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Race Specific Coilovers Testing - Launch ControlTesting Pfadt's Drag Race Specific Coilovers on a 10-second Fifth-Gen Camaro. From the August, 2012 issue of GM High-Tech Performance By Justin Cesler Photography by The Author
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In the grand scheme of things, a tenth of a second isn't a very long time. In fact, when you say it out loud, it almost seems silly that we even concern ourselves with such small numbers. Of course, to a real drag racer, a tenth of a second can feel like an eternity and it can often times be the difference between winning and losing. In the first 60 feet of a drag race, this unit of time becomes even more relevant, with each tenth of a second resulting in almost two-tenths of a difference on the big end of the track. As such, it should come as no surprise that people are willing to pay big money to drop these times, often at the cost of some other comfort. For Vengeance Racing, where both sales and customers can be lost in a tenth or two, the stakes are even higher. So, when it came time to take an already fast 10.89-second '11 Camaro SS, owned by Bill Mallett, even deeper into the 10s, they weren't planning to mess around. Enter Pfadt Race Engineering, a company founded on building quality high-performance suspension parts for late-model Corvettes and Camaros. If you're thinking Pfadt Race Engineering is more of a handling company, you're right, but suspension experts can make anything work properly given enough information and knowledge. Thus, when it came time to sit down and build a drag racing specific coilover, the engineering team at Pfadt had to take a step back from the twisty stuff, head to the 1320, and get serious about digging deep for the first 60 feet. After "hundreds of hard drag launches" the team began to narrow in on a drag race specific design, with spring rates and damper lengths tuned to both the fifth-gen Camaro chassis and the needs of aggressive drag racers. First and foremost, the front coilovers were redesigned, adding softer springs (even softer than the stock units) to help induce lift, and custom damper curves to control the shock throughout its travel range. With the front dialed in, the Pfadt crew turned to the back, optimizing the rear coilover design to control the weight transfer and plant the tires hard into the ground without any wheel hop or tire spin. 1 To fairly test the new... 1 To fairly test the new Pfadt Race Engineering “drag” coilover system, we chose to start with a modified fifth-gen Camaro wearing a set of stock struts and traditional Pfadt Racing lowering springs. Thanks to a Whipple supercharger, a custom Vengeance Racing camshaft, a pair of Hoosier slicks, a 9-inch IRS conversion, and a six-speed manual transmission, this Camaro ran a best time of 10.89 seconds in the quarter, with a 1.65-second 60-foot time. And while much of the drag race specific coilover design is unique to these units, they do still feature many of the things we have come to know and love about the Pfadt coilover units. Both front and rear struts feature Pfadt's unique inverted monotube design, which provides strength and reliability, while reducing un-sprung mass. Additionally, the inverted design allows for a bottom mounted damper adjuster knob, which controls all 20 damper adjustments, changing both rebound and compression with a simple turn. Lastly, both the corner carving and drag racing offerings ship complete with everything you would need to bolt them directly to your Camaro and head out on track, which makes them perfect for back-to-back comparison testing. In our case, it was as simple as following along while Charlie Hill of Vengeance Racing tackled the install, swapping out a set of stock struts wrapped in Pfadt Race Engineering lowering springs for a set of drag race specific coilovers and a new adjustable drag bar, in place of the company's street style sway bar. The results speak for themselves, which you can read about below.  2a Removing the factory struts...  2a Removing the factory struts is fairly straightforward and can easily be done on a lift or jack stands.  2b To start, Charlie Hill...  2b To start, Charlie Hill of Vengeance Racing removed the wheels, then popped the stock hood and removed the factory 24mm nut that holds the strut to the chassis. Next, Charlie removed the 10mm brake line bolt from the strut, then the two 24mm spindle-to-strut bolts, freeing the factory strut from the Camaro.  3 While the new Pfadt Race...  3 While the new Pfadt Race Engineering coilover kit comes complete with everything you need for the installation, it does require installers to reuse the stock upper mount, which you can see here. Once removed from the stock strut, simply pull the soft rubber spring isolator out of the mount and trash it.  4 Installing the upper mount...  4 Installing the upper mount onto the coilover itself will certainly require the use of a quality spring compressor, so you may need to farm out this portion of the work if you don’t have one at home. The Vengeance Racing crew has a nice wall-mounted compressor in house, which meant it was as simple as compressing the spring, installing the OE upper mount, and torqueing the jam nut to 45 lb-ft of torque.  5 With the coilover ready...  