I'm getting my car repaired and thinking about going to a longer travel double adjustable strut instead of spending money going through my old single adjustable strange struts. Is there any negative to a long travel strut?

Thanks in advance for the input.

"Conventional wisdom" says that you want as little suspension travel as possible in a fast, four link chassis car.

Could make an excessive wheelie situation worse?

More variables in vehicle reaction time?

Upgrade to a double adjustable front strut, with your history and performance level I'd say yes, but wouldn't try to reinvent your total setup.

...Not unless you are going small tire / no prep / lil' gangster racing...

I still really like the 32x14 radial. But it likes the front wheels up to work well. Was thinking long travel may allow more transfer of weight without having to carry the front tires 12" off the ground. I also don't want to make it not work on a bias tire. The car is getting the entire front clip replaced so now is the time to make any changes I may want.

quote:

Originally posted by inferno camaro:I still really like the 32x14 radial. But it likes the front wheels up to work well.

Are you re-installing the wheelie bars?

It will have wheelie bars. If I run the radials, I may have to build shorter bars and possibly spring loaded to hopefully not unload the tires when they make contact with the ground. Going to make sure this doesn't happen again. Eventually would hope to get the 4 link and front suspension set so it didn't need to wheelie more than a couple inches. If that isn't possible, I would go back to bias tires. That's why I want to make sure long travel struts will work well with bias tires as well as radials.

Since i crashed my camaro i am going to be redoing my car from the 4 link brackets foward. My car was mustang 2 front a arms. I am going to strut my front suspension and my chassis guy wants to go back with a long travel strut. Not sure why but that is what he wants. I guess he wants to get the same travel i had with my a arms. But i had my a arms limited to 1 1/2 lift. I wish i could give you some info on how it works but i aint there yet. I bought strange double adjustable struts with brakes. I will tell you that the price difference is substantial being the long strut is more expensive. I guess i will see. My car worked really good before i just hope it will be just as good after. I will be going from a pretty decent small block to a good big block and hope to pick up 3 or 4 tenths in the 1/8. Dont know if that will make a difference in how it works. I am strictly going to super street race this car and want to go from low 140’s to mid 150’s in the 1/4.

ep

The advantage of having them are the options they offer in travel range.

The dis-advantage is how ugly they look when your front end is off.

quote:

Originally posted by pauley:
But i had my a arms limited to 1 1/2 lift. I wish i could give you some info on how it works but i aint there yet. I bought strange double adjustable struts with brakes. I will tell you that the price difference is substantial being the long strut is more expensive. I guess i will see. My car worked really good before i just hope it will be just as good after. I will be going from a pretty decent small block to a good big block and hope to pick up 3 or 4 tenths in the 1/8. Dont know if that will make a difference in how it works. I am strictly going to super street race this car and want to go from low 140’s to mid 150’s in the 1/4.

ep

I catn see how along travel strut is going to help with a super class car FWIW. The fact you had the a arm limited to 1 1/2" would make me lean toward a standard strut in the first place. Be interested to see where you end up, a mid 150MPH car in S/ST is making some steam and isn't going to need or want all that travel.

Nothing i have is going to win best appearing so i dont care what they look like curtis as long as it works.

ep

quote:

Originally posted by pauley:
Nothing i have is going to win best appearing so i dont care what they look like curtis as long as it works.

ep

Same. I just see the no prep guys running with not front end and think it looks dumb with those 3' long springs. JMO Not really putting them down at a useful tool or anyone who uses them.

quote:

Originally posted by inferno camaro:
It will have wheelie bars. If I run the radials, I may have to build shorter bars and possibly spring loaded to hopefully not unload the tires when they make contact with the ground. Going to make sure this doesn't happen again. Eventually would hope to get the 4 link and front suspension set so it didn't need to wheelie more than a couple inches. If that isn't possible, I would go back to bias tires. That's why I want to make sure long travel struts will work well with bias tires as well as radials.

Based on THIS prior post and wanting to continue with radials, consider getting the rear of the car to separate much more at launch and down track. My car rear on same 32x14 but bias and 1 second slower separates more at launch and down track than what you’ve posted prior.

Adjustable front suspension travel limiters would allow for best set-up.

quote:

Originally posted by Al Alguire:

quote:

Originally posted by pauley:
But i had my a arms limited to 1 1/2 lift. I wish i could give you some info on how it works but i aint there yet. I bought strange double adjustable struts with brakes. I will tell you that the price difference is substantial being the long strut is more expensive. I guess i will see. My car worked really good before i just hope it will be just as good after. I will be going from a pretty decent small block to a good big block and hope to pick up 3 or 4 tenths in the 1/8. Dont know if that will make a difference in how it works. I am strictly going to super street race this car and want to go from low 140’s to mid 150’s in the 1/4.

ep

I catn see how along travel strut is going to help with a super class car FWIW. The fact you had the a arm limited to 1 1/2" would make me lean toward a standard strut in the first place. Be interested to see where you end up, a mid 150MPH car in S/ST is making some steam and isn't going to need or want all that travel.

