Tuning Your Tires and Suspension - Hooked! - Tips, Tricks, And In-Depth Info For Ultimate Starting Line Bite

When staging your car, be sure to line up in the groove. Notice the two dark stripes directly in front of the Camaro; that's considered the sweet spot, and it's where you want to be for the most grip.

CalTracs bars feature two attaching points in the plates (the front pivot) to allow tuning the Force Transfer Link rod end for two levels of traction. The Force Transfer Link is made from chrome-moly tubing. If the car is hitting too hard on the starting line, it can be repositioned to the lower mounting hole. The spring stop bolts (assembled between the upper portions of the two plates) restrict spring wrap-up.

At the rear of the CalTracs bar, a welded 11/44-inch steel assembly replaces the factory spring perch and allows mounting for the rear rod end of the Force Transfer Link.

A bead-lock tire feels safer on the big end of the quarter-mile because it has a stiffer sidewall from the edge of the rim out about 1 inch.

Stock multileaf springs work reasonably well on mild street cars, typically equipped with automatic transmissions. If a manual transmission or added power is on tap, a set of traction bars (installed properly) will help to stiffen up the front end of the leaf spring and minimize leaf spring wrap-up.

When it comes to four-link suspensions, the two center struts comprise what is called a wishbone and keep the car stable by preventing the rearend from moving side-to-side. Some kits use one diagonal strut to keep the rearend in place. The coilover adjustable shocks are from Strange Engineering and house the rear spring and shock as one assembly. Up top is a torsional antiroll bar mounted with two levers on each side to minimize body roll.

This angle shows the right side of a four-link system mounted with Heim joints. Note that each link is adjustable with a nut at each end. Also, the rod ends are mounted in brackets with multiple vertical holes to change the car's instant center. These adjustments should only be done by an experienced chassis builder because, if the links are installed in random positions, the chassis can react unexpectedly and be flat-out dangerous on the dragstrip.

To keep wrinkle-wall slicks from rotating on the rims with low tire pressure, Mr. Gasket offers a kit that includes 35 0.250x0.750 screws to install into your rims. These screws can be installed in a uniform fashion with a sheet of newspaper, a 31/416-inch drill bit, and a felt pen.
First lay the rim down flat onto the sheet of newspaper and scribe a circle around it with the felt pen.

After cutting the newspaper on the felt-pen line, fold the circle in half. Fold the half circle in half, then the quarter circle in half. Now pierce a hole in the center edge of the eighth-circle, pie-shaped piece of paper. Make sure your hole penetrates completely through.