Ladder Bar vs. S/S vs. 4 Link ??

richter69 wrote:Hey, I fall into this category........

Being a hERo gives you an advantage in that catagory.....

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

richter69 wrote:Hey, I fall into this category........

Being a hERo gives you an advantage in that catagory.....

it has its perks.............

richter69 wrote:Hey, I fall into this category........

i fall in it too,hell i fall into a lotta stuff.i change too many things at one time and have more problems i can say after friday night's tnt my ladder bar's worked very well.the 60'aint where its been but 1.27 with little to no front wheels up is a long way from where it was.i dont know what done the most good but it just takes off like a footbrake car.i changed the front clip from fox mustang setup to strange struts,lowered the front about 3" and rear 2",engine is about 1"higher than before.i also got some 70"sissy bars.

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

BigDave65 wrote:You don't see Pro Mods running ladderbars.

Well you kinda do see a "cousin" of the ladder bar in Pro Mod since the PM swing arm stuff is really in effect 2 bigger-longer ladder bars (on steroids ) joined together.

After I posted this I figured someone would bring this up. Realistically though, nowdays the swingarm is almost a novelty. The guys using it originally were trying to make there cars act like a solid funny car type chassis. I don't know for sure but I would almost bet that at an ADRL race you won't see a swingarm set-up.

BigDave65 wrote:

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

BigDave65 wrote:You don't see Pro Mods running ladderbars.

Well you kinda do see a "cousin" of the ladder bar in Pro Mod since the PM swing arm stuff is really in effect 2 bigger-longer ladder bars (on steroids ) joined together.

After I posted this I figured someone would bring this up. Realistically though, nowdays the swingarm is almost a novelty. The guys using it originally were trying to make there cars act like a solid funny car type chassis. I don't know for sure but I would almost bet that at an ADRL race you won't see a swingarm set-up.

The swing arm stuff is still popular with some of the down-under Auzzy PM's. They might not be running the killer ADRL 3.60-3.80 numbers, but they are close.

The reason the swing arm stuff lost favor back then here in the states is IHRA again went through another round of rules adjustments trying to even out the blower/nitrous cars for the gazillianth time . They either took away some rear gear ratio or some blower overdrive from the blown cars (I think it was blower OD, but I'm not 100% sure), and that change was just enough that the swing arm cars couldn't adapt as well as the 4-link cars did.

I think these days if someone in the ADRL was to try the swing arm in a PM again, and was able to make it work since there is no blower OD or gear ratio limitations, you would probably see a bunch of other people give it a try too since there is always that monkey-see-monkey-do side of racing when a racer has success with a given combo.

A few years back Gaylen Smith (Lenmar Racing) picked up an older Anderson Willys with an earlier design swing arm to give it a try. The car's swing arm suspension wasn't super stiff in the back like a solid funny car is. In fact watching launch video it looked to hit the tire very much like a 4-link car does with about the same amount of initial separation. But the car's older design swing arm did look to have a problem from time to time with where on the track the team was bringing the clutch in cuz it did have a desire to turn left at about mid track on a number of outings. They later converted the Willys to a 4-link, but it still never really was able to produce consistent numbers.