Every couple of weeks I go out and get some import magizine and there is always pictures of front wheel drive dragsters with thier fat front wheel slick's and they also have a wheelie bar behind them. Can somebody explain why a front wheel drive needs a wheelie bar?
18" Enkei's & Kumho Ecsta's-------UNICHIP Eibach Sport springs----------Morroso oil pan Injen CAI & Oil cap----------Stage 2 FI cams Custom Exhaust-----------TRD Supercharger AEM alt. pulley -------JSP Carbon Fiber hood 380cc injectors----DC Sports ceramic header
Wheelie bars have one job: to limit front end lift.In a rear drive car, you want lift to transfer more weight to the rear wheels and generate more traction. The wheelie bars limit how much lift to prevent the front end from rising too far and to prevent blow over.In front wheel drive cars you don't want front end lift. Acceleration transfers weight to the rear wheels just like in RWD cars but in FWD cars, this causes loss of traction. Since wheelie bars limit front end lift, they stop this from happening in FWD applications.
Thank's for the explanation. I kept seeing them in mag's and couldn't quite figure them out. I've never seen them run, ESPN only shows the more traditional top-fuel and funny-car drag races.The only thing I've seen on TV that is for imports is 'Super2ner' on TNN on Sunday morning's @ 11:00 CT.
18" Enkei's & Kumho Ecsta's-------UNICHIP Eibach Sport springs----------Morroso oil pan Injen CAI & Oil cap----------Stage 2 FI cams Custom Exhaust-----------TRD Supercharger AEM alt. pulley -------JSP Carbon Fiber hood 380cc injectors----DC Sports ceramic header
NovaResource is right, but there's another trick the fast front drivers do with their wheelie bars: They often have pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders connected to the bar linkage and on the line they use them to almost jack the rear wheels off the ground. Because the bars touch the ground several feet behind the rear wheels, this means the center of gravity is closer to the front on a percentage basis, so the front end weight and traction is greater. Once they get rolling, say into second gear, they release the pressure and the rear tires take the weight again. Pretty weird, huh?
drag racing is all about torque and traction, you need as much of both as possible. if you look at a lot of the high horsepower FWD's like 400 wheel hp they only run like 12.5s quarters, sure that is fast, but its dynoing a ton of hp at the wheels to where it should be running in the 10's. The weight transfer with out the bars robs soo much traction those cars will spin tires for like the first 100' at a track that is prepped for drag racing and the grip is better than on the street. They run an astronomical MPH when they get traction but the FWD cars spin tires for so long because without the bars they have no weight on them.yogi
MagnaFlow ExhaustAEM CAI Windows Tinted 35% up front 20% rest17" Quantum Tek S-16 wheels w/ Dayton Daytona ZR performance rubber.Wish list:Eibach Lowering SpringsHotchkiss Sway BarsStrut Tower BarJL Audio Vibe GT Systembest time: 15.564@90.64dyno run : 162.1 wheel hptranslates to approx: 192 flywheel hp