I am obsessing over the setup of this 75 Vette with ladder bars and radial tire. I have built a new subframe inboard of the original frame and have created room for a 30 x 10.5 x 15 Hoosier radial. In addition, am installing a 32" ladder bar. It is a balancing situation with consideration of seat mounting, ladder bar crossmember, ride height, and bar angle.

At this time, I have it all fitted with enough clearance everywhere and with the ladder bar level. If the ladder bar needs to be uphill one bolt hole [which will be 3/4" or about one degree] it will create a problem with the seat clearance.

Some folks are telling me level is OK, others telling me the bars need to run uphill, others telling me one or two degrees down.

In the past with bias tires, I built cars with two degrees down with excellent results.

I am interested in hearing your real experience with ladder bar and radial tire.

NOTE: The car will weigh about 2950 with driver, has a nice, 408 LS engine of about 725 horse, expected performance is 6.0's 1/8 mile. This is a foot brake bracket buildup.

In addition, the track where we will race are good and well prepped. And the car will have quality, double adjustable shocks all corners.

We have a ladder bar 66 mustang with MT 29.5/10.5 radial and we went one hole up (from a few degrees down to maybe 1 degree up) and it helped a lot. 6.20-30s with 363 sbf, PG and 5.13 gear.

My vote is 2 deg down. Get a longer ladder bar if you can.

Radial tire has to be hit hard to hook well. IMO down hill is asking for traction problems.

Short bar is also preferable to again, hit the tire hard.

I think y'all can see my dilemma. Some say, downhill, some say up hill, very confusing.

At this point I am considering selling the radials while they are still new and installing bias tires.

Before doing so, I plan to call Hoosier, M/T and Phoenix.

Larry, Fabman has run radials on his car for many years very effectively. Also since he builds cars and knows how to set them up that also gives him credibility.

Just put the bars where you know they need to be, you can adjust to what the radials like with shocks and launch RPM's / retard modules, etc.

If you find the radials not to your liking, you'll be good for the bias tires.
Guarantee if you get friendly with the radials, you'll never want anything else.

Corvette F/R weight bias is already great, no need for a longer bar.

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Woodfin:
I think y'all can see my dilemma. Some say, downhill, some say up hill, very confusing.

At this point I am considering selling the radials while they are still new and installing bias tires.

Some are wrong. LOL!

Let me know your asking price. Shipping cost probably makes it too expensive.