lowering = more speed?

[Bluedragondsm]

Does lowering make your car any faster? like et time wise or anything like that?

 

[dont need 8]

I don't think it will increase your speed, but a stiffer suspension can decrease the amount of squat that happens when you accelerate which puts more power to the ground.

 

[jltcat]

a stiffer suspension in drag racing is not a good thing. The stiffer you get the more wheel spin can occur with AWD or RWD you want a somewhat soft suspension so that the car squats planting it to the track. A stiff suspension could cause a loss in speed due to wheel slip. Lowering your car however could result in a fast time due to the aero dynamics. The air going under the car will be less thus it will not give your car as much lift. You will go even faster if you tunnel the car this will release the pressure under the car while maintaining the pressure on top of the car; planting the car even harder to the track then before.

 

[dont need 8]

Correct me if I am wrong but if it is a front wheel drive car, which is what most of the eclipses/talons are, you do not want the back end to squat down. So you would want to stiffen it up, right.

 

[danthman3]

in a drag scenario the stiffer the better
obviously a fwd doesn't want rear squat because of lost traction to drive wheels
but even in an awd energy is wasted compressing the suspension
(thats the same principle in stiffening your motor mounts)

 

[dont need 8]

I agree, same with the use of "Traction Bars" on the old hot rods.

 

[MustGoFaster020]

Originally posted by danthman3
even in an awd energy is wasted compressing the suspension
(thats the same principle in stiffening your motor mounts)

Yes energy is wasted compressing suspension, but if your car has too stiff a suspension setup you will lose traction, which do you think is the bigger waist of energy? Back in the day of nylon side walls and what not people would actually raise the car to increase weight transfer and gain traction (Up to 200% increase ) We have better tires now and for an AWD to take advantage of this you would need a 50/50 split to prevent the front wheels from going crazy.

 

[mavisky]

lowering your car will reduce under body turbulence, but not to an extent that would be noticeable to you. especially since your nt won't seen trap speeds of anything in the 90mph range without some serious modifications. you'll gain more time in learning to drive your car better (and we all could) than by lowering it to reduce the coefficient of drag.

 

[danthman3]

"Back in the day of nylon side walls and what not people would actually raise the car to increase weight transfer and gain traction "

1st of all this was used for rwd cars
2nd this was used to gain an initial bite because of the incresed normal force leading to increased friction (as long as the weight was transfering back) energy was definitely lost in this transfer
3rd stiffer suspension does not cause you to lose traction, the launching process is far to shocking on a driveline if there is no give at all

wheelie bars are used on modern drag cars (FWD or RWD) to limit the weight transfer similarly to what stiffer springs would do on a street car

bottom line the original question was in refrence to a fwd car in which case lowering springs with a stiff rear shock would be best to help launches

 

[jltcat]

I think that a dipping suspension would be a h*ll of a lot better than getting the wheels a bouncin. Especially if the suspension isnt relieved until you get out of the throttle.

 

[danthman3]

a "dipping suspension"?
do you mean on a fwd or awd?
because on a fwd there is no argument, stiff rear suspension prevents wheel hop
and i've never seen an awd bounce all four wheels even with a stiff suspension but i do know if the fronts start to bounce your diff is gonna lock em with the rears and you will get a shitty launch and/or break driveline parts
rwd (which no dsms are) could problably use a little bounce but i don't kno anything about that kind of driveline (and i don't pretend to)

PS if your wheels hop when you launch then you're launching improperly for your car