5 With the coilover ready to go, installation takes just minutes, with the new Pfadt unit simply sliding back in place of the factory stuff and bolting up to the spindle and chassis with the stock hardware. The two spindle-to-strut bolts take 95 lb-ft of torque, while the upper strut nut needs 65 lb-ft to meet the spec.  6 Front and rear, the Pfadt...  6 Front and rear, the Pfadt drag race coilovers feature 20 clicks of damping adjustment, which adjusts both compression and rebound damping together. As a base setting, Pfadt recommends starting in the middle (10 clicks), which is where Vengeance chose to start. Easiest way—go 20 clicks full stiff and count 10 back from there.  7 Installing the rear coilovers...  7 Installing the rear coilovers is almost as easy as the front, with only a couple of notable differences. First and foremost, notice that our test car already had a set of Pfadt solid subframe bushings installed, along with a set of lowering springs (to match the front) and a Pfadt sway bar, which resulted in our previous best 60-foot time, a 1.65-second blast.  8 The factory rear struts...  8 The factory rear struts are held in place by four 15mm upper bolts, which can be removed once the vehicle is safely off the ground. If you’re planning to tackle this install in your driveway, please use quality jackstands and a couple of jacks (you will need an extra one in a minute)… we want to keep all of our readers around for as long as possible!  9 A typical installation...  9 A typical installation will require the user to remove the factory sway bar endlink from the lower control arm to allow enough room to swing the strut out of the way. For our installation, we planned on replacing the Pfadt unit with an upgraded “drag bar,” so Vengeance Racing simply chose to pull the entire unit out of the way now.  10 A 21mm socket and an...  10 A 21mm socket and an open-ended wrench are needed to removed the lower strut to control arm bolt, along with an 18mm bolt that holds the lower control arm to the spindle assembly. This is where you will need an additional jack or support, to hold the control arm in place while these two lower bolts are removed. With everything out of the way, simply pull the factory strut out of the body.  11 Just like the front,...  11 Just like the front, the rear Pfadt coilovers require installers to reuse the factory upper strut mount. Using a press, remove the rubber bushing out of the upper mount, paying special attention to not scratch or destroy the factory stamped steel upper mount in the process.  12 With the rubber bushing...  12 With the rubber bushing out of the upper strut assembly, Charlie slid the coilover in place and began assembly of the upper strut mount. A small 3mm Allen wrench holds the new aluminum plates in place and the 6 socket head bolts get torqued to 18 in-lbs. That’s inch-pounds and they can strip, so be gentle here!  13 Installation is as simple...  13 Installation is as simple as the removal, with the four upper strut mount to chassis bolts getting torqued to 35 lb-ft of torque, along with the lower control arm to spindle bolt. The strut to lower control arm bolt gets 65 lb-ft, and if you’re reusing the factory sway bar endlink, it gets 33 lb-ft of torque to snug it down.  14 Just like the front,...  14 Just like the front, a 20-click dial found on the bottom of the coilover unit controls the rear damping. Again, 20 clicks clockwise gets you to the stiffest setting and then 10 clicks back takes you to the middle. That’s a great place to start your testing, although we would eventually end up with 2 clicks in the front, 5 in the rear for the best results, as per Pfadt’s recommendation.  14 Looking to extract maximum...  14 Looking to extract maximum grip on the track, the Vengeance Racing crew decided to swap the already good Pfadt “sport” bar (on the left) for a stiffer rear drag bar, which can add significant roll stiffness to the suspension. That stiffness will help load the rear tires equally and plant the power, which is exactly what the Camaro needs to get moving in a hurry.  16 The new drag bar features...  16 The new drag bar features a splined Chromoly center bar, CNC-machined sway bar arms with three endlink mounting positions, and .375-inch Teflon lined rod ends. Installation is straightforward and Charlie begun by greasing the new bushings and sliding them in place.  17 Once installed along...  17 Once installed along the rear subframe, Charlie attached the new lightweight .375-inch sway bar endlinks and snugged the bolts down using the third hole for maximum roll stiffness. As a general rule, you probably want to start from the first hole and move backwards as traction allows, but Charlie and Vengeance have done this before and started with the maximum stiffness for the best results.  18 With everything in place,...  18 With everything in place, the only thing left to do was head back out on track and see how the 2011 Camaro would fare. With Ron Mowen behind the wheel, we saw an instant drop in the 60-foot times, shaving .11 second from our previous best (1.65 to a 1.54) and over .28 second from our total elapsed time. The chassis was more consistent and much faster, proof that a quality coilover can be a worthwhile investment for your project.
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1999 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - Street Heat
Almost no other GM model pulls off the aggressive look quite like the fourth-gen Trans Am, and when you modify one like Nathan Turjillo from Las Vegas has, well; you end up with a real showstopper....
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