IndMuscleCar

Guys,

I have been struggling to get my car to hook for some time now after installing Spohn's front coil over kit. To be fair, I changed a few other things and have been chasing a decent 60 ft.

Up front:

Spohn tubular a-arms, k member
175 rate Qa1 coil-over spring
QA1 drag racing adjustable struts, brand new design (replaced Lakewood 90/10s)

Since the car just won't take any power on launch, I decided to try to pull the car up by hand by the front fender....I discovered that the strut is 1.75 inches from TOPPING out at proper ride height. i.e, it barely moves up until the strut tops out...

Has anyone had this issue? I know the upper strut mount in the engine compartment is taller than the factory version and uses the same struts. There has to be something I'm missing here. Thanks in advance!

J. May

IndMuscleCar

Ok, so I just measured the QA1 struts compared to the Lakewood struts...

QA1s are ~1.5 inches shorter than the Lakewood 90/10s!!?

Thus, the QA1 will 'top out' 1.5 inches sooner giving me almost no suspension rise.

No where did I see this advertised. Ummm....?

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (15)

sounds like a design flaw to me. Doesnt surprise me since its QA1 though.

I would defiantly bring this up to Spohn, its not their fault, but they need to know. I would be looking for a refund.

IndMuscleCar

Unfortunately, Steve told me these were direct bolt ons. I'm mad at myself for not measuring these when i swapped them on...

Since his mount is ~1 inch taller and the QA1 he sold me looks to be 1.5 inch shorter. I'm down 2.5 inches of travel from stock.

I'll report after I speak with QA1 and Spohn tomorrow.

IndMuscleCar

Guys,

So I did some research and talked to engineering groups from QA1, Chris Alston, and Strange. What I came up with is there is a design issue with mildy lowered street cars using these products.

I would not be suprised if many people are having this issue with the QA1s struts since they are significantly shorter than stock. (or maybe you are simply working on a suspension issue and don't know the culprit, yet)

So, if you want to keep the QA1s up front and still get travel, we built a great option:

At the bottom of the products page:

http://www.indianamusclecar.com/install%20pics.html

Thanks!!!

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

What's the issue with launching? We have several cars in your ET and mph range running 1" total travel out of the front end, which is within what you're adjustment allows and still have issues with wheelies.

IndMuscleCar

In my situation, the strut was topping out early and then would unload the rear tires...leaving me with terrible passes. Based on how very short these struts are, I'm sure I'm not the only one that has or will experience this.

I also do not believe that using the strust as a travel limiter is wise. I would rather allow the strut to work in its range, and limite travel with valving (QA1s now allow this) or a simple strap like the Madman guys always use.

Crazy to think that some guys are getting by with 1 inch travel up front. I'd imagine on the street, that would be pretty annoying.

I just put a transbrake in mine this weekend, so we'll see what suspension it likes.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

1" travel up front for race cars. Not street driving it like that