CrapBag

was wondering what is best for launching i have heard soft in the rear for better launches but what about the front i have no idea what works best to get that forward momentum

blackwagon

Soft in the rear would lift the front wound't it? If it was super stiff it would keep the front down but I don't know much about all that weight transfer stuff.

CrapBag

yeah thats what i can't figure out if you want the front to jump and rear to sink or stiff rear to keep the front down

Sam@Coastal

you want the front to stay down. stiff in the back would be best i think. ill let u know im doing some stuff now to see what works.

Sam@Coastal

im gonna go 1.5 down in the front and 1 inch in the rear

Bald Guy

Watching the two 8 and 9 sec AWD DSM's at Moroso awhile back, they each had two different suspension setups. One had the rear high and the front kind of low, basically what Sam is going to try. The rear was soft and allowed for weight transfer but with the front low it keet the front wheels in contact with the track. The other was slammed all around and pretty stiff. Both launched great off the line.

TampaWRX

I would go with the latter (slammed) approach, as your center of gravity will be as low as humany possible to the track, but then you've got to worry about camber, etc, since the wheel/tire assembly is liable to lean and compromise mechanical grip. I still think soft in the rear might be a bad approach, but I can see the logic in trying to handle the weight transfer.

In your car, I'm thinking it is going to come down to what happens in the driveline as much as how the weight transfers through the car. If one of the fronts starts spinning due to the open diff, your launch is over with. It will be interesting to see how the center and rear diffs handle the launches, as the tires might be overwhelmed. It's really hard to say.

My thinking would be, do a couple of baseline launches with the setup as you drive it everyday, paying more attention to how the car feels when the clutch comes out than anything else. From there, start making small changes until you feel like you are going in the right or wrong direction and change your approach accordingly. It won't be fun, but it's probably the only way you're going to dial in a suspension setup that works. Knowing when to say when on changes is probably the hardest part, as too many changes will put you in the wilderness. Wish some of my road racing friends were into drag racing, as they have taught me quite a bit about setting up a car for twisty tracks, but I know shit about handling big power in a straight line.

p.s. Take notes of all your changes and their effects. It sounds silly, but that's how everyone in the big leagues does it, right down to temps, tires pressures, atmospherics, etc. The more data you acquire, the better!