Hooking Up On The Street...

Tires tires tires!! Suspension alone will only get you so far if you are overpowering the tires. Tires are the cheapest easiest way to get traction. I run nitto dr's on the street. They work descent on the street and have tread so water/rain isn't an issue. But I'm not making much hp(around 220rwhp without the nitrous) and with 3.73's it still will spin a little but not smoke the tires if I ride the clutch. With nitrous forget about it. I'd concentrate on adj struts/shocks first. My expierience with rear controll arms didn't improve traction much. Springs def improve weight transfer and combo'd with the struts/shocks/controll arms you will see an improvement but tires make a huge difference. For 400$ a new mounted set is by far the best bang for the buck. I'd look for used suspension pieces. The strange engineering adj are pretty cheap new. You don't need to buy rear springs. They work descent enough.

There's no easy way to say it... if you want the car to hook on the street, you have to spend the money. My grudge racers run full suspension, large slicks, and even add ballast to make their cars wheelie on the street. It's not hard, but it's not cheap either.

I don't know what rain y'all go through but for me my nitto drs love to slip everywhere which is why I have to check my radar before going out in the mustang

In the wet my nittos worked great... Any puddles or and bit of standing water and you are hydro planing. Drag radials are great for a car that sees no rain. Not your situation though

Yeah I try to see no rain I got caught coming home the other day by a storm I thought was just passing and ended up staying for a while let just say had a little white knuckle driving

A5literMan said:

Tires tires tires!! Suspension alone will only get you so far if you are overpowering the tires. Tires are the cheapest easiest way to get traction. I run nitto dr's on the street. They work descent on the street and have tread so water/rain isn't an issue.

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This.

What tires are you running?

I am running gforce sport comp 2s all around with stock suspension except for hotchkis rear uppers and lowers. The tires are a step down from a drag radial and the hotchkis jobs are not necessarily the best. I have 373s and was at maybe 205 hp before the car came off the road. Compared to a stock setup the car squats and hooks much better. Unless I am launching it as hard as someone would at the strip, the tires stay planted with maybe a little bit of chirping.

1 problem with sticky tires, they don't last long. On a daily driver you will be spending a lot of money on tires often.

When you get a sticky surface or tires, you will be pushing the limits of the old rubber bushings. At least box the factory control arms and put new bushings in. I like the three piece ones (Steeda?) if they will fit your stock arms. They are supposed to be stiffer in a straight line but allow flex in a twist situation and avoid some suspension binding the solid urethane are supposed to cause.

I would put the quad shocks back on and leave on the rear sway bar. (If you do not have wheel hop now with mostly stock parts, or when it hooks with better tires, you are very lucky.) Put a long as possible set of end links on the front sway bar. That will help push the front end up. At least keep a four cylinder bar on for street use. Learn to use the throttle in first gear or get sticky tires then still learn to control wheel slip with the throttle on the street. Watching the street race show really shows the importance of traction. The one who hooks up the whole length usually wins.

Tires gets my vote. I'm running HTRIII's and get plenty of traction. Old hard tires have no traction...period

We used to get old hard tires to hook up with massive weight transfer from rearward body rock, a silly, high center of balance , a locked rear end and ballast. These did not make the cars very streetable. Hot Rod makes cars that look like this with solid front axles for fun. What are you willing to give up to save money on tires?

New upper and lower control arms in back will help but you will still smoke a reg tire no matter what suspension you run. Im on my 3rd set of nitto 555 drag radials they are probably one of the best drag radials in rain and wear but the miles you are driving i think you have no choice but to stick with reg tires. After running DRs so long on my car i almost wanna go back to reg tires i miss donuts in parking lots etc.

7991LXnSHO said:

We used to get old hard tires to hook up with massive weight transfer from rearward body rock, a silly, high center of balance , a locked rear end and ballast. These did not make the cars very streetable. Hot Rod makes cars that look like this with solid front axles for fun. What are you willing to give up to save money on tires?

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Good info but a quick derail...... Pics of that SHO!

A quick derail? Hardly intentional. My simple point is if he wants to not spin on street tires, he will have to turn it into a gasser, get some other race suspension that is no fun on long trips, or not use so much throttle and slip the clutch in 1st.

And as far as the SHO, it was lots of fun to go fast in comfort, but the drive wheels are on the wrong end for weight transfer for sure!

I have seen cars run on fully built suspensions. Control arms, progressive springs, panhard bar, hydraulic sway bar links (custom built) and ET Streets. You know what remained the same on the street? No traction. The surface isn't conducive for that kind of traction. Asphalt is porous and just rips at the tires. You can throw tons of money at the suspension, or you can buy tires, in the end you will still be looking for answers. Compare a drag strip, circuit track or oval surface to your every day roadway and you will see just how different they are. You will see how those surfaces are designed and built for traction and your average roadway is just meant to get you from point a to b.