What Suspension mod in your opinion guys will get my 1/4time lower?


I'm a complete newb to suspension mods and how they benefit a car bt they sure do wonders i know that!!!

Can someone point out the single BEST suspension mod for the price that will help lower E.T's?

Also a small list in order of preference/ then benefit of the mod next to it so I understand? Thanks for anyone who decides to pitch in!

 

I am not a drag racer, yet looking for grip applies the same principles as any type of racing. For suspension here are my thoughts

Your single most important modification is Tires, if you tires hook up better than you will spend less time slipping and more time gripping.

Next - I would think would be to set your rear camber to as near to zero as possible, this allows the greatest contact patch as possible and again allows more grip.

Then I would look at how the weight is transfered from front to rear. If you can transfer the weight faster during launch than you will create more load on the rear tires and then again create more grip. For front to rear transfer your springs & shocks determine this.

Finally - Corner balancing the left to right would yeild the greatest grip as you will have equal amounts of grip on left and righ. On the corner balancing, you will also have the goal of having as much wieght on the rear as possible. You will need a good set of coilovers for this.

Other great mods are - less weight, LSD, moving weight to the rear, and the obvious one is more power.

 

Where are you starting? Post your times here: https://my350z.com/forum/drag/233840-top-25-1-4-mile-times-for-tt-st-supercharger-nitrous-bolt-ons-stock.html

Also the drag racing forum is a better place for drag racing questions.

 

Havent taken my car to the track yet with my FI setup yet. But I would love for my first run to be 11.99! and under lol.

Mooddude, nice writeup, explains some things for me now as how they work lol. Do u have any BRand recommendations? I believe I'd like springs and shocks as u say to transfer all the weight from front to rear ASAP. thanks!

 

...don't we all?

 

Remember that the brands I know are for road racing, so I will leave it to the Drag experts. Yet, if it where my money - I would buy a good set of coilovers so that it will effect your wieght transfer and you can corner wieght it. If you don't have the money than make sure you get adjustable shocks. Just to clairfy - springs and shocks will effect the RATE at which wieght is transfered not transfer the weight.

Some things to remember - stiffer is not always better, you must match the set up to your driving conditions, your driving style and your car.

And you must take peoples recommendations on spring rates and than see how they drive. ie - some of the road racers like 550 # front and 500# rear springs and others like 900# front and rear, where as I like 700# front and 600 # rear. As one of the pro-race teams mechanics told me at a test day I was driving at - bring a bunch of springs to track and test them there, just don't take people word for it.

 

Another Q. Coilovers are shock/ spring combo. Are coil overs more efficient then a set of springs and shocks i pick out myslef? can someone explain that part?

 

Since you have raced, you know that the 350Z is not a good drag racing set-up. Depends on what you what to spend.

Solid rear axle
5 inch wheels on the front
Stiffer springs and struts in the rear
10.5 inch slicks

 

Heh, I choose to prove otherwise! My last cobra ran a best of 12.1 at 114 mph, it was an 11 sec, i couldn't get it there with the clutch that it had, was slipping and grinding to the point where it blew up lol, anywho, the cobra had an IRS and i launched that SOB at 5k all day long on MT slicks. I got the wheels covered, I jst need to know in peoples opinion what are the best springs/shocks , or coilover combo for drag racing.

 

I have no idea if the Z is a great drag racer or not all I know is that the engineers at Nissan did a great job with the car for a road coarse!

 

Not sure what your question is? Shocks and springs can be as efficient as coilovers at transfering wieght, yet the coilover offers the power of having the ability to corner weight the car.
For the begineer I guess the best step would be shocks and springs and work up to coilovers. This way you can learn more about what they do, test them out and not blow a bunch of money and then spend your money on something in the future you know will work better for you.

