HOW TO GET YOUR CORVETTE TO HOOK AT THE DRAG STRIP
The Corvette suspension is in its own animal. You have to think about what will make the weight transfer to the rear tires. Softer front coil springs and shocks that do not fight there extension as the front of the Corvette lifts also shocks that resist compression on the way down. so 90/10 shocks do just that, also I do not recommend eliminating the front stabilizer bar because it does just that it stabilizes, that’s a handy thing when you get out of shape. However setting it loose so the front picks up is in the right direction you still have one side of the Corvette connected to the other side for weight transfer which is the stabilizing effect. A leaf style fiberglass spring in the front of a Corvette will never let you hook up, it's all about keeping the front low and stabile. So that covers the front.
Moving to the rear of the Corvette I never needed a traction bar and the ones I have seen don’t look effective to me, some people say it was a big help, I suspect a rotten front mount on the differential in those cases, but a have no proof so if it helps good for them. I would think with the flexibility of the half shafts the only place a traction bar would be effective would be attached to the trailing arm.
The trailing arms is one piece of a four link system. In a four link set up you imaginarily extend the length of the horizontal side bars toward the front of the car say a chevy Nova where the two imaginary lines cross in front of the car that is your cars center of gravity ideally the two imaginary lines cross just under the front wheel. Now look at the Corvette trailing arm as you lower the Corvette the front of the trailing arm lowers and the back of the trailing arm rises as you do that the imaginary line that represents the center of gravity gets closer to the bottom of the front wheel. I have found that when the half shafts are level with the ground you are very close to this ideal position. I use a 28 in tall tires in the back. The taller tires provides a larger foot print and a better angle for the trailing arm compared to the stock 26 inch tall tire. I normally run a stock 26 tall tire in the front however if I had issues with hooking I would look at at 25 or 24 inch tall tire. A 60 ft of 1.4 to 1.55 with no tire spin is excellent to good in my estimation.
Tire selection is most important. In the beginning I thought a tire just can’t be to soft or to sticky. Wrong. When a track gets hot and you have a tire that is too soft for your application your 60 ft times will increase as the temperature goes up. A Corvette is a fairly heavy car in drag racing perspectives. 3200 to 3700 lbs. and most Corvette’s at the track have 500 plus hp so a heavy car and big HP requires a medium hardness tire at the least and in some cases even harder. I know that is a vague generalization but it’s the best I can do I don’t have a durometer number to offer. The worst tire I ever tried on my Corvette was the dot hoosier it was simply a bad match on my part not there’s. The tire was exactly what I thought I needed. I was horribly mistaken and out 500.00 plus all the crappy racing I did. The best tire I ever used was a dot Racemaster bias tire that was directional meaning it had to be mounted and pointed in the right direction. My 60 ft time varied less then .010 from morning through hot afternoon to cool evening. The ET’s varied according to the air but the 60 fts were spot on. That pretty well sums up my experience with making Corvettes hook.
Moving to the rear of the Corvette I never needed a traction bar and the ones I have seen don’t look effective to me, some people say it was a big help, I suspect a rotten front mount on the differential in those cases, but a have no proof so if it helps good for them. I would think with the flexibility of the half shafts the only place a traction bar would be effective would be attached to the trailing arm.
The trailing arms is one piece of a four link system. In a four link set up you imaginarily extend the length of the horizontal side bars toward the front of the car say a chevy Nova where the two imaginary lines cross in front of the car that is your cars center of gravity ideally the two imaginary lines cross just under the front wheel. Now look at the Corvette trailing arm as you lower the Corvette the front of the trailing arm lowers and the back of the trailing arm rises as you do that the imaginary line that represents the center of gravity gets closer to the bottom of the front wheel. I have found that when the half shafts are level with the ground you are very close to this ideal position. I use a 28 in tall tires in the back. The taller tires provides a larger foot print and a better angle for the trailing arm compared to the stock 26 inch tall tire. I normally run a stock 26 tall tire in the front however if I had issues with hooking I would look at at 25 or 24 inch tall tire. A 60 ft of 1.4 to 1.55 with no tire spin is excellent to good in my estimation.
Tire selection is most important. In the beginning I thought a tire just can’t be to soft or to sticky. Wrong. When a track gets hot and you have a tire that is too soft for your application your 60 ft times will increase as the temperature goes up. A Corvette is a fairly heavy car in drag racing perspectives. 3200 to 3700 lbs. and most Corvette’s at the track have 500 plus hp so a heavy car and big HP requires a medium hardness tire at the least and in some cases even harder. I know that is a vague generalization but it’s the best I can do I don’t have a durometer number to offer. The worst tire I ever tried on my Corvette was the dot hoosier it was simply a bad match on my part not there’s. The tire was exactly what I thought I needed. I was horribly mistaken and out 500.00 plus all the crappy racing I did. The best tire I ever used was a dot Racemaster bias tire that was directional meaning it had to be mounted and pointed in the right direction. My 60 ft time varied less then .010 from morning through hot afternoon to cool evening. The ET’s varied according to the air but the 60 fts were spot on. That pretty well sums up my experience with making Corvettes hook.