I cant say i disagree Al. I questioned it myself but i dont build cars so i stay in my lane.

ep

quote:

Originally posted by pauley:

quote:

Originally posted by Al Alguire:

quote:

Originally posted by pauley:
But i had my a arms limited to 1 1/2 lift. I wish i could give you some info on how it works but i aint there yet. I bought strange double adjustable struts with brakes. I will tell you that the price difference is substantial being the long strut is more expensive. I guess i will see. My car worked really good before i just hope it will be just as good after. I will be going from a pretty decent small block to a good big block and hope to pick up 3 or 4 tenths in the 1/8. Dont know if that will make a difference in how it works. I am strictly going to super street race this car and want to go from low 140’s to mid 150’s in the 1/4.

ep

I catn see how along travel strut is going to help with a super class car FWIW. The fact you had the a arm limited to 1 1/2" would make me lean toward a standard strut in the first place. Be interested to see where you end up, a mid 150MPH car in S/ST is making some steam and isn't going to need or want all that travel.

I cant say i disagree Al. I questioned it myself but i dont build cars so i stay in my lane.

ep

Your car, your money. Ask your builder why and explain to you how you will benefit from long travel struts. Like others have said, does not seem necessary for .90 racing and may create huge wheel stands if not controlled properly

In the old day when we had factory cars with little horsepower we loosen up front end to get as much travel as possible to transfer weight and get car to hook up. As we get faster and faster you want the front end less travel and stiffer to limit the wheelies.

As fast as your car is I think the longer travel will hurt you and make you rely more on wheelie bars. (My opinion) Remember your goal is to get 100% of weight and traction on rear tires at launch and you want to do that with out working wheelie bars too much. Longer front shocks you will have to raise wheelie bars up some as front end will be higher before all shock travel is used up. When it does hit wheelie bars it will hit them harder.

As fast as your car is I can not see any good reason for longer struts.

I wouldn’t run the radial or the long travel struts on a fast door car, but that’s my .02

What do you not like about the radial?

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:
I wouldn’t run the radial or the long travel struts on a fast door car, but that’s my .02

quote:

Originally posted by inferno camaro:
What do you not like about the radial?

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:
I wouldn’t run the radial or the long travel struts on a fast door car, but that’s my .02

The radial is a great switch for a car running 6.30s (my opinion)

I think you are hitting the tire too hard for a radial to really work for you in the type of racing you are doing. A radial is less forgiving and more track dependent at higher horsepower

Those again are just my opinion I know.

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:

quote:

Originally posted by inferno camaro:
What do you not like about the radial?

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:
I wouldn’t run the radial or the long travel struts on a fast door car, but that’s my .02

The radial is a great switch for a car running 6.30s (my opinion)

I think you are hitting the tire too hard for a radial to really work for you in the type of racing you are doing. A radial is less forgiving and more track dependent at higher horsepower

Those again are just my opinion I know.

It's fine to have an opinion, but even better if you have personal experience with radials.

Inferno, I hit my radials pretty hard on bracket race prep tracks with a good amount of boost & much smaller radials than you run. I've made around 300 boosted passes on the smaller radials.

I had an issue of mild tire shake then slight spin that recovered with a short pedal job. This happened on back-to-back passes. I pulled a small amount of timing in that area & solved the shake & spin.

I also had a few issues with a barely prepped outlaw track, but I know the bias ply slicks had the same issues or worse. I won the race & a decent chunk of $$$ to go along with it.

2BKING

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:

quote:

Originally posted by inferno camaro:
What do you not like about the radial?

quote:

Originally posted by racerdude2054:
I wouldn’t run the radial or the long travel struts on a fast door car, but that’s my .02

The radial is a great switch for a car running 6.30s (my opinion)

I think you are hitting the tire too hard for a radial to really work for you in the type of racing you are doing. A radial is less forgiving and more track dependent at higher horsepower

Those again are just my opinion I know.

It's fine to have an opinion, but even better if you have personal experience with radials.

Inferno, I hit my radials pretty hard on bracket race prep tracks with a good amount of boost & much smaller radials than you run. I've made around 300 boosted passes on the smaller radials.

I had an issue of mild tire shake then slight spin that recovered with a short pedal job. This happened on back-to-back passes. I pulled a small amount of timing in that area & solved the shake & spin.

I also had a few issues with a barely prepped outlaw track, but I know the bias ply slicks had the same issues or worse. I won the race & a decent chunk of $$$ to go along with it.

2BKING

What launch rpm? What ET?