Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

Funny... James. [emoji3] What I really ment to post was that Randy and his Dragnasty car put on one hell of a show at the Meltdown Drags this past weekend.

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Ha Ha Jackson.... coming from someone that can't figure out how to launch from 1st gear in that Digger of yours. Lol. It's a good thing for those gears you are running now or James would still be putting you on the trailer. Lol. Just kidding man... it was great watching you make killer passes this past weekend.

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Thanks Nathan and you are correct I just posted on the meltdown thread about what a saint james is I'm sure Deucedup will agree oh and not to steal your thread here Randal but you should check out the meltdown thread I posted the go pro video of the big wheelie lol


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Check this out. I was bored last night so put together a little video montage of the Austin to one of my favorite songs...Walk Don't Run.

 

You need to work on your John Force burn outs now.

 

I know but I can't get these stupid Hoosier Slicks to smoke!

 

That's bitchin man!

Do you need stiffer springs in the back to keep it from wrapping up so bad? Not that it's "that bad", but wouldn't they help?

 

I know what you mean I can't get mine to smoke either I wish they would it would be way kooler


Chrome don't get ya home

 

You need to get that bad boy up in a higher gear during the burn out.
Its the tire speed that makes the smoke......and that H/P helps too.

 

I am in second at 6 grand!!!

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Go to third.

 

What is the rear gear in the nasty?

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A couple photos from bangshift today from the meltdown

 

3.50

Not bad for highway gears? LOL

 

So the wheelie bars worked perfect....too perfect if you ask me. They kept the nose too far down and we had some pretty good body roll which have not had before. The only change from our test in Rogersville and the Meltdowns was our new wheelie bar system. So we are going to do a couple of things before the HAMB Drags.
1. Loosen up our system a bit to get the front end back up in the area it was before. Hopefully this will also help with the roll as I think we are now encountering some new pressures out back that are being transferred back up through the chassis.
2. We are going to install horizontal cross bars from the front of the ladder bar mounts back to the housing. Normally you just install one of them, but in the tooth pic model I built last night, two of them seemed to work much better in also assisting a bit in the "anti-roll" area etc. Plus I have seen several drag cars on line with both bars etc.

 

Congrats on the 9 sec passes. Good thing you had a diaper on the car.

 

Thanks Brian. Sure sorry about your little detour. Hard to watch since I know how hard you have worked to get it back etc. It was nice to finally meet you in person.

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First: good build, I am envious! Good runs too! Second: Pro Stock cars shift all the way up to 5th gear in the burn out..Saw it on tv in car camera..Third: How much it cost me for you to radius the rear wheel openings and get the tires out an inch or two per side? I'd like it better..Big and some giggles..Be easier to change tires..I'd like to do a photo shop pic [hint] but I suck at it..

 

I am no means an expert but I would almost guess that going to a taller gear ration would help a bunch of your ailments. You obviously have enough power to pull a little more gear

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I agree. With the 3.50 gear the car will either spin the wheels at the step or bog down and it obviously has enough power to spin them hard. A higher (numerical) ratio will tend to overcome the inertia without excessive wheelspin.

If you have "body roll" with a ladder bar package you are either twisting the frame, flexing the ladder bar or mashing one tire down. The ladder bar is a truss and as the rear end tries to rotate both forward mounting points will move the same amount relative to the ground plane unless the conditions that I listed are present. Adding a diagonal (in a single plane) simply serves to keep the rear end centered (in lieu of a panhard or watts locator) and won't help anything apart from that. I would think that the photos that you have seen of double diagonal (horizontally x braced) ladder bars are probably from Pro Mod cars with a narrow width spread on the bars and extremely high horsepower.

Roo

 

""If you have "body roll" with a ladder bar package you are either twisting the frame, flexing the ladder bar or mashing one tire down.""

Roo..Car is so fast in video but after about fourteen tries I finally got to see the body roll is in the left tire rising; at least in part as only checked a left view video but may be combo of right squatting also..Car stays straight as far as I can tell [I not in car!] so don't think there is any traction issue..

 

im thinking more spring on the right with a tighter bump setting on the shock and a tighter rebound shock setting on the left. I would also be thinking about 1/2-1 inch lower setting on the right wheelie bar.

 

I was wondering about some pre load on the wheelie bar but then wondered if it would make the launch not straight.

 

My thought was more spring/preload on the right side. But I certainly ain't no expert as my Camaro spins like a 60's digger! LoL!

 

For now...since this all started right after the wheelie bar change, I am going to raise them back up where they were before and start the spring tension at that point or maybe even a bit above it etc. Taking Brian's advice at that point to offset the right side a bit. But I definitely want to get the wheels back in the air etc. Trust me I am not complaining the car is crazy fast and goes dead straight. It is an absolute blast to drive. I have driven a lot of very fast cars but I have never been in one that pulls so hard in 2nd gear! I have to get the other seat back in it so I can take any of you that are around for a ride.

I probably need to get some different shocks on the rear. What I have, if you remember way back in the build, are the Monroe overload shocks that I was experimenting with instead of true coil overs. Of course that experiment failed miserably. But after the rebuild on the rear after the bunny hop debut episode, I decided to leave them in place. I removed the springs and just used them as a true shock. I have no idea what their rate it etc. I just know they were designed for Dodge Caravan...LOL.

It sounds crazy when say it like that but at the time, recovering from having the quarter eliptic springs being mounted incorrectly (above the axle line) we really didn't know what else we needed. So instead of starting with everything new back there we just put the Posie Springs on and decided to leave everything else alone and see what it did. It ran so hard and so straight, that we decided to leave it alone. However now we are up about 300 hp or so.

As for the horizontal cross bar I am just reacting to video coverage, not the seat of my pants. From the driver's seat the car feels very stable and straight. I have said it before but I think you could let go of the wheel about anytime during the run. But in the videos it seems to have a bit of side to side motion. I do not have pan hard on it as the quarter eliptic springs are basically handling that side load so I think I will take a bit of pressure off them.

 

Today we are going to fabricate and mount the brackets for the horizontal bar so we can get a good measurement to order the correct length etc. We are going to play around with adjusting the wheelie bars back up etc. I have been thinking this morning, I could actually put the overload springs back on the shocks or at least the right side etc. (sort of like @gonmad suggested) ...OR I need to talk to someone that can help me pick the right shocks etc. I have no idea how to decide what we need.

 

I think a panhard bar would be a help with quarter elliptic but remember that where you put the bar, at what hite is where you create the roll center that it will create..The higher the mounting the more it will act as a anti-roll bar, difficult choice unless brackets with lotsa holes! I would mount to the rear of and at axle hite and level as a good starting point. Since I think car actual roll center is above ground level [3-6"] it will both locate the housing and provide some anti roll bar quality since it will be higher than actual roll center... If your ladder bars have rod ends at the axle housing end then any thing you add; panhard or diagonal at ladder bars [front left to right rear] will be big help, roll center will still be created at the average hite of bar..

 

Funny note. I just applied to the Guinness book of world records for the title of Worlds Fastest Austin Somerset. 9.50 quarter mile time and 143.7 mph top speed. 15 weeks plus to make it final. Lol

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You going to enter it in the Yah-Hoo Cup this year?

 

James I don't think he is far enough away if he is it will be just barely oh and he would have to drive it down here lol


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