Time for new underwear!!!

[alenstein]

That was no skill, that was actually some pretty bad driving. When will these idiots learn to use wheelie bars. BTW when you run over timing boxes like that, most tracks frown very heavily on that and they don't ever forget it either.

Considering the poop he was in i say it was no luck he was able to recover, I know I would loose it and slam into that rail. Wheelie bar is another story.

[N20LT4Bird]

Kevin, "ignorance is bliss" is a rather asinine thing to say to somebody who is in his 10th year of going to the strip, is a former class champion, and has a record of most consecutive races won at that track. I ought to know how long it takes to replace reflectors since I've seen it about 20 times.

You want me to set up the ring, and whoever wins is right?


....nice video, by the way.

[Rhode Island Red]

guy wouldn't quit.. he should of let off the gas and tried again later... on a side note, I followed the credits to the hillbilly site and found a video of Kerm

[Joe 1320]

That was no skill, that was actually some pretty bad driving. When will these idiots learn to use wheelie bars. .

Bingo.... and not only that, it is possible to do that on a 18.5 x 31 treaded MT. I doubted it myself until sure enough, the front yanked skyward. Wheelie bars were on there by the next day.

[fastTa]

Bingo.... and not only that, it is possible to do that on a 18.5 x 31 treaded MT. I doubted it myself until sure enough, the front yanked skyward. Wheelie bars were on there by the next day.

I think I remember you telling that story.

What some people just don't realize is that lifting your tires off the ground anymore than 12"-18" is only wasting power and hurts your ET. You are just using power to lift the front of the car instead of accelerating it forward. Leave the wheelstands for the Fun Bus.

[MN6WS6]

Well I can see that me and FastTA are just gonna disagree on drag racing. Anytime the tires leave the track surface you are wasting power. Once the tires leave the surface, you are wasting power rotating the car on it's rear axis that should be used to push the car down the track. What you want to happen is for the front tires to just barely be touching the track at the launch. If they leave the track, that's power lost. Otherwise John Force and everybody else would have their wheelie bars set so the front end comes off the ground 12" everytime they launch.

[fastTa]

Well I can see that me and FastTA are just gonna disagree on drag racing. Anytime the tires leave the track surface you are wasting power. Once the tires leave the surface, you are wasting power rotating the car on it's rear axis that should be used to push the car down the track. What you want to happen is for the front tires to just barely be touching the track at the launch. If they leave the track, that's power lost. Otherwise John Force and everybody else would have their wheelie bars set so the front end comes off the ground 12" everytime they launch.

I agree with you if we were talking about the Pro cars and dragsters. But given the nature of our stock suspended F-bodies, it still takes power to create a good weight transfer during launch. Lifting the wheels another 12" or so actually doesn't take much more power at all than the actual weight transfer and loading of the rear suspension at launch.

Wheelie bars are not used to "ride" on at every launch. They are merely there to stop the car from standing up to far in the event of an unusually good hook. This is why you take paint and cover the wheels on the wheelie bar. Then you go out and start making some full throttle 60's. You look to see how much if any that the wheels were actually on the ground. Then you adjust the wheelie bar so up just enough so that the wheels don't touch the ground on a proper launch. Getting on the bar a little is OK, but you don't want to make a habit of relying on the wheelie bar to get you out of the hole.

[MN6WS6]

That's not the way that I've seen it done, but maybe we do things different down here. When these guys "paint the wheels", it's to make sure that both wheels are hitting the ground at the same time. If one stripe is longer than the other at the beginning of the launch, then one wheel is hitting first. In other words, both stripes should be perpendicular to the starting line and equidistant from the starting line. Also, if one stripe is solid and the other is hazy looking, then one wheel is harder on the pavement than the other. Then you adjust the bars so they hit evenly.

I'm a bike racer, so we don't have to do that. We know if one wheel is hitting first because the bike doesn't track straight (the bike will be leaned to one side, and you have to counterlean to keep it straight). But on a car, you can't counterlean, so the wheels have to hit evenly or it upsets the car and causes all kinds of problems (car "aims" toward one part of the lane, tires not getting even bite causing lack of traction on that one side exaggerating the aiming issue, etc.) I've never seen anybody raise bars around here to encourage the front end coming up. If anything they'll add weight to the front and lower the bars. That way when it does hit the bars, it doesn't have that much upper rotating force to cause the rearend to unload and spin the tires while the front's up. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but the higher the bars are up, the more problems you're gonna cause if the car ever hits them, you know?

[Joe 1320]

You boys play nice.......

What determines the amout of lift is the chassis setup. The point of front end lift instead of driving the car foreward is a valid point but must be kept in perspective. The type of rear suspension also will dictate the amount and type of movement. Ideally, we want the lower control arm to push foreward against the chassis with only enough lift to keep the tires planted, literally helping drive the car foreward instead of merely upward. The type of suspension ie: ladder bar, 4 link etc. has much to do with the motion and the way the power is transferred to the chassis. The laws of conservation of energy will allow extra force rotational force to be applied to the tires as the front end begins it's decent as long as the rear suspension is loaded and the tires have traction.... so what is used to creat lift can also drive the wheels on decent. That's the theory behind it anyway. The better your chassis, the less lift you will need in order to get traction. Wheelie bars can be used in more than one fashion depending on chassis setup too. Some are used to limit rotation and plant the tires. Some are merely used to stop a bumper scraping e-ticket ride. Heck, these guys with front drivers use wheelie bars to add leverage to the front wheels for better launch. Go figure..... it does work. It all depends on the intended useage. Using shoe polish on the wheelie bars is a great tuning aid to determine the load on the tires as was mentioned.


Geeze guys...... not much has changed in the 25 years I've been doing this except this new application of wheelie bars to a front driver, maybe Fred will chime in with his insights as well.

I know that on mine, the first full launch without them gave me one wild ride that resulted in a very disfigured front end geometry upon landing. After that, I never doubted the car's abilities. The harsh landing was my own fault of not driving through it..... It was completely unexpected as I was running MT sportsmans with full tread and lifted... neigh, hit the brakes out of a knee jerk reaction that sent the front end slamming down. Ya gotta learn sometime. once I got the front end put back into shape and installed the wheelie bars, it wasn't quite as dramatic.

[fastTa]

That's not the way that I've seen it done, but maybe we do things different down here. When these guys "paint the wheels", it's to make sure that both wheels are hitting the ground at the same time. If one stripe is longer than the other at the beginning of the launch, then one wheel is hitting first. In other words, both stripes should be perpendicular to the starting line and equidistant from the starting line. Also, if one stripe is solid and the other is hazy looking, then one wheel is harder on the pavement than the other. Then you adjust the bars so they hit evenly.

This is the point I was trying to make that is still eluding you. Wheelie bars are NOT in any way part of the launch. They are there for one simple reason and one simple reason only......"prevent the car from standing up too far in the event of an unusually good hook".

In fact most of the pros are now going to a single wheelie bar instead of the conventional two wheels. The whelie bar is not in any way meant to provide chassis rigidity, balance, or any otherwise outside help to assist in a proper launch. When the wheelie bars just come close but don't actually touch the ground, that is a perfect launch. If the wheels actually touch the ground, the weight transfer is not ideal and either means the car left too hard or driver error.

Simple drag racing.