...Fueling around!
By Jay Roeder
8/14/06
Hi everyone and welcome back! All three of you! Yes I know it’s been awhile and I’ll try to make up for the delay and do better in the future months. Truth is I haven’t had a lot to report on. In the last article I concluded the updating of the rear suspension using some of the products the fine folks at Moroso and Competition Engineering offer for the late model “Fox” chassis Mustangs and they have been performing flawlessly. It’s been one of those things where I find myself wondering “why didn’t I do this sooner?”
I headed to the local track for some testing the weekend before the IHRA Div.5 race at Cedar Falls Raceway and honest to God I didn’t have to change a thing! I guess if I want to give myself some credit I could say that I am so knowledgeable about setting up the chassis that it was all do to my pure genius at work. Damn I wish that was all true! Actually I think I am pretty good at chassis setups but by far most of the credit has to go to the folks that engineer the parts at Comp Engineering.
Muscrate at work at the IHRA Div.5 race at CFR. Laying the smack down on a Crapmaro! Oops, was that out loud? |
Honestly I was pretty skeptical about the Moroso “Trick” rear coil springs actually being able to hold up the fat ass of Muscrate with all of the ballast in the rear at the time. The coils were quite a bit smaller in diameter than what I had been using but they were also 2 inches taller at free height. Also, the right side spring was a tad taller than the left as was designed in by CE. When all was said and done the rear of the car did set about a half inch lower than before but it actually looked better. In the past there was NO way I could leave it at that height because of the severe body roll I would get when going around a corner. The tires have actually been rubbing for a long time. I always had to be extra special careful going around corners on the pit roads so I didn’t cut a tire.
That problem has been eliminated by the anti-roll bar! I’ve said it before but it’s like having a different car! It amazes me at just how effective the anti-roll bar really is. I can roll around
corners with impunity. I have a slight amount of “pre-load” adjusted into the right side downlink of the anti-sway bar and the adjustable upper control arms basically “neutral”. By this I mean there is no bind in the upper arms. You can remove the bolts on one control arm without difficulty while the other arm is still attached. I have the 3-way adjustable CE rear shocks set on full tilt firm. I have the pinion angle set at about 3 degrees down in relation to the chassis. What did all of this get me? How about a string of 1.42-1.44 sixty foot times! This was at full weight for I/CM, actually about 80 lbs. Heavy at 3250 lbs.And, the launches were dead straight and produced wheelies that carried the front wheels to touchdown at the 59 foot mark! Could I go a little quicker if I tame down the wheelies? Maybe, but I don’t care. It’s too much FUN! Fun is something that seems to be harder to have lately so I’ll take all I can get. That’s it. I really don’t think I can adjust anything else differently than the current setup that will yield any improvement without taking away the “fun factor” of doing wheelies. And, I think low 1.40 sixty foots is pretty damn good for this type of car anyway.