Will this hook up better or worse than a sprung setup?
my guess would be worse due to hop
Worse. First of all, it would be done more often if it were better. Weight transfer has something to do with it but also, every imperfecion in the track will cause the tires to skip on the ground resulting in a loss of traction. You want the tires/wheels to follow the ground as much as possible. Depends on what tire you go with really, I mean, look at top fuel guys.
that’s what i am thinking too, but it would be so much easier… what if, say, there was a 400 lb engine sitting on top of the wheels?
i suppose i can make a suspension…
cant u use a good set of coilovers?
youll want some form of rear suspension, as the rear will have to squat some
without a rear suspension, the rear tires will unload to fast after launch, causing a loss of traction just after the 60 foot mark
yeah, but i was hoping to avoid the “complications” of a suspension. This vehicle will be budget. very budget.
Probably could do something unconventional with rear tire pressures, but even then you would have problems.
I’d say have more weight up front, weaken the chasis so in turn the spring rate of the chasis is lower.
cough rick dobbertin’s J2000 pro street car cough
‘squatting’ is important to weight transfer too. For instance, a ladder bar suspension helps transfer the weight from the center of the car to the main drive axle. A car with a great suspension set up will squat as it is accelerates, taking the center or gravity and moving it right onto the axle through a simple ‘four bar’ mechanism.
say the weight distribution is f-r=35-65
still have problems?
then you may start getting into wheel hop which was already mentioned.
not necessarily…it’ll seem to help only because your turning the tire into a rotational shock absorber so you don’t feel it, even though it’s still happening. wheel hop is caused by the axle housing rotating due to impulsed torque transmitted as resistance through the ring gears. Softer wheels or higher profile tires only dampen this effect.
the proper way to help eliminate it would be to install special lower control arms or traction bars.
The end result is that as the rear axle assembly tries to twist in the opposite direction from the forward turning axles, it transfers this twisting torque to the chassis. By pushing up against the chassis, the rear axle is forced down and onto the tires harder. Now the transfered weight also goes to the wheels, improving traction. This action also inhibits wheel hop.
hey, no tech talk in gen auto 
what the rear suspension layout? slicks? fatty tires side by side or spread apart?
slicks with fat tires spaced as close to the center of a transaxle car as i can get.
word. and t-up to typing all that. i think that on a rwd strip only car you could make your own 4 link set up with low cost. but i am only a roll race guy ( because honda dont make pow3r ) or he could build something like this…
^^^ 2 snomobile engines?
There are drag cars with “solid” rear ends. While they don’t hook as well as a 4-link, they can work surprisingly well.