Author Topic: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville  (Read 18273 times)

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Offline 1212FBGS

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #15 on: July 17, 2007, 03:18:48 AM »
drives like a cadi...i like it
kent

Offline bvillercr

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #16 on: July 17, 2007, 10:38:21 AM »
drives like a cadi...i like it
kent

hopefully a new cadi, they run pretty good.

Offline Sumner

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2007, 11:20:57 AM »
rigid up front.... limit to a soft 1" in back.....
kent

How is your traction with out front suspension?  Do you get loose anywhere?

With respect to Kent I don't think you can compare what he is doing with his streamliner to what you are trying to achieve with a car.

Personally I think this is a topic that has no "right" answer.  The fastest vehicle in the books will probably be one that is running on a perfect track where suspension is not needed at all.  These tracks come along every so often.  The fastest vehicle over a number of years where the track varies is probably one that has a working suspension.

With a lakester and anything else where the axles/suspension hangs out in the breeze having no suspension can give you the opportunity for lower frontal area and better aero, so no suspension can give you an edge if you have a perfect track.

I'm trying to set my suspension up where it can be very stiff with a good track and can be adjusted quite soft for a bad one so at least I can still run and get some enjoyment out of a years worth of effort between meets.

c ya,

Sum

Offline 1212FBGS

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2007, 01:16:46 PM »
I agree sum.. its better to have it when needed then not have it at all. in my liner i want the front planted and the rear to absorb shocks to the drive line. I don't want the nose to lift, with a suspension, the body can lift before the weight of the wheel assemblies do, sometimes lift to far allowing air under and over or around she goes. It can happen with all those converted door slammers, they drop the car and don't do anything with the original travel. you need to limit the amount of top out to desired ride high only and limit suspension movement to compression only. shocks should be soft compression and slow rebound like a wet road race or dirt track setting. fully adjustable shocks and limit straps are over the counter stuff now a days. In my case i slammed it till it scrapes the loading trailer then went up a little.
kent

Offline bvillercr

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #19 on: July 17, 2007, 10:08:04 PM »
We have no issues with our car and spinning the tires.  I just wanted to know other opinions on how and what set ups people are running.  We run a 4 link in the back and an A-arm coil in the front.  We have run well over 260 many times and have tacked over 300 once until our overdrive broke and still averaged 288 with a blown up motor.  Exit speed was 279.  We keep getting a little closer to our goal, and keep upgrading the problems we run into.  Thanks for all this great info on this site.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2007, 01:25:48 AM by bvillercr »

Offline Sumner

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #20 on: July 17, 2007, 11:59:31 PM »
..........have tacked over 300 once until our overdrive broke and still averaged 288..................

What kind of overdrive??  A stand alone or one of the gears in the tranny setup as an over drive??  What transmission are you running??

c ya,

Sum

Offline bvillercr

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #21 on: July 18, 2007, 01:20:48 AM »
the overdrive unit was a gear vendor attached to the back of the tranny.  They told us that it was durable up to 1800 hps.  Every year at bville something would go wrong with it and they would fix it and beef it up.  In 03 when the valve broke the tranny started up shifting and down shifting before the first mile.  Anyone want to buy it?  Gear vendors fixed it and beefed it up.  They were very good to us in that department.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2007, 01:20:27 AM by bvillercr »

Offline Peter Jack

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #22 on: July 18, 2007, 01:26:35 AM »
How are you planning to achieve the equivalent gearing now to get to the speeds you're after?

Pete

Offline bvillercr

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #23 on: July 18, 2007, 01:30:51 AM »
We had an Owens overdrive built to attach to our Owen tranny.  Gearing is a little taller than before, I hope the hp will pull the gear. 

Offline Bob Drury

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #24 on: July 19, 2007, 12:25:36 AM »
Scott Owens builds really nice stuff, but man is he slow.  Kind of like Taylor wheels , but then so was Michelangelo.  If those three guys built a streamliner, it would look great, run superb, and never be finished........no, wait, thats Marlo's car..........lol :wink:
Bob Drury

Offline bvillercr

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #25 on: July 19, 2007, 11:00:00 AM »
Scott Owens builds really nice stuff, but man is he slow.  Kind of like Taylor wheels , but then so was Michelangelo.  If those three guys built a streamliner, it would look great, run superb, and never be finished........no, wait, thats Marlo's car..........lol :wink:

Ya think?  We waited over 3 years for this overdrive from Owens.  At one point he lost one of our trannies. 

Offline Stovebolt

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #26 on: December 21, 2007, 07:24:43 AM »
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've always liked the look of the Iacanno/Ganahl rail from the 50's, and was wondering if a car like this could be run as a lakester.

http://www.donshotrodpage.net/Pleasanton/pages/XP8240142_JPG.htm

http://www.donshotrodpage.net/Pleasanton/pages/XP8240145_JPG.htm

http://www.donshotrodpage.net/Pleasanton/pages/XP8240144_JPG.htm

If has suspended front suspension, and a solid rear.

Is this set-up do-able on the salt???
Its hard enough to be your age, let alone act it.

dwarner

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #27 on: December 21, 2007, 09:22:50 AM »
Yes, however this style is a bit dated and may not be competitve against today's records.

Just after moving to Auburn Keith Young teamed with Terry Haines to run a front engine dragster style lakester, GMC/Wayne 12 Port power. Ran at 185 if I remember correctly. Terry now runs a rear engine lakester, blown GMC, 7 port head, over 200.

When my dad passed away there was a picture of me sitting in that car, originally built by Sonny Balcane(sp) at Bakersfield. The car ran in TE that day against Cook/Bedwell. I was 13 or 14 then.

DW

Offline Stovebolt

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #28 on: December 21, 2007, 04:05:48 PM »
Yes, however this style is a bit dated and may not be competitve against today's records.

DW

Thanks Dan, but I don't want to be competitive against the U.S. records - I'd set the Aussie record just going through the timing traps :-D ("Big" fish - small pond)

I'd like to know about stability at speed, performance of a solid rear suspended car etc
Its hard enough to be your age, let alone act it.

Offline Sumner

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Re: Total travel of suspension for Bonneville
« Reply #29 on: December 21, 2007, 04:27:40 PM »
..............I'd like to know about stability at speed, performance of a solid rear suspended car etc

It is going to depend on the course.  B'ville can change dramatically year to year and even day to day during the event.  A perfect track and it isn't going to make a difference.  We ran with no problems the first day of Speed Week last year and had real problems getting a hold of the track the last two days.  It cost us a new record when the backup run had to be aborted.

2 years ago when the course was really terrible there wasn't many records set over 200.  Most of the ones that did set records had a handle on their suspension.  Those with non most likely didn't even run.

I'm a big believer in suspension unless you have a car running 300+, but even some of those run suspension.  Your not running 300+ the whole run.

Personally I'm trying for relatively soft springs with good dampening.  If you can get your tires staying on the course you can transmit power and go faster.  If they are in the air you aren't accelerating.

Now the next easy question...............which is better a Chevy or a Ford,

Sum