. It's gotten fairly expensive for some of the guys, rack & pinions, oil pans, transmission pans, headers, windshields, you name it have been busted in the last couple months.

I thought I would start a thread on ways to control wheelstands and maybe we might all learn something maybe?

1. Tighten up front shock extension
2. Limit front suspension travel
3. Change rear suspension mounting points to modify instant center. I would assume lower right?
4. Add weight to front end (affects instant center also)

next??...

[novaz]

well i dont know a lot about drag cars but on bikes you can easily find a point between wheelies and spinning the rear by tire pressures the perfect launch there is just having the front wheel touching the track the other thing i was thinking was how about being able to move your seat around or relocate battery /fuel cell so its not so rear ward I have noticed on the pro-sim drag software they model .001seconds into every 1% you can place on the rear wheels as i said i dont have any car race experience but just some thoughts.
Royz

[Craig W.]

Soften the hit via rear shock settings, Caltrac preload (if so equipped) and pinion angle.

[Racer704]

I know that cars with factory rear coil springs like in a Chevelle just add air bags to the rear springs and adjust air pressure...... 8) Worked well for me back 16 years ago when I was running high 9's with a stock rear and a 454 with lots of gas....lol

[Ron Clark]

if its legal for you, run the msd box with timing control..think 7531...we put one on our car, pulled timing out on launch at trans brake hit..ramped it back in in first second of run....car went straight, wheels only a few inches high, and a second faster...set your car for correct weight management for tire size/type and tune the power around it..nhra outlawed this box right away , so you know it works..this info is for this boards readers only..lol...give it away u give up a great advantage..let those other guys wipe their stuff out..easier to win..


hey barb, hows that pro-mod deal working?..not to jack the thread or anything... 8)

[Guest]

All Good and viable ways. One very important starting line tool is the center of gravity, which is directly related to chassis ride height. You can tame a violently wheelstanding car down by lowering it. Do it right and the car will still hook, but not go on the bumper doing it. Just remember to put the pinion angle and instant center (if adjustable) back where it was. A car I set up would do 2 foot high wheelstands with a 383sbc street motor that went 11.40's na,carring the wheels for 30', lowered it down about 1.5 inches, reset the ladderbars and it would pull about 4' high for 10'. New motor 406sbc, 9.70's na, lowered another inch, 4" high wheelie,10' or so long. Now that the car is as low as it can go (suspension wise), I will use the other tactics mentioned to calm it down if needed for the N2O. The car can be run with the suspension looser on motor, then tightened up for nitrous passes. This has worked for me on other cars also with the same results. If you lower it to much, you'll have to raise it up a little. Hard to do if everything is not adjustable, so go slow. Hope this helps.

[Racer704]

Hey Ron its coming real good now that we have a new engine builder. working on the chassis now as we have found alot of power now that it has low leak down numbers. Couldnt controll the car due to excesive rear weight, but we did manage a 2.70 330'.
Thanks for asking

[Ron Clark]

sounds like power mr B...and i must add to my msd /wheelstand note..we engage the nitrous off the trans brake, with small tires...we retard enuf to smooth the hit out and rock the car back without getting crazy..the cars are stock suspension for the most part, but this particular one had ladder bars..we found it easier to use the box than to reset suspension for track conditions..just another tuning tool for the advanced racer.

if you dont have scales available, buy some..well worth the cost, and you can do other folks cars for the beer..lol..you will not believe the problems they can solve for you..

[jones_performance]

on the car we have front limiters on we have limited the down travel of the front suspension to essentially make the fornt end seem heavier since it puts the unsprung weight in the air sooner by limiting its travel. on a few other cars we mainly use rear tire pressure, tak e apound or 2 out and it wads the tre more and absorbs some of the hit coming off the trans brake, it does affect 60ft times slightly. it also depends on your weight bias as well as to what works for you.

[Tobias]

I have a box that I made that helps out controling wheel stands. Check it out at www.dragtraction.com. On the left, click on the 'Wheelie Control'

[Racer704]

Well I will post again here with a update and I know John will back this up. Use a progressive N2O set up and you can controll it all you want at any track in less then 1 min. of an adjustment.

[hsutton]

Well I will post again here with a update and I know John will back this up. Use a progressive N2O set up and you can controll it all you want at any track in less then 1 min. of an adjustment.

Ask John what the sky looks like after you put 200 initial hit on your new plate setup. You might inquire about the new shape of his oil pan and headers too.

[Tobias]

Progressive timing and nitrous are good ideas. The problem is that you are still making an educated guess at best. When you are making an educated guess chances are you are going to want to lean toward the conservative side and when you decide to go on the agressive side??...see above post mentioning oil pan condition. I would say 75-80% of the racers that purchase the wheelie control unit tell me they wish they had the unit in the car last weekend or I wouldn't be replacing alot of parts now.

[Racer704]

Hold on guys John was not using the progressive on that launch he was using his plate without the progressive. All year he used the progressive and had nothing but great 60's and it wasnt untill he wanted more that he went air bound with a FIXED HIT set up. Get your facts right .....

[John_Heard]

Johnny's right the progressive setup on my fogger is far more controllable and smooth hitting.

That plate setup I rigged up, well that idea didn't work so hot. The way I plumbed it made it hit even harder than a regular plate (solenoids were directly hooked to the spray bars .. no feed lines). It was the first round of qualifying and I just got too aggressive with it AND the car dead hooked. Not a good combination.

Next year the car will probably have just one progressive stage on it without the plate.. or I might leave the plate hooked up too just in case