FWD Wheelie Bars - Discussion

[Superdave]

I stiffened the back end of mine up alot, but eventually i'm going to install a set of good 'ol air shocks.

I've looked at building a set of wheelie bars as well since i have weight transfer problems but damn.. i know i'd get some funny looks at the track pulling up in a cavalier with training wheels.

[IsaacHayes]

Saw a blue 2 door base 2nd gen cav parked at walmart. It had a HUGE aluminum park bench on the back and had air shocks with it jacked up all the way in the rear just parked there. Looked ridiculous... LOL I'm sure he wasn't using those for drag racing hahaha

[gectek]

so to reitterate, when not using a wheelie bar, you should try to make BOTH front and rear as stiff as possible if you have an adj strut like the AGX?

[OldSkoolGP]

There is a guy in IL using FWD ladder bars very successfully named Paul Soltus. He does run them on a 97-03 GTP, which means it has the "engine which must not be named," but they help him a lot. So much in fact that with slicks he's cutting 1.6x 60' times. What he does is set them to preload the rear suspension. They basically support 200 pounds of the rear end weight on their own, which raises the car and keeps is from squating, but it also tranfers even more weight shift to the front end than bars alone would do.

The only problem he has is that the wheels on the bars don't last very long with the preload, and he ends up burning out bearings pretty easily. You can't argue with the results, but he is running mid to low 11s. How much slower he'd be without them is something only he probably knows.

[kwhauck]

I am gonna agree with geteck that the car should be as stiff as possible to begin with, and everything should be covered. Me personally I have custom coilovers that are very stiff, also every seam in the engine bay has been spot welded completely. The front end is much, much stiffer (when you jack the car up the doors still close normal and not hard like before the front end was welded up) I also think that a cable limiter setup on the rear would be more useful to start with than wheelie bars...

[IsaacHayes]

That or spring blockers. The GTP guys get those from GTO's and says it helps at the track. Stiffens up the rear.

[gectek]

you mean those things that twist in the spring to make them harder....those suck

[kwhauck]

yes, they suck hard, I used them and they suck, granted that was with stock shocks and eibachs, but i had a cable limiter setup after that and it was much better, but with my new coilovers, i think they will be stiff enough by themselves to pull 1.6 60s, maybe even lower....

[Superdave]

i wonder what would happen if i fabbed up 4 removable bars to lock the suspension solid at the track... Just 1" square steel bars and some strong mounts with grade 8 bolts. Although i guess that wouldn't be the best thing when i'm trapping 105+ MPH.. LOL

[loner666]

My Eibachs do wonders for my car at the track. Every video ive watched since I put them in Ive seen little to no squat and last outting I pulled a 1.9 60' with a 12.9 @ 106 on a bad 4t60e. I have air shocks on the rear that I have yet to try at the track so I have no idea if that would help or not but the car seems to do wonderfully on just the springs

[project89]

i wonder what would happen if i fabbed up 4 removable bars to lock the suspension solid at the track... Just 1" square steel bars and some strong mounts with grade 8 bolts. Although i guess that wouldn't be the best thing when i'm trapping 105+ MPH.. LOL

yeah dont do that u need some movement in the suspension or it could get ugly in a hurry

[pocket-rocket]

I might be a little late on this convo, but I would also think the rear tires would act like a pivot point for the rear end when the weight transfer takes place, which is why a real wheelie bar > stiff suspension. I'm not against stiff suspension, but the way I think about it, that is what I see in my mind: the rear wheels acting like a pivot point for the body. It's like where someone mentioned trying to jack the front of the car up with and without bars.

[asylummotorsports]

i wonder what would happen if i fabbed up 4 removable bars to lock the suspension solid at the track... Just 1" square steel bars and some strong mounts with grade 8 bolts. Although i guess that wouldn't be the best thing when i'm trapping 105+ MPH.. LOL

I could see "maybe" thinking about something like that in the rear, (at the track ONLY) however it's still a little dicey should something happen and you have to suddenly steer at all.

[Wiz85]

Pocket-rocket definitely correct. The rear wheels is a pivot point especially when the cars launches. So when the front end lifts up, then the bars push the car back down on the pavement to help keep the weight transfer back towards the front on the front tires. I've seen all kinds of drag car setups, fwd and rwd, and there's a billion setup combos. Some casr lift in front/squat in rear, stay level in front/squat in rear, lift in front/level in rear, squat in front/squat in rear, lift in front/lift in rear, etc etc. All about the setup. The keys are minimum weight transfer and knowing where is your CG. Yes having "wheelie bars" lengthens the wheelbase and stiffer springs reduces weight transfer, but as we all know, it's all about in the name of traction.

[gectek]

Do they make drag bags for a strut style susp? They work great on coil springs.