 

I'm not looking to buy and use trial and error lol. I'm looking for someone to recommend me a brand/ for the combo, and why. Don't want to keep spending and losin money lol

 

ok how bout if i ask . what Set of Springs/shocks combo would help BEST Transfer weight from the FRONT to the REAR for a drag setup. I have no clue how to read suspension articles lol. thanks!

 

A set of custom rate springs (eibach,swift etc) that are around 10% of the rear weight of the car is a good start and then follow up by an adjustible shock and if you don't mind the wait then get them custom valved for a fast compression slow rebound setup. The first thing that you should do even if your stock is zero out your camber in the rear that will help the most.

How much power are you going to run? If under 300whp camber and slicks and you'll doing well if over that then follow the above as a starting point then you can mess with takeing off the swaybars and adding limiting straps.

The Z doesn't use true coilovers in the rear anyway so it's not money well spent unless you want to be able to adjust ride height. I just installed a set of eibach drag-launch springs on a 650whp procharged mustang and they seem to be a huge improvement over the racecraft springs that he had the airbag in the right rear works just like it should. They don't offer the drag launch set for the Z but it could be replicated no problem. (around 300 for mustang)

I hope this helps the Z can be a good drag car I think with a working suspension and the power levels we're starting to see low 10sec cars will be starting to show up at the strip in the next few years. Everythings is there to do it except a budget transmission solution. 550-600whp antilag or transbrake no problem it's just money

BTW What power level are you at and what kind of 60ft times are you running?

 

Havent been to the track yet, however with some boost issues and leaks , an avg # of 436 rwhp has been hit on my supercharged Z, we had higher #'s but weren't consistent. Anywho... I'd like to bring this thread back up for replies...

U keep mentioning the camber. so I'm assuming camber, arms, any particular brand? Also came across this site ":

http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/me...=SWIFT-SPRINGS
For street/drag racing setup what #'s would/should I input here?

let me know thanks!

 

I do wish HKS made drag coilovers for the Z33 like they did for Supra and S14

 

You've got me curious, this is my read on what your saying.

Curb weight (picking a number that's within reason so bear with me)
3300lbs
Weight dist 53/47
3300lbs x 47%= 1504lbs
1504lbs x 10%= 150lbs
Rear montion rate of .36 x 427lbs= 154lbs wheel rate
Oem rear spring rate on 04.5+ 350Z is 427lbs

Rear motion rate of .36 x 342= 123lbs wheel rate
Oem rear spring rate on 03/04 350z is 342lbs

Kind of ironic that the oem 04.5+ rear springs look perfect, at least based on the proposed theory of 10%.

 

Well any good quality camber kit will work I'm sure I like the SPC kit or I'm sure you could use the stock set to make your own.

Gsedan35 where did you come up with the .36 motion rate did you measure it your self or is it published? I'm not doubting you but I always love to find new sites for info that's all.. I was not correcting for IRS alot of 240sx guys use 10% with no correction. So right arround a 160-200 lbs spring. I think that is way soft for a daily driver but maybe something 20-25% less that stock would be better. A shock that can adjust for rebound and compression would also be idea.

For those of you that would like to know the basic formula for motion rate is this
Motion ratio at the tire is (A/B) x 2.
Measure the distance from the pivot point of the a-arm to the center of the mounting point of the shock and spring combination (A).
Measure the distance from the pivot point of the a-arm to the center of the tire tread {B).
For example: A= 14 and B= 18. Apply these dimensions to the formula as follows: (A/B) x 2 = (14/18) x 2 = .61
.61 is the motion ratio percentage at the centerline of the wheel and tire combination.
Divide the .61 into the weight at the wheel to determine the amount that the spring is holding up at that location, and select the corresponding spring.

 

Just wanted to help with why I keep saying camber.. If you have negitive camber which all 350z do then your not getting full use of your tires.

Yours probley look like this to some extent // \\ when for drag racing they should be zero deg camber like || || so your getting a full contact patch.
In all honesty if I were you I would stay with stock springs, camber arms, better shocks that are adjustible and a set of slicks.