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A drag racing newbee here with a question
My car is a 3rd gen Nova
and I am trying to figure out the spring rate I need for the front end
car weight is 3100# with driver and a 51/49% split to the front
I have a koni coil spring conversion on the front with rack and pinion steering, at present I have 12" 350# springs in there and its rock solid so how do I get a spring rate that will support the front end yet give me some energy to raise when I leave the start line.
hope that s not too dumb a question to start off with
Thanks

I will leave the tech up to the other guys, but welcome to the board. bp

Thanks Bill
I hope to be a regular user and hope I can gain some knowledge i have always been into drag racing and raced a bike back in UK some 20years ago but this is my first attempt at building a car for Drag Racing.

WELCOME

350 lb springs are way too stiff. But how to figure out the right ones? Saw this method used many many years ago by a guy with a small block 1972 Camaro - he removed the springs from the coilovers, put a bottle jack on a scale under the centerline of the spindles and crawled under with a tape measure. He got me to raise and lower the jack a little bit a half dozen times then emerged with a number of 220 lbs/inch. How ever he came up with that number I don't know but the car always hooked good afterwards. Car was basically stock in the front end with a 'glass hood and the coilovers. Maybe something in that range 200 - 250 might be close for you.

I wonder if he was calculating the difference between the sprung and unsprung weight of the front of the car... ?

EDB

Or playin' Russian Roulette with the jacks.

Thanks Guys
I sat down last night and read my "DOORSLAMMERS" book again and re did the calculations from the diagram thereafter rechecking twice I came up with 225# so Thats what I will order but I am going with a slightly taller spring as well so as to crank some energy into them hopefully I appreciate your help.
Thanks
ps:Dave Morgan is a moderator over on www.Dragstuff.com with Dave Lemmond

350 lb springs are way too stiff. But how to figure out the right ones? Saw this method used many many years ago by a guy with a small block 1972 Camaro - he removed the springs from the coilovers, put a bottle jack on a scale under the centerline of the spindles and crawled under with a tape measure. He got me to raise and lower the jack a little bit a half dozen times then emerged with a number of 220 lbs/inch. How ever he came up with that number I don't know but the car always hooked good afterwards. Car was basically stock in the front end with a 'glass hood and the coilovers. Maybe something in that range 200 - 250 might be close for you.

Looking back you were right on with your range
so my other 10,000 questions on setting my car up are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or playin' Russian Roulette with the jacks.

One would hope that they had some jackstands under there as well...

EDB