Mono shock front suspension dragsters
 

hey i'm looking at buying a mono shock front suspension dragster that is 235" long but is a hardtail in the rear does anybody have any input on this type of dragster if so please either post it on here or give me a call 601-720-5139 thanks
Kevin

Re: Mono shock front suspension dragsters
 

Kevin is it a diamond front shock setup ? If so I can give you some good info

yes it is a diamond front end

Here is my best thoughts on this, as good as a rear suspended car No, does it help yes. Helps in a few ways,
1. The main reason I have it on my car even with the rear suspension, a typical 4 link/swingarm car lifts the left front tire up and out of the beams, the front suspension leaves both front tires on the ground improving your reaction times.

2. It helps with chassis flex on small bumps on a track, and on the brakes.Not saying you can slam them like you can with a rear suspended car but can get on them harder then a slipjoint or hardtail car. A little safer setup IMO

3. In the pits, your body wont be hurting the next day after one of the tracks that has less then great pits, you really have to hit a hole hard to even feel it.

Most people go the front suspension route because its a cheaper alternative to doing the rear suspension. Diamonds front setup is the nicest out there and works great. If you would like any other info about them feel free to give me a call tomorrow 517-677-6406

thank you for all the input its helped alot i just haven't ever really heard of the front suspension on dragsters and i didnt want to trade my corvette off that works amazing for a dragster that had a suspension on the front incase it wasnt any good but once again thanks for the input on this its really helped alot

David problably knows as much as anyone one front suspension dragster. But although the front suspension is better than without, if I had to choose I'd much rather have a rear suspension 4 link car with no front suspension over a front suspension no rear 4 link car. JMO

If you want I can take a peak at some pics of the cars and give you my input.

i'd love to have a swingarm car or 4link dont get me wrong but i'm really looking to get into a dragster next year and this is the first thing that has really popped up to us is this car with the front suspension and i'm just not sure what to think about it the one person that lives down here around me says stay away from it but another person says go for it so i dont know

I agree, I have a few buddies who have only front suspended cars that swears they would drive as good as a rear suspended, problem is they havent drove a rear suspended car. Rear suspended has a lot of upsides but a front suspension has a lot of upsides over no suspension.

david if you have a racespace you can go on there and search for profiles and type in cx89 and it will pop up and will have pictures of it

This car is actually somewhat local for me, I've seen it a few times. Actually my dad talked to him a bit at bracket finals this past year. Car went deep a few times, I think you'd be more then happy with it.

well good i'm glad i talked to you tonight..what'd your dad talk to him about? if you dont mind me askin

My dad is a talker (more then me) he see's a car with the front suspension he always ask about it, yet to find someone who isnt happy with it. Diamond does awesome work.

good deal we had just heard about the front suspension allowing the car to bounce top end when it is under power which caused a guy to have a wreck is what we heard but we also heard that he had hit the transbrake top end so who knows the truth there haha and yeh he said he was running 5.0 in the car for 1/8th mile and 8.0 quarter mile so the car has to work halfway decent to do that haha but we should run some 4.90s or 4.80s with our motor and hope to put a 555 or 565 in it in the next year or so which should get it down to 4.60s like most of the dragster down here run now

The front would bottom out the shock before it bounced that far, I'd bet no fault of the front. There has been a lot of "copy cats" to the front but Dan Davies (owner of Diamond) & Ricky Adkins when they worked together designed the deal. A 4.80 car gets down any track anytime, I changed parts and added stuff to make my car go from 4.6's to high 4.7's. Would get down a side street now :D

so you would trust this thing at 4.50s or 4.60s easily?

do you think the car would need slip joints from what i understood is that he had the slipjoints tied off or welded up so all it is now is just the front suspension only

Yes easily, I've been 4.6's@147 without any type of suspension and seen the front only go 4.44 before.

It should have no slips now, Dan gets rid of them when adding the front, no real need for them the front suspension does all of the work they used to do.

