Scott,

You answered an earlier question for me, but one thing I don't understand is about rear suspension. I have a friend who, like me, is running a 65 Chevy II leaf spring car. He runs in the mid-10's with a 60-ft time of 1.43 with the wheels up.

How can I get mine to hook like his when I have a smaller engine?

Keith Hall

Keith,

You have leaf springs, traction bars and stock shocks. As far as rear suspension is concerned, here are some things that have worked for me in the past.

TRACTION BARS

Closing the gap between the snubber and the spring will make the car react quicker. Allowing the right snubber to touch the spring with about a one-inch gap on the left side usually works.

SHOCKS

On leaf spring cars we used to install coil-over adjustable shocks without the coil spring. This gave us a quality shock that we could adjust to get the right launch.

HOUSING FLOATER

This would have to be used with a torque arm or ladder bar device. The leaf spring was designed to hold up the car only. The floater prevents the leaf spring from winding up under launch conditions, which also unwinds and creates wheel hop and tire spin. Competition Engineering has a nice kit that you may like to look at.

Thanks for the question.

Scott Walker

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