Suspension for AWD drag racing Options

[KOU In3]

I've been meaning to post this for some time but keep forgetting. I've done a lot of searching on DSMtalk and others but have been finding mainly info on FWD or autocross set-ups.

What the consensus on the best suspension settings for drag racing. Obviously maximizing contact patch as far as camber, etc. But what about stiffness? As stiff as possible all the way around? Or some slack up front to minimize rebound after the initial backwards weight transfer shifts forwards again?

I know the general comment is, "it's awd, it doesn't matter." But I'm not so sure there isn't a healthy amount of time to be shaved off from proper suspension work. It seems to pay dividends with the FWD and RWD guys, why not us?

[awd4kicks]

If you watch an AWD with a stock center diff. launch in slow motion you will see that the front tires spin more than the rears due to weight transfer. With this in mind I would try to keep the weight from transfering to the rear as much as possible, because that's just lost power.

With a welded center diff. or a spool, all four wheels will turn the same number of revolutions no matter what. The rears will still not gain traction as fast if you don't have all four wheels on the ground, but it wouldn't be as severe as the viscous coupling center diff. Even though the the locked center diff. is not a suspension component it will keep you from loosing un-necesarry HP through free moving, unloaded front tires.

BTW - The fastest AWD racers I've seen to date show very little weight transfer while they seem to spin all four tires through the entire first 60 ft. Pretty wicked!

On a side note, my koni's are only adjustable on the compression stroke. I'm not sure about AGX's or other brands but I thought adjusting the rebound was an expensive additional option to the adjustable struts/shocks. What I'm saying is that adjusting the compression of my front struts would not do much for me besides control any spring bounce after weight transfer evened out towards the front again.