I thought about getting some Hotchkis sways and KW2 coilovers for cheap from a guy who wrecked his car but don't want to hurt my performance at the track. If I have these installed will they noticeably hurt my 60' due to decreased weight transfer to the rear during launch?
Those of us with KW's and/or Sways have the best 60's... Instead of the KW's, you should look into JMatt's Coil Overs... http://www.srtconnection.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6118
Thanks for the link. I can possibly get the KW2's and sways for 1K or less so that would influence my decision. How would you get better 60' times with a stiffer suspension. That doesn't make sense to me. I've heard the 300 SRT8s launch better due to softer suspensions than the Chargers.
I do not have sways, but do have the KWV1's and have cut many 1.7x 60's. hmm actually, I think I have a 1.68 60's now that I think about it. lol JMatt's coil overs are the best though as they have the adjustments for 1320 tracks, road course tracks, and daily driving. Very much worth the money.
Well adding the after market shocks and keeping the ride height stock is one thing, but if you slam it i cant see how it will perform better.It will effect your weight transfer.
PM Cam about this. He has done a lot of research on this very topic. The bottom line is the more squat you get, the more toe-in you get due to the suspension geometry. It's worse when the car is lowered...
Get the sways no matter what you do about the shocks. Zero effect in the 1/4 mile, Big effect in the corners.
lol we have IRS suspension and our sleds are fricken anchors. The coil overs are not going to hurt that much. Again, with my V1's and a 1 1/4" drop, I have cut 1.68 60's and usually cut low 1.7x 60's. Now, if you were making a full out drag car, then yea, the coil overs will hurt. But yea, Cam is the master at this.
Agreed...one reason I think I have traction issues at the strip...my car is setup for teh road course...slammed I will be interested to see if your times change when you put your coilovers on.
Me too,But I wont slam it per say.But even if I lose a little at the track it will be worth it for dailey driving.After I rode in Legmakers car I kick myself for waiting so long.The ride difference is night and day even with his car as low as it is..
The key is in keeping the stock geometries for the traction arms and camber. The way our set up is, the more neg camber you have, the more toe in. So what occurs is when the rear squats, it toes in and scrubs speed. Also you'll find the guys with the best 60fts are the guys running stock suspensions. The reason guys like Ron and Matt and a few select others can 60ft so well is they can out power the situation. Last year I swapped to the Tein susension. And the lower I went, the worse my 60's got. I didn't catch on to this until DVSSRT and I ran heads up back in August. At the time I was getting great weight transfer (big front lift, major rear squat) on the launch and at the shift. During the course of the day, we never got a chance to run heads up. And all through out the day, he was out ET'n me, but I was out MPH'n him. That really had us scrathing our heads. Also my 60's just sucked. So the last run of the day we got a chance to run heads up. I completed tree'd him and then I looked over and the guy was right next to me. All through 1st we were heads up 100%, at the shift (remember, massive squat for me) he picked up 3/4 of a car lengh and then through second we were heads up with niether pulling on each other. Then the 2-3 shift, same thing, he picked up another 1/2 lengh and through third, the two cars were dead equal. One of the things that happened just prior to this day was I installed some off set bushes for deal with the camber, well that created MASSIVE - toe and the car was a real battle to drive straight. Well all the squat made it 100% worse and very pronounced. So the following weekend, I riped all that crap off and went back to 100% stock. This past weekend, my 60's dropped 2/10ths with no changes to the tune AT ALL!. The only reason I couldn't get better then what I ran was track prep, it just wasn't there. So when all is said and done my official opinion is that lowering your car is fine. But the key is to install the PROPER off-set bushes and have it set up for the stock settings. And after this little experiment, I can see just exactly how Pedders can provide you an advantage at the track, weither it be drag or road.
good write up cam!!! i know for certain at the ride hieght i am running at, the car looks great, but is not so good for 60' times. i get a fair amount of toe in. although as scott pointed out, the kw's ride night and day different than the stock set up, even at my ride height!!! he could not stop commenting on it when we were driving.....followed by asking when i was next going down to south florida to help install his!!! hahahahaha
ya, no argument here on ride comfort. The KW's and Teins kick ass there. But for me, nothing beats the Nivomats and the load leveling function. Everytime I go to the track I'll load at least 500lbs of crap in the back. With the Teins, you couldn't adjust them high enough so they wouldn't rub with my 295's on. Now I can run my 315's with no issues at all. Also Jeff, the sways won't make any real difference on your 60. Maybe and I mean maybe, a hundreth. Now if your were to remove them entirely, you maybe might gain a 10th between the weight lose and torque loading of the body.
Cam, Thanks for your replies. I like it when I can save some money. I'm considering the 3.23 gears also and the consensus seems to be that they may be too steep for good traction on the street and even at the track (more money in my pocket ! I asked the SRT engineers during a chat session if the Quaiffe LSD would be worth it for the 1/4 mile. They said "no" and even added that it might hurt (more money in the bank for me!!!). Looks llike I'll just do the half-shafts then.
hmmm As much as I respect the Engineers, I think they are a little off base on the LSD hurting in the 1/4 mile... LSD will give you at the bare minimum equal tire burn. As it is now (OEM), you will do the one legged burn out. Keep in mind, the SRT Engineers can not promote any aftermarket products due to liability reasons.
I read previous chat sessions that they really liked the Quaife (for other reasons) so I don't think they were being political. I've yet to hear anyone post that they've gotten better times at the track with the Quaife. I've heard of people breaking them though. I think people like the idea of having a posi in an old school muscle car sense (in the same way people want 4.11 gears and longtube headers in SRT8s) but the reality may be different than the expectation. People want longtubes because theoretically it is a big improvement and we remember longtubes on '60s and '70s muscle cars. Reality is you get 7HP for $1500 :-( People want steep gears on our cars because they remember people bragging about 3.91s, 4.11s and 4.56s but the reality is our cars (SRT8s) are geared pretty aggressively for a 5-speed tranny already (with useable traction in mind). Just find this interesting. There is a lot of money to be wasted in what we think we should have on our cars vs. what we really need for our goals. I'm guilty of this as well but with parts costing so much I have to be more realistic as far as return for my investment.
good points ron........ i can not seem to conjur anykind of thought that would tell me that a closed diff would hurt more than the stock open one...... i just think the srt engineers do not want to go on record with that kind of endorsement!
