Leaf Spring IMCA-Stock Car?

[roybeckett13j]

One question...

Is it possible to get a leaf spring car to run with a metric car, IMCA stock.

Can the leaf spring setup be tuned and played with enough to get it through the turns as good as a metric car can? Would it be competative? thanks

[dirty white boy]

leafs will eat a metric up on tacky track,..metric lil better on the slick...but fine tuneing leafs still competitive!

[roybeckett13j]

Sweet! Just not too many leaf cars out here anymore. One Camaro that still runs a few races, but hasn't won anything in a few years.

The car is a 67 A-body...mopar :P

Has spring sliders, landrum springs and the works out back. Torsion bars in the front.

Gonna run a hot 360 under IMCA's 500 cfm carb rule.

[Egoracing]

When the metric monte started to show up at race tracks everyone said they were junk and would never be as fast as the full sized monte and the camaro's because they were coil cars. It was the same thing when the fox body mustang started showing up when pintos got scarce. Now the questions are the other way around.
The answer is that it will depend on who builds it and how it is set up. The chassis design for a leaf car needs to be installed differently than a coil car. There are still many races and championships won with leaf cars.

[LowTechRacing]

Up hear in the nw there are few metrics. Most are camaro's. The metrics that are here are fast. But guy's don't want to get away from what there use too

[gun91]

It's almost all camaros around here. Most guys are scared of metrics seems like. I like metric better and have won quite a few races in a mustang (wide open v8 motor rules) here lately. Learn how to work the stock 4 link and it will fly! Leafs are limited in my opinion.

[roybeckett13j]

The only thing I see bad about a leaf car is getting through the corners.

It's almost impossible, if not completely, for them to work like a metric. Metric car you can get your lower trailing arms set to where the car rolls over in the corner it steers you through...just steer right a touch and hammer the gas.

Don't know/think that could happen with a leaf car.

And what I've seen of leaf stocks is that your setup either REALLY works! or it doesn't at ALL. Like there is no happy medium between scary loose/just right/or pushing like a 'dozer. No middle ground maybe?

Any leaf guy from back in the day that know those secrets to make these cars silly fast again? other than just blow the tires off going through the corners...

[sj valley dave]

Out here on the West Coast, the leafs are still the fastest for the most part. There are a few fast coil cars, but the leafs are really fast. No rules restrict them. You can run sliders, long shackles, move your front spring mounts to wherever you want, float the RR, etc. The coils can hang on the heavy tracks, but on the dry slicks, the leaf Camaro's are fast! No such thing as blowing the tires off! LOL

[3dinter]

Down here in the South all of the tracks we run the Metrics Rule, i can only remember 1 leaf car and it a beginner class car and its always last. Around here as soon as the metrics hit the junkyard they are gone instantly either by the racers or the low income people so its hard to get ahold of a decent metric and god forbid you bend your frame or rearend, YOUR usually SOL in finding a good replacement axle housing or used decent frame. Camaros, Mustangs are not allowed to run but in only one class thats about dead.

[dirt2]

One question...

Is it possible to get a leaf spring car to run with a metric car, IMCA stock.

Can the leaf spring setup be tuned and played with enough to get it through the turns as good as a metric car can? Would it be competative? thanks

Sure is,have six different leaf car running now.
Last season four won track champion ships &
two finished up very good. All in knowing what
to do & how to set them up.

dirt2

[gun91]

Sure is,have six different leaf car running now.
Last season four won track champion ships &
two finished up very good. All in knowing what
to do & how to set them up.

dirt2

I think more than anything most time when the leaf cars are fastest, it's because either the guys with the coil cars don't know what they are doing or just ain't doin their homework and figuring out how to make the coil suspension work.

I used to think leafs were better but will take a coil car any day over a leaf car now!! In my area it's ate set 95% leaf camaros too!! Most guys set up coils car totally wrong around here at least. They try to set them up like they would a leaf car and that won't work

[gun91]

A leaf car is more consistent IF you don't know how to adjust the metric for diff track conditions. Once you learn how to change it and when, they will FLY! Look at mods, I know they have birdcages so it ain't the same but the 4 link is SO adjustable even if you can't run extra holes in mounts, you can make BIG changes with small ride height changes

[gun91]

Jeff I run 3 different tracks usually. One has real tight turns, one has an average width turn, and the other has real wide turns. I could just change my stagger but that would require having more tires on hand, but I can run the lowers at 0 degrees for the track with wide turns, raise the rear a couple rounds to get a couple degrees in lowers for the average track, and raise it a couple more turns for the tight track to get around 5 degrees on lowers which lets it rear steer more. I run a really loose car compared to most but drive it straighter than most also. These changes don't seems to change forward bite on this car (mustang not metric but very close to same on rear suspension). I could just add brackets with extra holes and not have to change ride height on rear but we are building a new car with all that on it and my son will be running a pure street class in this car soon and I would have to take it all back off if I did. Jeff your ways AIN'T the ONLY ways or necessarily the BEST ways for every driver either. From posts I have read on here, I couldn't drive the setups you run I don't think but they work for you. You would prob tell me I was lying if I gave you all the info on how my cars are setup but it works for me.

I also run a longer lighter lr spring than the rr and have for years. Some say that won't work but I have 79 feature winner trophys to say that it works for me! I ain't that familiar with IMCA rules but I run a ss class with wide open motor rules ( only rules are gauge legal Holley 2bbl and no alum heads or blocks, no other engine rules) and we are a VERY low $ team compared to most (some run $15-20,000 motors) we have less in everything than some do in their heads!

[gun91]

I ran 18 tracks last season.

Ok? I have my own business to run and a wife and 3 kids that I can't drag all over the country racing yet at least. I love racing but too busy with life to worry bout running 18 different tracks. I have raced at 17 different tracks and won on all but 5 of them and was one of the fastest cars at the ones I haven't won on yet and those I only raced one or two times each and couple of them had problems (flats or wrecks) take me out of contention. Those 3 tracks are within 2 hours of my house and I run those regularly doesn't mean they are the only tracks I have ever been to. Like I said in my post, I would be better off adding adjustable mounts and not mess with the ride heights but it works for me.

How many of those 18 tracks did you win at? How many we're strictly IMCA or IMCA rule tracks? Dude I ain't saying your car ain't fast, just saying there is more than one way of doing things. If most people looked at my car and setup sheets, they would say there is no way in h*ll it would go around a track like it does. I don't go by the books or by anyone else's setups, I make what I got work and drive it accordingly. I may ask for opinions or how to do something, but then take that advise and see if I can better it.

[gun91]

Man, sorry I got so long but I should knew better than I even reply to your post. You ruin this whole board with your attitude

Not exactly sure where your located or how far you like to go, but if you get a chance bring that car to Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood, TN. clayhillmotorsports.com look at hobby rules. If you got ump hoosier Emod tires (the harder ones can't remember which they were) they are pretty much same tire as the Hoosier 500 we have to run if you don't have those, come on down and show us how it's done.

Ah screw it nevermind man I am done wasting my time ain't but one way to set up a car and I am lost as a goose I guess