Stiff Suspension

[stevebroad]

Does the stiffness of a car's suspension have any effect on its performance on the strip?

[Benni]

Hi Stephen !

From my second-hand experience as announcer & photoman : YES !
The setup of a good quartermile suspension is very different to a street/track car.
If you have rear-wheel drive, weight transfer is very important,
as you have a weighty engine in the front
and not very much ballast on the driven rear wheels.
In order to get good traction/less wheelspin off the line,
the weight if the car needs to be transfered back,
this is done by modifying axle mounting systems,
special shocks and their setup of spring compression and rebound.
The amount of torque that the engine applies to the chassis
and the drivetrain can also be compensated that way,
to get an even distribution of power to both wheels.
I am sure some members here with first-hand experience will write
more details on that subject.
Regards,
Benni

[liner33]

I know its not a drag car but my Skyline is really stiff , it has Tein suspension all round known for being pretty hard but i deliberatly set the rear a lot softer than most , this really seems to help weight transfer and traction off the line

The school of thought for bikes used to be to remove the rear suspension altogether and that a solid rear end was best but if you look at the development of the superstreet bikes in recent years the use of rear shcokers has really helped drive the sport forwards