Thread: 41 Willys lifting at high speeds

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Curious to see the scale weights.....and some pics of the car. What is the ride height front and rear? Could you put an angle finder or protractor on your upper and lower bars and see what the angles are.... How much setback on the engine....? If the car is lifting in the rear on the big end, it's losing forward bite and for some reason, could be coil springs or shock settings, unloading the rear suspension.

A wing wouldn't fix the problem with the suspension, but it would stabilize the car (somewhat) on the big end. IMO kind of a band aid approach and not addressing the problem of why the rear suspension is unloading.....

If it's up on the wheelie bars, it's not launching correctly. Too much lift on the front. By bar adjustment and changing the instant center the car should just barely lift the front wheels, maybe an inch or two max, and apply the rest of the torque to forward bite..... Spent years trying to make cars hook up. Once 4 bars and good tires came around had to learn to unhook them a bit, more just change the weight transfer to forward bite.

Does the rear lift happen under power, or when you lift at the end of the pass???

Guess I still don't see where a Willys coupe is going to have aero issues at 120 that would be severe enough to unload the rear end. A few decades back, we built one for a fellow named Ted Moe with a blown bbc, 4 link, glide, IFS--sounds similar to your car. It ran 9.90's at 135-140 and was dang near a hands off car on the big end....

My ol pal Tech gave me this link a couple years back, it has all the good formulas and information for diagnosing problems with suspension. Might want to check it out.....

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