Front wheel alignment ? / Door Car

When setting the Camber on a door car, do you want to set it at ride height or at a raised height to simulate the car going down the track?

If raised, how much would one expect to raise the front to set?

My 3rd Gen with coil over struts, from ride height to raising the front 1.25”, it will loose 1* of camber (top of tires more outward when raised).

For the past several weeks, I’ve been slowly increasing the front spring pressure to raise the front ride height to keep from tripping the finish line beams with the nose when hard braking. This week I just switched to a new tire that is 7/8” taller than the previous front.

What say you that do this themselves.

This is typically how the finish line foam blocks are prepped, with the center of the reflector 7" off the track surface,the foam block is 12 x 12". Unless the beam source is lower than 7",it's kinda hard to trip the beam with the tire every time unless the car rocks back and carries the front end high, and you're wfo. I finally gave up and put a beam tripper on mine, after looking at one too many slips that didn't add up. I dunno, none of this may apply to your 3rd gen. My front bumper 6 3/4 -7" off the ground with a 3 1/2 splitter below that.

If anything mine pulls the front end down going down track with a stiff rebound setting and fairly loose compression setting / front dampers. Trips finish beam w/ the bumper no matter what.

I align my front according to how I visualize it at speed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Rietow,

Thanks for the foam block reflector dimensions. I need to do some measuring on the front of mine knowing this now.

I’ve seen some cars recently that are running a stripe taker mounted to the side like you showed.

How much more in height do you visualize a 6.40/ 112 car being close to between the 330 and 660 cones?

quote:

Originally posted by markemark:
Thanks for the foam block reflector dimensions. I need to do some measuring on the front of mine knowing this now.

I’ve seen some cars recently that are running a stripe taker mounted to the side like you showed.

How much more in height do you visualize a 6.40/ 112 car being close to between the 330 and 660 cones?

Depends on a lot of variables. When I ran a steel headed BBC , I ran a low pickup point ladder bar and the front was probably nearly fully extended down track 375 ballast in trunk to boot, looked like a ol straight axle gasser at the stripe.

Now I run a high pickup point w/sbc, stiff rebound in front loose compression, it pulls the front down if anything.

I never seen it, I wouldn't wanna guess.

I'm not saying the beam is 7", but from the looks of how the finish line blocks are typically modified, It only stands to reason, the beam COULD be anywhere from 4" to 7".

I had a ‘97 Firebird LT-1 Stocker

Nose is way out front of tire.

Single adjustable coil over shock arrangement.

It liked being loose and let car wheelie but came down like a ton of bricks at the finish line.

Had 2 runs that tripped beam with nose.

A double adjustable shock may have worked.

I also thought about making a down travel limiter but never did.

I drove the car after I sold it and would drag the brake rather than try to brake late and be off the gas.

I even thought of making a solinoid activated drop down stripe taker. Devious but effective if used right. I’ve seen plenty of fixed stripe takers on door cars.

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
I had a ‘97 Firebird LT-1 Stocker

Nose is way out front of tire.

Single adjustable coil over shock arrangement.

It liked being loose and let car wheelie but came down like a ton of bricks at the finish line.

Had 2 runs that tripped beam with nose.

A double adjustable shock may have worked.

I also thought about making a down travel limiter but never did.

I drove the car after I sold it and would drag the brake rather than try to brake late and be off the gas.

I even thought of making a solinoid activated drop down stripe taker. Devious but effective if used right. I’ve seen plenty of fixed stripe takers on door cars.

I tried that too, a friend who sells electric shifters donated the solenoid. Never perfected it! , finally put a fixed stripe taker. Still have the solenoid springs and mechanism somewhere LoL!

Not devious at all, If you make it public info. Nothing illegal about it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Rietow,

Mark, on a back halved or stock type suspension car with 29-30" tires which typically have a racked stance statically, my advice is to aligned the car with the front suspension raised at least 4" or at a minimum until the rocker panels are level.

As you know, my Firebird never trips the finish line beams with the nose when hard braking but IIRC, I also run a front tire 1" taller than you do.

quote:

I even thought of making a solinoid activated drop down stripe taker. Devious but effective if used right. I’ve seen plenty of fixed stripe takers on door cars.

I was going to do this also, but checked the rules. I'm pretty sure it states it needs to be fixed. Anyway, mine is hard mounted/fixed.

Ours is mounted on the nose of our 80 Camaro. We have the car set-up/driving style that we have the option to take the finish line with the stripe taker or the front tire. It works pretty good & only use it occasionally. It has worked well when a faster car is pacing us & racing the front tire. We don't use the brakes much for scrubbing ET, but in this case. Jam the brakes, dip the nose & let the stripe taker do its job.

When I think of the who's who of bracket racing, I'm hard pressed to think of one of them that have a stripe taker on their car(s).

That said, if you can't drive both ends of the track, ain't no stripe taker going to get you anymore win lights.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:

quote:

I even thought of making a solinoid activated drop down stripe taker. Devious but effective if used right. I’ve seen plenty of fixed stripe takers on door cars.

I was going to do this also, but checked the rules. I'm pretty sure it states it needs to be fixed. Anyway, mine is hard mounted/fixed.

Ours is mounted on the nose of our 80 Camaro. We have the car set-up/driving style that we have the option to take the finish line with the stripe taker or the front tire. It works pretty good & only use it occasionally. It has worked well when a faster car is pacing us & racing the front tire. We don't use the brakes much for scrubbing ET, but in this case. Jam the brakes, dip the nose & let the stripe taker do its job.

