Just Suspensions By Billy Shope

I will start this Here And Suggest it Be Stored or Archived Or be Made a Sticky Or what Have you. This Will Be the Most Informative  Info any of you have ever Gotten for free. This Man Worked for Chrysler Corp. and was Instrumental in the Success of the Ram chargers Racing Team.  this info is and can be Applied to all Forms of racing and Is In depth  to a point that Strong Math Skills are Necessary . I have Followed this for over 30 years with great success His story Is History In the automotive World but not that well Known by Laymen. I am getting old  so it's Time to Share, Please someone do the Link thing .  Billy Shope Just Suspension

Is this something we are supposed to google up and then link? Googling both his earthlink and the racetec site are down

www.shopeshop.org/contentsDrag.htm ......haven't gone thru it looks pretty intense.....enjoy

In reply to 759NRNG :

Thank you, He used to have a Video for Sale but they are No Longer available, Sadly I don't have one Either He live's in Florida Now And don't Know what it might take to Prompt him to Reproduce them but the world would be a better place.  His Info was "the Secret" for many years .

Thank you. I will be reading this. And I bookmarked this thread.

Specific to drag racing? Or general stuff also?

Cool stuff and thanks!  

That said, he must be testing his readers' resolve with the background and font colors on that introduction page. 

His "traction dyno" is intriguing. He states:

"This inertial force causes the car to undergo certain changes. The front of the car rises. The loading on the rear tires increases (weight transfer). And, with some cars, a very noticeable event occurs at the front of the car: The LF (left front) tire begins to leave the track surface before the RF. "

He goes on to state: "To provide the inertial force, a horizontal chain is attached to the rear of the dragster. It is centrally located (between the rear tires) and is at a height equal to that of the CG. The engine must be prevented from rotating by some means. The rear tires and wheels, however, are free and able, when the chain is tensioned, to provide a torque into the driveshaft. If, with such an arrangement, the chain is tensioned sufficiently, the LF tire will be seen to leave the shop floor...before the RF...in exactly the same manner as it does at the strip during launch. "

That sounds like he's using the chain to pull the car rearward linearly against the CoF of the rear tires, which then impart torque onto the driveshaft, which(with the engine locked from rotating) imparts twist onto the chassis. 

Pretty damn ingenious, if that's correct.

In reply to Jaynen :

on the web site there is more and I used this info on asphalt late models

In reply to Matt B :

YES, I think many years ago It was even 'Brighter'    He said ,One day he woke up and the whole Site had Disappeared. this is his second site

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Yes, that is exactly what he is saying. And then you can setup your entire suspension based on that. Right in the shop. Ingenius I agree!

In reply to Pete Gossett :

yes the original Ram Chargers were Chrysler Engineers that did this research after Hours, Quite a Brain Bank.

I've been looking at his stuff for a few years now. It's very interesting. He has various calculators that you can use to set up your suspension points to use force couples and moments to balance out drive line and mass forces.

He really needs someone to volunteer some web design time.

Probably, But It get's your attention.

I am 66 yr. old and he was racing before I knew what a car was. Sorta.

Oddly I thought this would Prompt MUCH more Discussion,about set-up not Colors, So Bump

I'm going to have to try his "traction dyno" idea once I have the Dart back together. He's given me a lot to think about there.

GTXVette said:

Oddly I thought this would Prompt MUCH more Discussion,about set-up not Colors, So Bump

I don't have enough knowledge or experience at the strip to even begin to use his knowledge, but I'll share it with some friends who might!

 Again this info works in all forms of racing there are other posts in the web site that aren't just drag race so read through his site, I applied it to Round track and Road race can use it to.

I'm going to try the staggered angle lower control arms the next time I go to the track. The theory is that it will provide equal tire loading and improve traction. We shall see.

 Don't forget the lower arms Push the front end and the uppers Pull,  Long bars like Truck arms and Ladder Bars tend to Lift as do Torque arm like a 4th gen camaro. I myself like Truck arms and Love 3 Link.

your springs play a part in this also. and At first Just change the angle on the right side to get the Car to Lift Level.

Mine is a torque arm setup with the lower control arms angled down towards the front causing rear steer and contributing to understeer. I relocated the rear mounting points down to make them level for better cornering and to take some load off the torque arm. The right tire has a tendency to spin especially on corner exit so I'm going to try adjusting the LCA angles first and the I'll see what I can do about reducing the roll axis inclination.

Sounds like you get it.   and you do use a Posi of some sort?   what I should have said earlier was All forms of racing are about weight and Balance, Mr. Shopes was a Drag racer so this IS primarily  for that but the Info Transcends  into  all racing.

Jaynen said:

Specific to drag racing? Or general stuff also?

For those with stick rear axles, this is very helpful- http://www.shopeshop.org/tim.19.htm

In reply to GTXVette :

I'm running a volo auto locking diff (gov-lock), but I don't think it is actually locking.