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Strutting Around: AFCO Unleashes New High Tech Struts For Door Cars
Strutting Around: AFCO Unleashes New High Tech Struts For Door CarsBy Brian Wagner https://www.speednik.com/files/2017/...99-640x249.jpgHorsepower is what makes the drag racing world go ’round — every racer who rolls into the beams is always looking for more, any way they can get it. Having all that power is great, but it’s virtually useless unless you can put it to the track in a controlled and predictable fashion. This makes the vehicle’s front and rear suspension as vital as the powerplant itself. To gain a greater understanding of how these elements affect performance, we enlisted Eric Saffell of AFCO to share greater insight into the company’s all-new doorslammer and chassis car struts to understand how they can help racers get the most out of the power they have on tap.Strut-style suspensions have been used on door cars for decades, so the concept of how they function hasn’t changed, but using better components has become the focus. Racers and tuners have learned that when they have more adjustability in the suspension, they can compensate for varying track conditions, which allows them to apply more power earlier in the run, which in turn lowers elapsed times. Taking these ideas into account is what drove AFCO to create a new strut that can help racers at all levels make their cars more predictable at the track, no matter what power level they are trying to harness. https://www.speednik.com/files/2017/...55-640x337.jpgAFCO’s new struts have been field-tested on cars like Don O’Neal’s Top Sportsman car to make sure they perform as needed. Why Quality Struts MatterThe front suspension of a racecar has the important task of helping to begin the weight transfer process during a pass. Having the ability to fully control how quickly the weight transfers throughout the entire chassis is essential to making sure the car works consistently on any racing surface.“While it is imperative to have high-quality shocks on the rear of the car, controlling pitch rotation at the launch can have dramatic results. Virtually everyone with a door car can benefit from struts that have a broad range of adjustment. Bracket cars can adjust to conditions for maximum consistency. Fast door cars like Top Sportsman, Radial vs The World, Pro Mod and others deal with high horsepower and torque that need a strut that can control how quickly the front end moves up at the hit,” says Saffell. |
AFCO used nothing but the best parts and materials on their new line of struts for chassis and door cars.
A high-quality strut that can check all the boxes needed to control how the chassis reacts needs to have two main items on its resume. The strut must be able to control the front end of the car not only at the launch, but as it goes down the track, as well. This means it must be able to react to the amount of horsepower being thrown at it with the correct amount of extension damping, and be able to settle back down as the car moves down the track. The strut should also have the ability to be tuned to the track conditions the racer is seeing. Being able to tune the strut based on whether the wheel speed is too high or too low at the hit is crucial to the vehicle’s performance. https://www.speednik.com/files/2017/...93-640x424.jpgThe new chassis car struts are designed to fit almost any application and are already set up for spindles out of the box. “We have worked very hard on providing the tuner with the ability to soften the extension and rotate quickly, or tighten down the extension and see very little drop out of the strut at launch. We have also worked on the compression side of the strut, so the car will track smoothly during the pass. Each track has its dip, bump, or seam where the concrete and asphalt meet, and the car must ride these irregularities without the driver feeling any of it,” Saffell says. https://www.dragzine.com/image/2017/...51-640x427.jpg Real World ResultsDon O’Neal’s nitrous-huffing Top Sportsman car was used as one of the test beds for the new chassis car strut. Saffell and O’Neal added the struts to the car with no baseline on where to start or what to do, but they saw results. As more passes were put on the car, they were able to make adjustments based on the data and saw the changes had an effect on the shock graphs immediately.Making an analogy to a set of stairs, Saffell is able to better explain the concept of how a strut should work when it has the ability to be adjusted properly. “We know instinctively how high to raise our foot when going up. When tuning a chassis, it is very important to know how many clicks to go so that the tuner will achieve the desired results when making adjustments. A moving target just won’t cut it here. Also, a premium strut must have a very wide range of adjustment from full soft to full stiff. The strut should be valved appropriately for the application to ensure that the tuner has adequate control available to them. A Pro Mod needs much stiffer valving than a Quick 8 car, but both cars must have the correct valve package for the given combination.” |
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