When you break the finish line with stripe taker instead of your front tire your ET is gonna be quicker so there’s a good chance you are gonna breakout unless you dialed for the stripe taker. That’s why people put stripe taker on in the first place.
I had that issue before I installed stripe taker. Bought my current ride as an unfinished project and now I can’t get the nose close enough to the ground without cutting upper strut mounts off and raising them or extending the bottom of the front clip so I installed a stripe taker for the time being. It solved my issue of being on the brakes and breaking out.

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
When I think of the who's who of bracket racing, I'm hard pressed to think of one of them that have a stripe taker on their car(s).

That said, if you can't drive both ends of the track, ain't no stripe taker going to get you anymore win lights.

That you've noticed

There's a guy who used to race Sunshine Bradenton won the million couple times, had a second gen like kings car, The front plastic bumper was cracked. Knowing you, if you looked at it idling with the bumper looking like it's gonna fall off the car, you'd say what a POS!

When he'd dive that thing at the stipe, the bumper would fold out making the car 3 feet longer 1" off the track surface.

Don't tell anyone.... Not kidding

I said the movable stripe taker was something you could use to win rounds but of course you would have to dial correctly for using it.

Like spot dropping that some people use very successfully to win rounds.

Whatever works for you.

I also believe a movable strip taker was/is illegal and never did it.

I’ve seen plenty of cars with front ends and relatively hidden stripe takers.

I guarantee you they beat people and had them scratching their heads looking at slips after the round they just lost.

I won a very critical round against a racer who at one time won 27-28 rounds in a row at NHRA races in S/G. He jumped out of his car and laid on the ground to eyeball my car under the front end. He treed me by just a little and I dumped his arse for the win and won the event. I had no stripe taker and beat him anyway....

It’s a numbers game and always has been.

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
I had a ‘97 Firebird LT-1 Stocker

Nose is way out front of tire.

Single adjustable coil over shock arrangement.

It liked being loose and let car wheelie but came down like a ton of bricks at the finish line.

Had 2 runs that tripped beam with nose.

A double adjustable shock may have worked.

I also thought about making a down travel limiter but never did.

I drove the car after I sold it and would drag the brake rather than try to brake late and be off the gas.

I even thought of making a solinoid activated drop down stripe taker. Devious but effective if used right. I’ve seen plenty of fixed stripe takers on door cars.

Your nose was prob 40” out??
Took my air dam off the front. Tripped beams on the brakes..
No stripe takers in stock.

I was not saying Stripe takers were being used in Stock. And if there was any tech they’d say remove that if you had one.

Bracket cars and some .90 cars is where I see an occasional stripe taker.

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
I was not saying Stripe takers were being used in Stock. And if there was any tech they’d say remove that if you had one.

Bracket cars and some .90 cars is where I see an occasional stripe taker.

No no wasn’t referring to you Rich..Merely saying your Bird front end was way out there. .Mike had mentioned them.

I have seen some very low hanging headers.....

I fabricated bump stops to prevent the front end from diving during hard braking, they seem to work excellent.
When we aligned the truck I found it interesting that camber and toe didn't move much at all during the suspension travel, full droop to bottomed out it moved very little while the Firebird see's a big swing and required a bumpsteer kit and some playing around to get it better. It's still not nearly as good as the truck. I plan on making bumpstops for the Firebird soon.

First gen F body Camaro/Firebirds, the camber goes way negative at full up travel. The last inch or two. They bump steer too.

I put a Pinto rack in my ‘69 Camaro around 1982-1983

I Nearly crashed on the first run from toe changing with front end up.

Me and my buddy just mounted that rack with no idea about the bump steer issue we created.

I was able to bandaid fix it but the first run I made I nearly lost it at Etown going 10’s at probably around 126-128

All to save 40 lbs !

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
I said the movable stripe taker was something you could use to win rounds but of course you would have to dial correctly for using it.

Like spot dropping that some people use very successfully to win rounds.

Whatever works for you.

I also believe a movable strip taker was/is illegal and never did it.

I’ve seen plenty of cars with front ends and relatively hidden stripe takers.

I guarantee you they beat people and had them scratching their heads looking at slips after the round they just lost.

I won a very critical round against a racer who at one time won 27-28 rounds in a row at NHRA races in S/G. He jumped out of his car and laid on the ground to eyeball my car under the front end. He treed me by just a little and I dumped his arse for the win and won the event. I had no stripe taker and beat him anyway....

It’s a numbers game and always has been.

I was told it was legal but that could be wrong. I planned on making it known I had one for the simple reason, it didn't have to be used every round. If you don't use it every round, you determine if the race is wheel to wheel or wheel to stripe taker, and the other guy has no clue what the race is.

That was my thinking anyway.

I think this guy caught I was backing up to him and did an excellent job of racing nose to wheel not knowing I had a stripe taker at the bumper, and gave it back.

To me it's a no brainer, if everyone is working on their slower doorslammers to race wheel to wheel , it's only common sense do the opposite, in order to give them a different look at the stripe.

That's the difference , wheel to wheel/nose dragster or wheel/nose dragster to stripe taker.

1.10 60 tells me this cat can go 141 wfo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Rietow,

again, if you can't drive both ends of the track, ain't no stripe taker going to get you anymore win lights.