My 74 drag car is finally coming together. Cage is in, rear end is finished, xmsn is done, engine is done and dyno'ed, now I'm going to start on the front end. It need the front end rebuilt and brakes rebuilt, so I'll do that next. I removed the front bumper from the car. With the new engine in the bay the front end is way too high. I need some different front springs. Anyone have any recommendations besides cutting a coil out? I'll do that if I have to but I'd really like to have some softer drag springs. Anyone know of a source?
the springs out of the fox body mustangs fit in to the mavs. i know of people useing them to lower the mavs. now a loweing spring will be to stiff for drag racing. i have and am planing on using some eibach drag springs for a fox mustang in my car. i know they will sit high so i plan on cuting some coils. also jayman on this board did a write up on drop spindels. im thinking of geting those so i dont have to cut so much of the springs off. A trick in the fox body mustangs for drag race was to get some 4 cyl springs to use in drag racing. they would lower the front of the car and have soft spring rate. they will fit the mav and you can find them in the bone yards for cheap
do you know what the front springs rate should be for a maverick?? i plan on using it at the stripe..
Congrats on the progress. Do you have any pics to share? Tell us about the motor. What did it dyno? When do you plan on being completed?
You can always have springs made too. I have had this done in the past. Which ever way you go make sure you dont use standard shocks in the front get yourself a nice set of 90/10 shocks. They will give a much better launch.
How fast is this thing going to be? On faster cars (lets say 10.00 & faster 1/4 mile) generally you can benefit from less front suspension travel. Of course it depends on the rear too (and track conditions and a ton of other things). I found nearly a tenth in limiting front suspension travel on mine when it had the stock chassis. I limited a inch & a half of travel in the front suspension and went from 1.57-1.65 60' times to 1.45-1.55 (dependent on weather conditions). I always used stock coil springs in front with a coil removed and those cheapie 90/10's set to 70/30. Back then it was 6.60's at 105-106. My biggest problem was not the front suspension but the rear-the leaf spring setup only allows so much tuning and the geometry can't be changed to favor a ton of HP and still work well. That's when I went 4 link-and Mustang 2 front. Those two mods were worth 3 tenths alone with the exact same engine, transmission, rear end ratio, TALLER tires, and nearly the same weight (but significantly lighter wallet). Point being-there are a lot of good suggestions, but until you can do some testing and tuning on your own, you won't know what works the best for YOUR car.
Mavman those comments bring back some memories. Great points and information you gave. My 1/4 mile cars have always been short wheel based cars so I could benefit from having more front travel. In his mav he may not need it. After all your talk about 4 links, ratios and stuff, I couldnt resist posting a photo of my 408windsor, I was running 9.90's in the quarter on pump gas and through the full exhaust. Its pretty easy thing to do when you and the car only come in at 1,980 pounds.
Now THAT is....different! Reminds me of the MAIL JEEP that used to be around here...had a 509 BBC in it. Don't remember what it ran or how he even got it in the jeep, but I just remember shaking my head and asking myself "why?" but I'm sure theres plenty of folks who do the same when they see someone racing a MAVERICK.
http://bgky.craigslist.org/pts/2066516071.html Should i bother with these springs from a gt? Didnt mean to hijack but it is somewhat on subject.
Agreed 100%. Until you do the M2 front with 4 link try taking out 1 round of spring at a time until you get what you are either looking for or like how the car leaves the starting line. You will save time and money! As always just my .02 Bossmav
