Re: Car physics: was MK1 Drag results...

["John Van Vuren" <veedublu@prod.net>]

>"Gary A. Huff" wrote:
>
>> Not true, High displacement RWD torque monster cars are jacked up for a
>> reason; that is weight transfer.

I (politely) disagree.  I believe the first reason for jacking up the rear
was to fit larger tires.  Long before Joe Gearhead determined that weight
transfer was a good thing, he thought to himself, "the best way to gain
traction is to have more rubber in contact with the ground"

Do Top Fuel dragsters have the back end jacked up?  Nope, just big tires...

Do those 8-second street cars have the back end jacked up?  Nope, just big
tires hiding in pro-street tubs...

A cheap trick (remember, this is for rwd cars) is to put many clamps on the
front half of each rear leaf spring.  This basically makes it "solid" as the
individual leaves can't slide against each other as they get longer/shorter.
Then, when applying power to the axle and it rotates upward (or toward the
rear) this "solid link" forces the axle and tires straight down into the
ground.  Sometimes this will actually lift the rear of the car upon
acceleration (watch some video of a late 60's Mopar launching sometime...
the really fast guys' cars just kind of pick themselves straight up and
move)

Granted, there are more expensive ways of achieving the same effect
(traction bars, ladder bars, etc)

John

lotsa stuff (including some muscle car history)
http://www.prod.net/jvanvuren/vw.htm





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