If you go to the search on rj and type in Diamond, there is a 2007 Diamond, notice how the front is lifting up square and taking all the hit of the launch. There was a guy @ Diamond last winter getting his car updated , he had his old hardtail updated for some outlaw track down south the winter before. No other changes picked up a tenth, most of which was in the 60ft.

wow now your making us wana go get it tomorrow instead of having to wait till next saturday haha we've never traded before and just real worried about getting something that were not sure about but the way your talking and the guy who owns the car are talking i should be very happy with the car

I've been more then happy with what Dan has did for me.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/100_0431.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/100_0433.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/100_0434.jpg

beautiful work by dan there and that is a gorgeous car you have i love that chassis color

thanks

hammer is there any adjusting to the front suspension?
thanks john

Yes, it has shock adjustment and heims joints to move it around. I have my shock set 3 from all the way soft. I started the year with it all the way hard making it like a hardtail then changed it after a few passes to feel the difference :)

the shock have the same type of adjustment as rear shocks would with the knob or how do you adjust it?

Yes same type of adjusment, think it has 12 clicks on it, mine is 3 from all the way soft. You will know which way soft is by just lifting the car up.

Here is a few more pics of when I first got mine back from Diamond



http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/101_0952.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...101_0953-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/101_0951.jpg
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...101_0948-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...b/101_0947.jpg

thanks for the pictures i put another forum on bracketnews.com and the first post was by a guy telling me to contact you haha so i guess i got the right guy to talk to obviously...what kind of 60ft did you have before the front suspension and after? what size motor do you run?

I changed everything up so I cant give you a good front vs non front.
I rear suspended my car when doing so, changed converters and tires, added 100lbs to the car. 60's doing this went from 1.04 to 1.10, 4.67-8@147 to 4.79-80@145. This would all be shocks and driveshaft doing this.
Its a 582 makes just under 1000hp, loose converter 6700 stall spragless, and weighs 1960 with me in it.

we have a 468bbc right now in our vette that weighs 2705 with me in it and its been 5.91 at 119mph and he said this dragster weighs 1760 with 210lb drive so it will be 1780lbs with me in it i figured it would run 4.90s with my motor what do you think?

My car was done at Diamond over the winter. It is a hard tail rear and they put the front suspension and new body on it. I have never has such quality work done before.

I would say you should run 5.05 ish to be honest with ya. My door car was 700 pounds heavier than my dragster and I picked up right at .70 by going to the dragster.

With the same drivetrain my 60 foot picked up .04. and my et picked up about .08 but the feel of the car is unbelieveable, especially in the pits!

The biggest thing about the front suspension is that now my lights can usually stay within about .007 all day. Before you would get a crazy one here and there, because it would snap the front wheels up.

here are a few pics of mine...

Now:

http://shutter14.pictures.aol.com/da...nLEv8o0300.jpg

Suspension:

http://shutter12.pictures.aol.com/da...bUA26M0300.jpg

Here is what it looked like before:

http://shutter04.pictures.aol.com/da...Jhj4XL0300.jpg

1780 is light 4.90's should be had for sure, as long as converter is right you'll be fine.

i dunno what convertor we should use really because we have always had door cars mine right now flashes at 6400

My suggestion a 8" 6000-6200 stall converter would be the trick, a B&M 20608 if you have to buy one will work well.

When I ran 468 I had a 5800 stall but I like them a little looser now more consistent.

Is the converter you have now a 8" ?

yes it is but i just talked to a guy and he wants my convertor for his convertor and he said that it was set up for his 496 and was built for the car from PTC but he didnt tell me the stall on it

If his is a 8" then you'll be fine.

yeh its a 8" i'm going to find out what it stalls to before i go and trade my convertor for his but i'm thinking it will be fine since he was running 5.0's and 8.0's with the car with a mild 496

I agree, anything between say 5700-6300 will work fine, fastest most consistent will be between 6000-6200 though.

hmm i wonder if i wouldnt be better off just keeping my convertor since i know its a 6400 stall and only has about 50 passes on it