Rear Suspension Question..

Here are some facts about the B3 (Barracuda, Bracket, Budget) 67 Barracuda that was built by and raced by Dave Young, Tech Editor for Mopar Muscle Magazine. I bought the car last year from Dave. The build and track results for this car are well documented in the magazine (Dave also gave me all his time slips and log book as part of the purchase). This is what I learned from the magazine, from Dave, and from running the car:

1 - Traction is not a function of one system of the car (putting traction bars on may work if other parts of the car are prepared correctly). All of the various parts of the car must work togeather. The weakest link of the system will limit the car's traction/performance.

2 - To acheive good traction, the following changes were made to the stock Barracuda during the first phase of build:

Frame connectors and Roll Bar added to stiffen the body - Twisting of the chassis will change the loading on the rear tires and do it in a way that is not consistant

The car was initially equipped with a stroked 400 motor and therefore V8 type torsion bars were used in the front end to provide more spring strength to help lift the front end during launch. Stock front snubbers were used.

Super stock rear springs were used with an adjustable pinion snubber. There should be about 3/4 to 1 inch clearance with the weight of the car on the rear axle.

Strange double adjustable shocks were used front and rear

3 - Adjusting the car as follows:

Using 4 wheel scales, the weight on the rear wheels was set the same by adjusting the torsion bars

Run about 10-12 psi in the rear 28 x 10.5 tires (the car is not tubbed and this is the biggest tire that will fit)

Adjust the front shocks to allow the front end to come up quick (transferring weight to the rear wheels) and adjust to allow the front end to come down slowly under control.

The car weighed 2900 lbs with driver and the 451 motor was putting out about 650 HP. The first run down the 1/4 mile track was a 10.393 at 128.18 mph. With some refinement the car was able to get down into the 10.10's.

Then Dave wanted to go faster, and the car was changed again to it's current state of build, but that is another story.

Bottom line, make sure you have the total car working together. Just changing out one part of the car may not help.

Ma Snart