I have hit 1.50 and 1.48 with Vikings,front bar on and stock wheels. But because they are not gas charged I hate them on the street after they warm up. They ride like *** in the front. Thank God I didn't do the rears. They are coming off as soon as I have time

 

Are you looking into this kit as well mike?

Strano, upon getting my driveline, suspension from the old car, one of the Vikings sheared in half so that rules me trying that 4 corner setup with a set of sway bars. And I may just order one shock, but I want to weigh my options as I wasn’t pleased with them to begin with. I am planning on calling you Monday or Tuesday to talk about a setup with you.

 

Yes. They work great at the track. But l like driving the car everywhere..even 1000 mile trips. I think a gas charged set up would be ideal. Just unsure on what spring rate I should shoot for.

 

You don't need to know rates, I'm here to help with that. Again, I do more than just sell the parts around here. We can discuss how you use the car, and options that best suit you needs.

 

I'm around. Busy but around. We will get it figured out.

 

Updates from some of you that have the kit. Any drag racing results ?

 

^^^^^ interested also😎

 

I ran 10.7@129 on the 346 and 10.1@134 on the 428, but I only got the one pass and got tossed on the 428. It was a gtfo moment.

 

Darth, So with the coil over kit how did you determine what ride height you wanted? Did you lower the car at all or go with the stockish ride height? I have Bilsteins on Hotchkis lowering springs and the car fells loose and wobbly, I'm only at 420ish in the motor department but managed to lay down a 7.6 on the 1/8, your write up has me thinking I need to make a change to something like you running cause it rides crummy on the street . Mine is 98%DD 1% track. Funny thing is it felt great at the track.


Thank sir,

Mike.

 

I basically determined ride height off my tires and ground clearance. My rear are 28s. I still get about an inch or so of squat. I lowered the front an inch using drop spindles. But then I ended up raising the front back up to stock height, because my oil pan was too deep. I could actually lower the front back down because I replaced the oil pan with a holley. However, I think my numbers had more to do with brute force than with the suspension being Uber efficient. I ran on bias ply because they dont seem to give up when they spin like radials do. I run about six degrees on the rear LCA, which has done quite well for daily use. I also welded up the body seams to stiffen the chassis. That said, the kit I have now definitely squats less and transfers power better than the Vikings did.

The 10.7 was done on my 346 when it put down 519 to the rear tires and had a shift point of 7500.

The 10.1 was done on my current 428 with a 7800 shift point. The airflow and fueling calcs are showing roughly 800 flywheel. I tried to dyno but I used my street tires and they kept slipping on the dyno so I never got a good HP number. On the street first and second are worthless, but third gear I routinely pull 70-107 in 3.x second territory. Use HPTuners logs to determine that. Fourth should max out at 140, but i havent redlined fourth yet.

Point being -- the car is likely capable of being faster. I simply refuse to cage the car so I will not get the track time to properly tune the suspension. It got its numbers from raw power.

 

Can you give me a break down of what you are running now Springs and shocks? Did you ever consider Ridetech? I'm about to come into some cash and I want to spend it wisely on good stuff. That is awesome the Ramey talked with you that long to get you going in the right direction, customer service goes a long way, especially when it's good info. I called a vendor here about purchasing a 9 inch, he told me he was on the road and to go just order it off his website,didn't say, hey let me call you back and we can discuss options, needless to say I didn't buy it from that person. Thanks for the reply Darth, I appreciate it.


Mike.

 

No problem. I actually need to double check the spring rates. I want to say 600/200. It might be 550/200(???). The answer is probably earlier in the thread. The shocks are exactly what came with the umi/strano kit which are strano-valved afco. I got them exactly as the kit is set up from them. No modifications. You would think it would ride really harsh, but it doesnt.

I actually did consider ridetech. I think they make really great stuff. I really do not have a good reason I did not go ridetech. More like I chose the umi kit because Ramey was so helpful. Hope that makes sense.

And I learned a good lesson. I thought before that rear squat and front lift were good for traction, but what they do is consume power and harm rear LCA angles. The really fast cars just GO. And that is what I wanted it to do.

Here is one more possibly helpful thought for you. My friend bought a menser suspension for his car which is mainly drag. My friend asked menser what I should do with my car given the power and mostly DD use with some track time. Menser told my friend that the kit I picked was the exact right kit for my car and usage. The strano kit is not advertised or sold as a drag kit, but it transfers power pretty good and allows for a pleasant drive to and from the track.

And it really is fun to drive to the track, tech in, rip a 10.x, drive home. No trailer. That to me is cooler than hauling an 11-sec car to and from the track cause its a PITA to drive.

 

Oh and on the 9-inch, call chuck burkhart at burkhartchassis. Was slightly more than some other vendors, but I got it in less time than most, he spent time on the phone with me, and I have gone back to him several times on other things.

He races his own stuff, and if you check him out at Facebook he gets RESULTS. If you want, PM me and I will give you a couple names to mention to help get you started out.

 

If I call UMI, how should I describw the setup you got, does Ramey know you as Darth from LS1 tech .LMAO. The kit looks pretty solidly mounted in the front which matters to me. How much thread did you have left on the coilovers?sorry man I'm a total noob on most of the stuff on this car.
Mike.

Mike.

 

Please post the part numbers here once you hear back from UMI.
Is it 20-600200T?

 

I doubt Ramey would remember me since its been almost a year and a half now. I literally got the standard kit with no modifications. I went back to my second post in this thread and it is 600/200. The fronts are about 1/3 of the way off the bottom and the rear are about 1/3 of the way down from the top. So basically near the middle.

Plus my rear axle has multiple shock mount points at 1 inch intervals so if I need to make a coarse adjustment I can go up or down one hole and fine tune with threads.

And no apologies for being a noob. We all were at one point.

 

After doing a bunch of reading, I'm thinking the car feels sloppy possibly because of the rebound of the bilsteins, they were on the car when I bought it last year and I don't really know how old they are, and I don't know the rate of the Hotchkis aprings they have a number on them so I'm going to look them up so I'll at least know what rate they are. Could I be right about the rebound on the bilsteins?

 

That is beyond my knowledge. I liked the bilsteins. If you have a bilsteins the bad rebound it could indicate the shock lost pressure? I felt the car rode great on bilsteins as far as comfort. Umi kit def performs better.

 

I know exactly which kit, no description needed. I have them (I mean my name is on them too), and my pricing isn't more.

 

Sloppy is the shocks, not the springs. Even on stock springs a car with adequate damping does not feel sloppy. Bilstein are not the best shock for any lowering spring, and while "ok" to start as time goes on and the shocks soften up they become unable to control the energy they need to.

They are 285-525 front, 100-140 rear your Hotchkis springs. Note that they are NEVER 285 or 100 in actual function but one issue is that they are dynamically more variable than my springs are, or linears. More spring with those shocks would only make matters worse, which is why I tend to recommend more than Bilstein for my springs though it is hard to argue with the "internet".